If you ask me, as a senior Volkswagen fan, which car will be the final destination, I will tell you without hesitation that it is not the Golf R, not the Matrix, and not even the Beetle - but the Touareg. Because only if you have truly felt the spirit of the Golf's steel gun, the Matrix's pragmatism and the Beetle's classic heritage, can you appreciate why the Touareg, as the flagship luxury SUV of the Volkswagen brand, can finally meet your "all-round" needs.
The endless Sahara, the largest desert on earth, is also the home of the nomadic "Touareg". Known as the "Desert Riders", the Touaregs are known for their fearlessness and adaptability, and are used to surviving in harsh environments and transporting heavy loads over long distances over almost impenetrable terrain. Volkswagen's engineers have taken this spirit of the Touareg people, who are unafraid of challenge and freedom, and put it into the legendary Volkswagen SUV, the Touareg.
Since its inception in 2002, the Touareg has lived up to its name of "Touareg" through three generations of models, from carrying Volkswagen's mission to enter the luxury flagship SUV market to the excellent highway performance of today's MLB Evo large luxury car platform, unchanged is the hardcore off-road genes heritage. The same is the genetic heritage of the hardcore off-roader. Over the past 20 years, the Touareg's strong off-road strength and on-road performance have created a number of legendary records, which is the driving force for those who love the Touareg to always aspire to it.
In 2002, Volkswagen and Porsche*** developed the PL71 platform, since then the Touareg and Cayenne are firmly tied together, and then Audi has also developed the classic first-generation Q7 on the platform. The first generation Touareg not only pushed Volkswagen's interior luxury to an unprecedented level, but also maximized off-road performance.
The first-generation Touareg is not only equipped with electromagnetic air suspension, Haldex multi-plate clutch center differential with lock, rear axle differential lock and ultra-low gear four-wheel drive system, but also its powerful and crazy powertrain that is still talked about today. In addition to the regular 3.6L V6, 4.2L V8 engine, the first generation of Touareg had unprecedentedly equipped with a 6.0L W12 engine, creating a precedent for luxury SUVs equipped with a 12-cylinder engine, and the Touareg R50 equipped with a 5.0L V10 TDI engine was even used by enthusiasts as a masterpiece of desktop wallpaper.
Since then, the first-generation Touareg has accomplished the world record of summiting the Ojos del Salado volcano and the legendary achievement of towing a Boeing 747 airplane on a glide path. In 2009, the first-generation Touareg won the world's toughest cross-country race, the Dakar Rally, and was crowned champion for three consecutive times, ushering in the "Touareg era" of the Dakar Rally.
In 2010, the second-generation Touareg came out, compared to its predecessor, the second-generation Touareg is less rugged and more refined, with a comprehensive increase in luxury and intelligent configurations, and more importantly, the second-generation Touareg continues to carry forward its predecessor's strong off-road capabilities. In order to ensure that the size of the body has a strong ability to pass at the same time, the whole car weight reduction of 200 kilograms, four-wheel air suspension also has a more powerful off-road partner, that is, the integration of the Torsen-type center differential 4MOTION all-wheel drive system. And it's powered by that classic 3.0 V6 mechanically supercharged engine mated to an 8-speed gearbox that can take up to 1,000 Nm. Also introduced from the second generation Touareg are smarter driver assistance systems and hybrid systems.
In 2014, the second-generation Touareg set off from the northernmost tip of the European continent to the southernmost tip of Africa, refreshing the world record of "crossing the continent of Europe and Africa" that had been sealed for thirty years; in 2015, the Touareg fleet retraced the Hu Huanyong line, once again probing into the torrents of history; in 2017, the Touareg set off from the "Named Place" to the "Naming Place". In 2017, the Touareg set off from Marrakech, Morocco, the "Named Place", and traveled through six countries on two continents, successfully arriving at Bratislava, the "Birthplace", completing an interstate adventure.
In March 2018, a camouflaged, from the birthplace of Bratislava, Slovakia, across 16,000 kilometers to Beijing, and in this vast area of China to complete the world premiere, the continuation of the Touareg legend of a new chapter, which is now the third generation of the Touareg.
The third-generation Touareg is based on the Volkswagen Group's large luxury platform, MLB Evo, which not only continues to keep the Touareg, Cayenne, and Q7 close, but also creates the performance flagship Urus and luxury flagship Tranquillo for the group's higher-end brands, Lamborghini and Bentley. Of these far-flung brothers, the third-generation Touareg puts away the sharpness of its predecessor, but still has an out-and-out hardcore chassis.
Front and rear five-link independent suspension, adaptive air suspension, four-wheel steering, matrix LED headlamps, night vision system not only will the third-generation Touareg armed to the teeth, its digital cockpit Innovision Cockpit equipped with a 15-inch screen and 12.3-inch full LCD instrumentation and the HUD head-up display of the three-screen interconnection. And it's important to emphasize here that this technological interior of the third-generation Touareg inherits the very mantle of VW's flagship sedan, the Phaeton, because the new-generation Phaeton has actually been developed by VW but was forced to die due to the transition to electrification, and so many of the new Phaeton's design concepts were smoothly adopted by the flagship SUV, the Touareg.
In addition to carrying over the interior styling of the new Phaeton, the third-generation Touareg still makes no compromises when it comes to off-road and performance. The third-generation Touareg takes the EA888?s high-powered 2.0T engine as a starter, with a maximum power of 245 hp and a peak torque of 370 Nm, mated to a ZF 8AT gearbox, which can achieve a 100-kilometer acceleration of 6.8 seconds, but with even more outstanding fuel economy performance. Meanwhile, the EA839 3.0TSI V6 turbocharged engine can provide an output of 340 horsepower and 450 Nm, with a 100 km acceleration of only 5.9 seconds. With the advancement of technology, the performance that can only be achieved by large displacement engines is no longer a problem.
Today, the third-generation Touareg still adopts the Torsen mechanical center differential, based on a purely mechanical structure, with a torque distribution of 40:60, with the front axle distributing up to 70 percent of the torque and the rear axle distributing 80 percent of the torque, and a limited-slip locking function, which, together with a splitter box fixed to the gearbox, provides 10 driving modes, including low-speed four-wheel-drive Professional Off-Road mode.
It's worth mentioning that the third-generation Touareg not only has adaptive air suspension as standard across the board, but also adds an off-road package to the top model, which includes a steel underbody shield underneath the engine, anti-puncture steel armor for the battery, and anti-drill-through armor for the fuel tank, making the third-generation Touareg an unparalleled luxury SUV with a balance of comfort, sportiness and off-road performance in today's electrified context.
Sincere Test says:
This is why I, as a Volkswagen fan, consider the Touareg a homecoming after VW's steelhead era, MPV era and classic car era. It can take you to the mountains you once conquered and bring back the good old days of the Golf era, while still being a practical space performer. Best of all, if the premium image created by the first-generation Touareg was a bit far away back then, today's Touareg should be the closest we've come to realizing our aspirations.
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