The Volkswagen Touran's 1.6-litre diesel is the best all-round engine – it's just about quick enough and cheap to run. Go for the punchy 2.0-litre diesel if you'll do a lot of fast motorway driving, or the cheap-to-buy 1.2-litre petrol if you'll use your Touran mostly for short town journeys.
The Touareg has an excellent record in our reliability surveys and in the most recent one in which it appeared it finished in first place in the luxury SUV class. Most of the examples aged up to five years old had no faults, while of those that had problems no owners were charged for repairs.
Kia Carens reliabilityReliability shouldn't be a worry in the Carens. While Kia as a brand finished 14th in our 2016 Driver Power customer satisfaction survey, a 10th place for reliability places it firmly in the top third of manufacturers when it comes to dependability.
The main reason I purchased the VW Golf TDI is that with the diesel engine, life expectancy is 50-80% longer. A well-maintained diesel engine can easily go 400-500,000 miles.
VW has started production of the all-new Touran MPV at its main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. The first new production VW Touran was an Oryx White vehicle in the Highline equipment level, fitted with the 1.4-liter TSI BlueMotion Technology petrol engine producing 150 PS (148hp).
200,000 miles is considered low for the TDIs if they were properly maintained, 3-400,000 is like midrange and 5-600,000 is getting to be high. My advice is to pull the turbo hose off at the intercooler to check for oil from the turbo seals, KEEP A NEW TIMING BELT on it, and it will go a half million miles easily.
The best Caddy will average 55.4mpg, giving 735 miles on one tank. For a seven-seater mid-sized mpv this is a cracking statistic. Some VW dealers may not be able to service the Caddy Maxi because it is based on the van platform so make sure you check beforehand to avoid nasty surprises further down the line.
The electric ID Buzz 'Microbus', due in 2022, will indirectly replace the Touran and reinvigorate the MPV segment through 'emotional' design, according to Volkswagen's board member for R&D, Frank Welsch.
This new Touran is longer and slightly wider than the previous model, but it is also much better packaged, according to company claims.
It sits between a gap in Volkswagen's model lineup of the Volkswagen Golf, which it shares its platform with, and the Volkswagen Sharan, its larger counterpart. In some regions, such as Japan, the car is called the Golf Touran.
| Volkswagen Touran |
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| Layout | Front-engine, front-wheel-drive |
The important thing to note is that the Sharan is the larger of the two. It's 33cm longer, 7.5cm wider and 6cm taller than the Touran. That gives the latter a more aerodynamic look, but the Sharan puts the extra space to great use when it comes to the interior.
Volkswagen finished 16th out of 31 in our 2019 Reliability Survey; that's above Citroen but just below Ford. Every Sharan gets a three-year or 60,000-mile warranty, which is nothing special. In 2019 the Sharan recorded a four-star rating in its Euro NCAP crash tests (out of a maximum of five stars).
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has revealed the new T7 Multivan, which will replace the existing Caravelle, Sharan and Touran people carriers. It will be sold alongside the current T6 Transporter, offered as a passenger car only, but doesn't use commercial vehicle underpinnings.
Volkswagen has taken its seven-seat Sharan MPV off sale in the UK, 10 years since it was introduced to the market. No direct replacement has been lined up for the long-serving people carrier, though the smaller Touran and recently revised Tiguan Allspace cater to the seven-seat market.
2022, around £50,000 and gesture controls, HD displays and haptic feedback, plus seating for six. These are not completely random guesses. Production has been confirmed, and VW has also spoken about not pricing its electric cars higher than the equivalent internal combustion model.
The Touran only comes to the UK as a seven-seater, but the third row of seats fold flat into the floor giving the option of five seats with a large boot. With all of the seven seats in position, bear in mind there's just 137 litres of space at the back of the vehicle.
If you don't mind relying on a can of gunk to get you home, the VW Touran is very capable tow car. It's nearly as stable as a Passat at speed, and that's saying something. It wasn't so adept in the lane-change test, though, struggling to keep control of the caravan on faster runs.
The Volkswagen Touran is a well-established MPV hero.
