volkswagon touareg!! Awesome!!!

The Touareg, Volkswagon's radical new sports utility vehicle, represents an attempt to attract a more upscale group of buyers to the Volkswagen brand – buyers who might otherwise be tempted by Mercedes Benz. Accordingly, the company calls the Touareg “one of the most important new vehicle launches in VW history.”

Equally comfortable crawling over Buick-sized boulders in the wilds of Utah as it is hurtling down the track at 130 mph (really!), the Touareg represents a milestone in sports utility design offering luxury, high performance and extreme off-road capability in a single, quite extraordinary package.

It has the new VW Phaeton’s athletic stance, which is accentuated by big front fender flares and muscular haunches. Combined with exceptionally short front and rear overhang, it looks like it will go anywhere. And as we found out in Utah, it darn near will.

While new design trails weren't blazed, from most angles, the Touareg offers generic SUV looks with familiar VW markings. However, it’s loaded with engineering features almost unimaginable in a passenger car even a few years ago, including a completely new self-supporting body.

The frame is distinct, the supporting framework and the body structure form an inseparable unit. This provides superior static rigidity, which lends not only high speed stability but also severely limits the amount of twisting or flex experienced in extreme off-road situations.

The Touareg’s design incorporates high static and dynamic rigidity (body stiffness). To illustrate: An Audi A8 sedan, which provides a comfortable and stable ride at very high speed, has a stiffness rating of 42 hz. The BMW X5 – widely considered to be the best handling SUV in the world – has a rating of 35hz. The Touareg has a rating of 40hz. This means it should handle better than an X5 and almost as well as an A8 sedan. Incidentally, a typical SUV has a stiffness rating of 22 – 25hz.

The Touareg’s all-round performance capability is nothing short of astonishing. Besides sports sedan-like body stiffness, all Touaregs come with 4Xmotion - VW’s permanent 4WD, which includes low range gearing and adaptive torque distribution. An automatic center lock differential is standard. A rear-locking differential, essential for serious off-roading, is optional.

Official EPA fuel economy ratings: With the V6, 15/20mpg (15.7/10.8l/100km) and with the V8, 14/18mpg (17.3/11.8/100km). Towing capacity is 7,700 lbs with either engine.

A Hulk-like, 5.0L V10 TDI diesel will be available in 2004. In its European configuration, it produces 303hp and an astounding 553lb-ft of torque. This engine gets raves in Europe and it’s not difficult to see why. First of all, forget everything you think you know about diesels. This diesel is different. This diesel can push the Touareg to 150 mph and 25 mpg, although not, regretfully, at the same time.

While it's currently available in Europe, VW doesn't rule out the possibility that its 5 cylinder, 2.5L diesel with 172hp and (gasp!) 400 lb-ft of torque, could be an option for North America late in '05. VW has teased that the all-round performance on the 2.5L diesel is similar to the 4.2L V8 gasoline engine – except it’s two to three times more fuel-efficient