Volkswagen Touareg review - Practicality & boot space

A revised design means the latest Touareg is 77mm longer and 44mm wider than before, liberating extra interior space compared to its predecessor. There’s no getting away from the fact that the Touareg is a big car, which can make it tricky to thread down a county lane. At least that means you and your passengers have plenty of room to spread out.

Volkswagen Touareg interior space & storage

Volkswagen has shunned a seven-seat option for its luxury SUV, citing research that suggests third-row seats are rarely used. If you do like the idea of having two extra seats, you’ll need to plump for a Volvo XC90, Land Rover Discovery, Audi Q7 – or indeed a Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace or Volkswagen Multivan – instead.

Without a third row, Volkswagen’s designers have instead concentrated on improving rear legroom and headroom, which are both plentiful, even for taller adults. Handily, the doors also open nice and wide to help with getting in and out.

The rear seats can be moved up to 160mm to create more boot space or more legroom, and you can adjust the angle of the back rests by up to 21 degrees.

Boot space

There should be no complaints regarding boot space, with a huge 810 litres behind the rear seats. That’s 40 litres more than the huge Audi Q7 and way ahead of the 650 litres in the back of a BMW X5.

Towing

Both 3.0-litre V6 versions of the Touareg have plenty of pulling power, allowing them to tow up to 3,500kg of braked trailer weight. The car comes with VW's Trailer Assist system, which is designed to make it easier to manoeuvre the trailer at slow speeds.