volkswagen touran se 1.9 tdi review

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By jasonwebb on 14th Jan 2005

jasonwebb's Ratings

Year Manufactured	2004
Length of ownership	6 Months
Performance	9/10
Practicality	10/10
Reliability	9/10
Value for money	9/10
Overall value	9/10
jasonwebb's recommendation

Good Points

Practical, spacious, well thought out, hardwaring upholstery

Bad Points

Rear bumper can hamper the loading of large objects without scratching the paint, no spare tyre.

General Comments

I swapped to this Volkswagen Touran SE 1.9 TDI People Carrier nearly six months ago now from a Vauxhall 2.0Tdi Zafira 7 seater and I have not looked back since.

The 'SE' model comes with the following kit as standard;

- Climatics air conditioning (set the temp and the heat/cooling will adjust automatically)

- Body Coloured bumpers, side strips and door handles

- Centre arm rest (actually the upholstered top of the centre storage with a ratchet type rise and pull out function)

- Front and rear electric windows (with off switch for rear to stop children playing with them)

- Folding table on the rear of the front seats with cup holders

- Front comfort seats with height and lumbar adjustment

- Lockable glove box with vent (so the glove box can be chilled in the summer for drinks and food)

- Alarm

- Roof Rails

Those are the extra's over the standard equipment which is pretty impressive on it's own including;

- Cruise control, ABS, Curtain airbags, Driver and passenger airbags, ESP (Electronic stabilisation programme), Multifunction trip computer, power steering & 3 point seat belts for all seats.

OK, so you get a lot for your money, but is it worth it or have they thrown a load of stuff in to mask the performance and build quality?

Well, no, the extra's are a mega bonus on top of a great car.

NOISE

I have the diesel version, which is my 5th diesel car from new and it is so different. Diesel cars are usually as quiet as a petrol when you first buy them, but after a few weeks there is that distinctive diesel engine 'clack' when idling, even with regular oil top ups and services. VW have re-written the book with this car. I will not say that it is whisper quiet like a petrol after the first few weeks, but you do not notice the engine noise at all, even after six months driving. The only time that you get any major rise in engine noise is when accelerating from low speed up to about 3rd gear, but from there you honestly do not really hear the engine over, say, the radio or someone talking to you. In previous cars it has been a stretch to even speak to the wife sitting next to me, but in this one we can have a good chat without having to shout at each other. This change is down to two things, VW's engine design and the fact that the 'cab,' for want of a better word, is soundproofed really well to cut out engine, road and general outside noise.

INTERIOR

The inside of the car is very well thought out with obvious influences from other MPV's (like the fold down rear seats), but they have taken the these idea and improved on them.

Front Seats - The two front seats have height, tilt and lumbar adjustment as well as the standard forward/backward adjustments. This allows people of pretty much all shapes and sizes to make the seat as comfortable as possible. The only issue that I have had as a larger man is that the seatbelt is very close in between the seat and center storage/armrest, so it was difficult to clip in my belt to start with, but after a little practice it is no problem. The seats are very firm, with a slight lip on each side giving you a very comfortable ride.

Middle row - One of the things I like about these seats is that they are actually three seperate single seats rather than a bench type design, which is more comfortable for individual passengers. Each seat can be adjusted back and forth individually, the back can be folded down, can be lifted forward to allow access to the rear seats, or taken out all together. If you need a small amount of extra space in the rear for loading you can lift the seats forward and there is a locking safety bar to stop them falling back on your fingers.

Rear seats - The rear seat design is fantastic, with the seats dropping into the floor and forming the boot space and when needed you just need to pull up the rear of the seat and lock it into place. This is a major improvement over the Vauxhall design which although innovative at the time was a little awkward and did cause me to crush my hand once. The only drawback with the rear seats on these compact MPV's (all of them are the same) is that they are not made for adults as there is not enough leg drop or space so they are really for kids only.

Storage - Well where do you start with this car, there is masses of it. Starting at the drivers end with the glovebox, door storage with 1L bottle holder, center storage with small change tray, two cup holders in center console, another tray under ther ashtray and three roof storage bins. In the middle there is door storage, two under floor storage bins, pop out bottle holder in the centre and two pop up trays in the rear of the front seats with cup holders. Then in the rear there is a small storage cubby with cup holders for both passengers as well. All in all there are 27 cubby areas for storage as well as

Useful little features - There are 3 12v sockets throughout the car, 1 in the front with a cigarette lighter, 1 in the middle and one at the back of the car. This not only allows for flexability in plugging in things like lights and tyre pumps, but also allows the kids to plug in items like gameboys or portable DVD players etc without stretching cable all over the car.

LOADING

The car is very flexible when it comes to load space as you can go from 7 to 2 seats in almost no time at all, which is what I need as a computer engineer as I never know when I may need to carry equipment at a moments notice, but also need to be able to fit myself, the wife and five kids in as well. The only moan I would have is that the rear bumper sticks out a bit so if you need to load something large (like a bed or wardrobe etc..) then it is going to be difficult to do it without scratching the bumper or breaking your back to avoid it. Again this is only a small niggle as it is rare I load anything bigger than monitor or computer boxes. The second draw back to this practical design is that there is no-where to store a spare tyre, so the car is supplied with a bottle of tyre weld to get you to a garage in case of emergency, but it is well worth keeping this in mind and ensuring that you have some sort of rescue service in place.

One other nice little function is the two level tailgate that allows you to open the tail that little higher to stop taller people smacking their heads on it when packing the car. The doors also open out to almost 90 degrees to allow easy access to seats and easy side loading of larger objects.

PERFORMANCE

What can you say other than fantastic. The engine is smooth on acceleration, ticks over at very low revs in upper gears on motorway runs and is very responsive when it needs to be. The ESP system that comes as standard will attempt to anticipate your moves and adjust suspension etc to compensate. This is a great system, but it can be turned off if you feel too out of control which you can if you are not used to it in the beginning.

Suspension is a little stiffer than I am used to, but this makes for a very smooth ride without any major rolling on corners and you will feel only the largest of potholes.

Another nice little feature is that the steering stiffens slightly with higher speeds, which is great for motorway driving as it stops oversteer when overtaking or avoiding incidents. Again, if it is a feature that you are not used to it takes some getting used to initially.

As I have already said, revs are very low at high speeds, thanks to the six gear design. In sixth gear at 70MPH on the motorway the engine ticks over at around 2,500RPM and at slightly lower speeds it is even better. This leads to a wonderful fuel economy with an average of 43-45mpg on a mixed run and figures of up to 50-52mpg if you keep a keen eye on your driving.

To help you keep an eye on your driving there is a multi-function trip computer offering your distance, current mpg, average mpg, miles left on current fuel level (in 5 mile increments) and speed warning (set it at a certain speed and it will warn you if you go over). This comes in really handy for me as I need to log my milage and since you can have two logs going I can set my daily and monthly to keep track of what I am doing and make sure my logs add up.

OVERALL

I think that for the money this car is amazing value for all of the features, driving comfort and economy. It is the must have vehicle for those with young families, but if you have all teenagers you may need to look for something with larger back seats.

Total Respect: +5