The high-performance, range-topping Volkswagen Touareg R50 has gone on sale in Britain, costing from £61,885. Volkswagen's asking for a £3885 premium over its current top-end SUV, the Touareg V10 Altitude. Autocar first brought you news of this 345bhp R50 model when it debuted at the Australian Motor Show back in October. It uses an uprated version of the V10 TDI, making it one of the fastest SUVs on the market, launching from standstill to 62mph in 6.7 seconds and on to 147mph. Only a limited number of R50s - which have a massive 626lb ft torque - will be available in Britain. Each one is marked out by a customised cabin with plenty of ‘R’ badges, heavily bolstered seats and Nappa leather trimming. The R50 also gets 20-inch alloys and lower, firmer suspension to improve body control. Audi will launch a direct rival, the Q7 V12 TDI, later this year, which looks set to trump the R50 in the mammoth SUV performance stakes with its 5.5sec 0-62mph time.
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Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
It's going to be well made, perform well but why would you buy this over the Porsche Cayenne? The Cayenne S will handle and perform better than the Toureg and surely if you are spending £61k plus extras on a 4x4, you aren't buying it to tow a caravan to Dorset for the weekend....
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
Not even if I won the lottery.
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
I agree with the comment regarding the Cayenne - Porsche or VW? Hmmm....
Also, Porsche own a massive stake in VW - which in turn is part of the VW / Audi group and we have three competing vehicles! Surely a pointless exercise.
Cue the video clip of the VW on a runway trying to a pull a large aircraft to demonstrate it's torque.
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
Surely just an answer to a question nobody asked, so who will buy it.
But then I said that about the Cayenne turbo....
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
It would bet better if it didn't come at all. SUV's surely have no place in the modern market and climate, sure if these cars had zero carbon footprint or at least low CO2 emissions (say <110 g/km) then we are on the starting line for the future. I do not understand that the most wealthy in this meritocratic society seem to be the most stupid when it comes to the impact of their actions on others and the planet. Tax them to Hell, I say, you may be able to afford a new one but Joe Bloggs will be priced out of running a second-hand one, maximize depreciation, get them off the road as soon as possible and get them recycled into something more worthwhile. If you want thrills, go to Alton Towers.
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
The Touareg does have one major advantage over the Cayenne and Q7 in that it isn't among the top 10 ugliest cars conceived during the 21st century. Other than that it is pointless, pointless, pointless. What is this obsession with high powered trucks?
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
...If you want thrills, go to Alton Towers.
No offence, but you might on the wrong website.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />In general, I'm no fan of SUVs either, but I suspect many people who post here get a "thrill" out of diving cars they like, as well as using them for transport. But if you want to convince them to stop getting a thrill out of driving cars and instead get their kicks in Alton Towers, that's your prerogative.
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
Agreed Raven...
Just what the world wants, another over sized, over weight and over priced unispired monstrosity. What did they do to design it, just make a passat a bit taller? with those wheels on it it looks like a radio controlled toy. I'm surprised people buy such Sh***. Actually, no i'm not. Britain seems to be increasingly filled with people so blinkered by media obsessed hype that "style" and "taste" are largely forgotten, hence the current (hopefully declining) obsession with SUV's and the like.
"Do you suffer from a goal-less life? Do you fear you neighbours think less of you because they can see over the roof of your car whilst standing next to it? Do you care so little for making your own choices that you're able to blindly follow market trends and fads without the slightest hesitation? If so, you should look no further! welcome to the car superstore for retards! We have a few choice cars designed for people just like you, but don't worry, our salespeople will be able to guide you through the decision process by showing you cars in different colours so you can just pick the colour you saw Paris Hilton driving next week and who cares which car it actually is!
Would you like a Porsche Cayenne? It's in silver
Would you like a Range Rover? It's in black
Would you like a VW Touareg? It's in blue
Well done! you've chosen your car, would you like to accessorise with anyone of the following retard-accessories to look great on the school run/sitting in traffic on the M25?
Bull bars - you never know when you might meet a kangaroo/5 year old child on the road!
Chrome mirror covers - because you have NO taste!
Tinted windows - because you think you're so important!
Brilliant! Car and accessories chosen, now just wait for the looks of pity from pedestrian/passing motorists... no really, that is pity, it is not and will never be jealousy. Well, at least not from anyone with a level of intelligence above that of nearly expired pondlife.
It's long overdue, but the government should simply ban new cars from having an engine size over 2 litres, you don't need a bigger engine - get over it. 2 litre cars are easily fast enough, accelerate quickly enough etc, there's just no need for anything bigger. Oh, before anyone does, don't bother with the "personal choice" type argument, the use of CFC's, lead paint, 4-star petrol and countless other chemicals have been banned in order to try to protect the increasingly damaged environment from mans insanity, exactly the same reasoning should apply here.
I'm sure someone will say that modern cars don't create many emissions, but that's only half the picture. Yes this massively over spec'd 6.7litre car may churn out fewer emissions than a 1984 volvo estate, but for every mile less it does per gallon, more petrol has to reach for forecourt pumps to be bought by it's incredibly retarded owners. That's more energy to extract crude oil, transport it to a refinery, more refinery costs, more transport costs on from the refinery and then finally when it reaches mainland Britain, more transport costs to the local petrol station. I don't mean costs as in money, I mean the costs of energy extraction on the world as a whole. How many miles to the gallon does an oil tanker do? can't be many, yet thats part of the picture and generally people are too stupid to look beyond their chrome mirror covers and work it out for themselves.
Either that or they just don't care... either way, I despair.
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
In general, I'm no fan of SUVs either, but I suspect many people who post here get a "thrill" out of diving cars they like, as well as using them for transport.
I'm glad that my life isn't so empty of fun that driving a car provides my only entertainment. I'm also glad that i've realised that there's more to life than driving cars... especially on British roads which are generally poorly surfaced and busy, not ideal conditions for getting a "thrill".
Maybe my earlier post of "get over it" should extend to cars in general, or are people too stupid to realise road driving just doesn't get that exciting?
Re: VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
Except the photo is not of a Touareg..........
