Volkswagen Touareg 2019 Review

Morocco is a lot like Australia. Stay with me on this, because it’s very important to the way the all-new Volkswagen Touareg is making its way into Australia.

There are no kangaroos and plenty of camels in North Africa, the average age of the cars on the road is ancient, there are bicycles and decrepit motorcycles everywhere, and lots of people walk because they are not shackled to a minute-by-minute countdown clock.

But the night skies are as epic as the Aussie Outback, the giant red Saharan sand dunes are not that different from Big Red outside Birdsville, and the roads themselves can easily remind you of the conditions near Broken Hill, Coober Pedy and, yes, even Bendigo and Bathurst.

The new Volkswagen Touareg copes easily with everything Morocco can throw at it, just as it should in Australia next year.

It’s an upscale SUV chameleon that generally tours like a softer BMW X5, can morph into a LandCruiser for the desert, and picks up the cabin quality and equipment that is usually found inside an Audi badge.

The tale of the tape shows it’s 83mm longer, 44mm wider and 1mm longer in the wheelbase than before, with styling that’s more evolution than revolution.

The chunkier new look will definitely help it to stand out in traffic, without going as full-on as an Infiniti QX80.

The safety equipment is everything you expect in a flagship vehicle, with the usual lane-keep and lane-switch assists, radar cruise and auto safety braking, but I found the steering assistance horribly intrusive and switched it off every time I took to the wheel.

We cannot know if the new Volkswagen Touareg will be an epic breakthrough until well after all versions arrive in Australia late next year.

Pricing will be crucial and will go up from the outgoing model, and — as always with press preview drives — the Touaregs in Morocco were fully primed and preened for the press.

But, pressed for an early verdict, all the signs for Volkswagen’s new Audi Q7 sister model are positive.

This is not just another light-and-fluffy international car launch, or a high-speed romp along the autobahns of Germany, or a dash through the twisty mountain roads of Spain or Portugal.

This is a 1300km desert trek in four days, out of Marrakech to the edge of the Sahara and back, camping — OK, glamping — in the desert, visiting a World Heritage site, and eating a too-long run of tagine dinners.

There is even an unlikely encounter with a Russian truck racing team testing in the dunes ahead of the Dakar Rally in Chile in January.

Volkswagen does ‘experience’ drives in some of the world’s toughest environments — there is also Iceland and Finland — and this one is fully-loaded with adventurous Aussies. Most are first-timers in Morocco, wondering if it will be as tough as they expect.

Thankfully, it’s coming into winter and so the furnace-like desert temperatures are well down, almost touching zero overnight in the mountains, and there is even solid and soaking rain on one day.

As expected, each of the Volkswagen Touaregs is fully loaded with air suspension, all the luxury and infotainment equipment for a flagship SUV, and dozens of bottles of water.

Most importantly, they are rolling on 18-inch alloys with 60-series dirt-biased tyres. Some people — me included — believe they should be available in Australia, because they add a nice plushness to the ride with minimal noise.

The biggest shock is the size of the infotainment screens — which will be optional in Australia — and the final finishing. The current Golf and Polo are delivering on Volkswagen Australia’s promise of “affordable luxury” but this is a new level.

The mechanical package is the flagship 210kW V6 diesel with eight-speed automatic and a Land Rover-style ’terrain’ system that automatically adjusts everything to suit the road — or off-road — conditions.

In the top-shelf version we drove in Morocco, which would cost about $120,000, there is even four-wheel steering, air suspension and an ‘active’ anti-roll bar.

However, it remains to be seen how many of these features will be available in Australia, or how much they will cost if so.

Nor is there a third row of seats or V8 engine, though Volkswagen Australia is not convinced they’re needed Down Under.

Heading out of Marrakech is hugely entertaining, with plenty to see and marvel about for hours.

It’s the traffic, the people, the donkeys and the roads, which start at autobahn smooth and radically deteriorate as we head into the Atlas Mountains.

