Photos by Judy Smith

Volkswagen has decided to get into “off-road” in a big way. When they introduced their luxury SUV, the Touareg, in 2002, it looked like a nice SUV, but unless one studies it with X-ray eyes, it’s impossible to see just how high-tech and efficient it is.

When they decided to go racing in Dakar they made people take notice, and when they started to win some stages of that very difficult event, it began to look as if they had something good going.

Earlier this month Volkswagen brought the Dakar Touaregs to the Baja 500 to let American off-roaders have a better look at them in action, and they performed very well indeed, finishing high up in the overall standings of the event. Their chase crew drove stock Touaregs.

So, when we were invited to a “Touareg Adventure” in Moab, Utah, it was a no-brainer. We couldn’t wait for the chance to see how the stock vehicles performed. Having put in roughly 36 years of off-roading in the old air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle, we were eager to check out the new generation vehicle. These “Adventures” are three-day hands-on training sessions for folks who’ve purchased a new Touareg or think they may purchase one. The idea is to demonstrate the capabilities of the SUV to people who might otherwise never know all the things their car can do.

It’s a blast. VW sent guides in Touaregs to pick us up at the airport, so we had a terrific demonstration of how the vehicle handles on the pavement. We arrived at our accommodations outside of Moab proper after a 90 mile ride from Grand Junction Airport. The VW folks introduced us to a fleet of eight Touaregs; some V6s, some V8s a V10 and a Touareg 2 (the 2008 model). Very soon we were out on the road, traveling through some of the most beautiful scenery in the U.S., and on our way to a rock-crawling lesson.

The Colorado River glides calmly past the breathtakingly beautiful rock formations outside of Moab.

Unless you’re brain dead, you’d have to enjoy the scenery in the Moab area. Everywhere you look there’s something beautiful. For starters, the Colorado River is a stone’s throw from the road, winding through green trees and amazing formations of red rock. It’s got Sedona, Arizona beat by a mile! All together, there are 5,000 miles of off-road trails in the area, which is a mecca for Jeepers, quad riders, mountain bikers, hikers, and photographers.

Climbing up a right-angle stone embankment turned out to be simple. The tires just walked up and over, never hesitating a beat.

When we envision rock-crawling, we think of big Jeeps and Broncos, maybe Toyotas or purpose-built cars with many inches of travel, big tires and humongous engines. Here we were in luxury SUVs, with leather seats, terrific air conditioning, sun roofs, 19 inch wheels and street tires. But we quickly learned about the V10 turbo-diesel; the air-bag suspension, hill descent assist, hill ascent assist, the six-speed automatic transmission with TiptronicR and a host of other details that had our heads buzzing. This car had the optional air-bag suspension and without getting out of the car we could raise or lower it, changing the ground clearance from a low point of 6.3 inches, to a tall 11.8 inches at the top. The guide pointed out that the built-in compressor that moves the suspension up and down will also inflate a tire if one loses air. The neatest thing of all, especially to an old VW person, was that only two wheels had to be on the ground, and it could be any two wheels; two fronts, two rears, or a front and a rear. If they touched dirt, the car would keep moving forward. Sure made it easy.

Guides helped the neophyte rock crawlers through the tough spots.  Here famous rock crawler, Dan Mick, tells the driver which way to turn the wheels.

The cars have way too many goodies to list, but we should mention the navigation system with visual and audible commands, the rear-view camera and power adjustable front seats. There’s also a six-CD player, double sun visors (to block the rays front and side), and a little cup holder in the glove box that sits in front of a jet of cold air, so you can keep your second drink chilled. Never has off-roading been so luxurious.

As long as at least two tires are on the ground, the Touareg keeps moving.  Here its negotiating a tricky upward bend in the rock, with no alternate route due to steep drop offs on each side.

We’d take it to Baja in an instant. In three days of driving (lots of hours, not many miles, and nothing high-speed) we had absolutely no problems with any of the eight vehicles. No one broke anything, nothing fell off, and nothing quit working. None of the Touaregs were ever stuck, none had to be pulled or pushed, and as far as we could see, none even had to search out an easier route. We ran ‘em up steep, steep inclines, and down steep inclines. We climbed stair-steps of rocks, and some that were more like straight embankments. We ran smoothly through soft sand, and navigated cobbly, loose rocky sections of road. We did it all with 40 pounds of air in the tires, the recommended air pressure for pavement driving.
The cars, which were all stock, were quiet and solid, and felt good on the highway at high (very high) speeds also. We drove the V10 turbo diesel and the V6 and liked them both.

The view out the windshield, looking down from the top of the very steep trail called “The Dragon’s Tail”.

The Volkswagen representatives said they came “late to the party” as far as SUVs were concerned, and so they’re making a concerted effort to “catch up.” They commented that the Sport Utility area has grown tremendously, and consumers are now looking for things like higher ground clearance and more performance enhancements. VW has put together a vehicle which they feel will fill the need.

Want More?

The Volkswagen Touareg 2 in Baja