A Little Something for Everyone

North America is VW's most important market for the Touareg, and more examples of VW's utility have been sold in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world since this SUV's launch in the summer of 2003. Slicing the data further, we see that more Touaregs have been sold in California alone than in all of China. Or in the entire Asia Pacific region. Or in South America and South Africa combined. To us this suggests that the Touareg's all-terrain prowess is being exercised primarily on paved roads and in parking lots.

VW acknowledges this, and the company reveals that it is planning a third sport-utility vehicle to fall between the Touareg and the forthcoming VW Golf-based Tiguan. This as-yet-unnamed SUV will be defined by on-road usage, and it will do without the Touareg's heavy-duty off-road hardware and instead carry three rows of seating. We expect this new VW utility to resemble the Acura MDX or Mazda CX-9 — especially since the VW brass mentioned these well-executed vehicles by name.

For now, the only SUV in the Volkswagen lineup continues to be the Touareg. Ambition comes in waves, and these updates to the 2008 Volkswagen Touareg constitute less of a reinvention than a refinement of a uniquely capable SUV.

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Would you all believe that I test drove this SUV a few times back when it first came out? It was during a brief period (hullucination actually) when I thought I might have wanted an SUV. It was one of my favorites then and it still looks the part, the interior still gorgeous, but my attention span for SUVs is very short and since 2003 the Touareg's class has been overrun with newer models.

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