There is huge roadwork, on a road rated one of the world’s deadliest, but the driving behaviour is much more thoughtful and courteous than in Oz. No-one speeds up to try and keep you behind.

First impressions of the Touareg? It’s big, and it’s going to stay big for all four days in Moroccan traffic, but it’s light and easy to handle. The cabin is commendably quiet. I would barely know it has a diesel engine, and the multi-purpose tyres give good grip on bitumen, sand, gravel and mud.

By the end of the first day, with more than 500km under our wheels, I’m feeling right at home. And the new Volkswagen Touareg is much, much more likeable than the previous model.

A final run along sandy roads to our glamping site is easy and fun despite 10 hours of driving.

Next morning the tyres are deflated, we get driving tips from our trail boss Peter, and we’re off into the red sand of the Sahara.

There are some easy warm-ups, although one car is damaged and earns the nickname ‘Dakar Edition’ because its broken front bumper exposes the right-front tyre, before we get into conditions where plenty of people get bogged. Nothing is especially bad, but it’s a reminder.

Then we head to a giant red dune, which looks twice the height of Uluru, for The Big Test. But it’s more about the drivers than the Touareg, as we switch to ‘sand’ mode in the transmission, which turns off the traction control and raises the air suspension to the top floor.

Bing-bango, we’re up and done. It’s time to sit and look and marvel and think, not just about the car and conditions but also the view across to the Algerian border which is a no-go for any Aussies because of terrorist activity.

By the end of the day, after dirt roads for almost the whole distance and camels and happy kids the whole way, the cars look dirty outside but clean and tidy -- apart from discarded water bottles -- in the cabin.

Overnight, I sneak out and use the onboard WiFi to contact home, because the coverage in the traditional hotel is dreadful. That’s a surprising side benefit.

There are two more long days with incredible scenery, rain for nearly a day, snow coming surprisingly low off the peaks, and conditions that are almost like the countryside in Australia.

The bitumen roads are coarse-chip with poor signposting and side lines -- a reminder of another country where autonomous cars have no future -- and so we’re feeling right at home. Kinda.

There are no aches and pains from the seats, the engine has solid surge for overtaking, it’s quiet for top-gear cruising, and we can listen to private podcasts on the quality sound systems.

The headlights, all 128 LEDs in the package, are excellent and so is the head-up display that allows me to keep a watch for hazards without losing track of speed and direction.

The four USB ports and four-zone air-con are great, there is not a single squeak or rattle -- once we realise back-seat luggage is triggering the buzzer for the seat-belt reminder -- and the wipers do great coverage.

The trip ends with another run over the Tizi n’Tichka pass, which is more like driving a rally than a holiday cruise and shows -- again -- the class of this SUV.

But I’m still disappointed by turbo lag, which is surprisingly prominent at a time when it’s almost disappeared from other brands, and I’m hoping the engines for Australia will be more responsive.

I’m also wondering how the excellence in Morocco will translate into city and suburban running Down Under, and if people will be disappointed with the 9.2-inch infotainment screen after the 12.3-inch curved and comprehensive item I’ve been using.

The new Volkswagen Touareg has babied me through four epic days and I’m sad to say goodbye as we return to Marrakech.

I can think of other SUVs that would have done some things better than Volkswagen’s new top-shelf SUV, but none that does everything so well and with so little fuss. It’s a great all-rounder.

Australia will be different, of course, and only a handful of owners will attempt anything as adventurous as our Moroccan experience.

There are also questions about pricing and specifications, and how the new model will line up against luxury suburban SUVs and the Toyota hordes that dominate in the Outback and with tow-focussed grey nomads.

But the new Volkswagen Touareg is much improved and, if it delivers on the promise of affordable luxury, is capable of a major breakthrough Down Under.

How much is the 2019 Volkswagen Touareg?
On sale: May 2019
Price: At least $70,000 (estimated)
Engine: 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel
Output: 210kW/600Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: TBC
CO2: TBC
Safety rating: TBC