Volkswagen Touran review

Going by its list price, the Touran is more expensive to buy than the equivalent Citroën Grand C4 Spacetourer and is priced roughly in line with the Ford S-Max.

However, don’t let that fact alone make your mind up, because the Touran is available with some huge discounts and, perhaps even more importantly, finance deals that are keen enough for monthly costs to be very competitive. Low insurance premiums and relatively slow depreciation will also help keep expenditure down.

All the engines deliver decent, if not class-leading fuel economy, with the 2.0 TDI 150 diesel being the most frugal engine; it returns 51.9mpg with the manual gearbox. A respectable 41.6mpg is claimed for the TSI 150 petrol engine.

Entry-level S trim is the one to avoid: it’s very basic and doesn’t even have alloy wheels. SE is much better equipped. It has 16in alloys, automatic lights and wipers, all-round electric windows and adaptive cruise control. There are also a number of very reasonably priced options.

Go for SE Family and you'll get a panoramic sunroof, blinds on the rear windows, remotely activated rear-door child locks and a voice amplification function for the driver – it uses the microphone in the front to project the driver’s voice through the rear speakers, so the driver doesn’t have to shout to be heard by people in the rearmost seats. It’s a good trim level if you want lots of kit but we think the cheaper SE will suffice for most.

SEL is even more lavishly equipped and comes with chrome exterior highlights and bigger alloys. R-line is even less recommendable – it's more expensive than SEL and adds mostly sporty styling fripperies.

Volkswagen has an average reputation when it comes to reliability and came 16th out of 31 brands in the 2019 What Car? Reliability Survey, finishing ahead of Citroën but below Ford.

Volkswagen provides a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty which can be extended to four or five years. A fixed-price service plan is also available and a year's UK and European roadside assistance is standard.

Euro NCAP awarded the Touran its maximum five-star safety rating; a closer look at the result shows that it bettered the Ford S-Max overall. You get seven standard airbags as standard, including a driver’s knee airbag, while side airbags for the second-row seats are a reasonably priced option.

All trim levels except entry-level S have automatic emergency braking (AEB) and a sensor that triggers a warning if you get too close to the car in front. 

Meanwhile, lane-departure warning and blindspot monitoring are optional on all trims, apart from entry-level S, and it's also only that entry trim that misses out on a standard alarm.

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