Test drive Volkswagen Touran 2003 - 2006 Minivan

All photos of Volkswagen Touran 2003 - 2006

Transformer for adults

Volkswagen has family cars for almost every taste from the Golf Variant station wagon to Minivan Sharan and Multivan T5. It would seem, well, what else can you stick this ruler. It turned out to be possible. And Touran visual confirmation of this.

Touran is one hundred percent beginner of our market. At the beginning of the year, they teased Europe, turned it from exhibitions, held a number of national prime ministers and, finally, offered the Russians since September. Believing in success, as in the sunrise, the bosses of the concern announced grandiose plans related to the new recruit: only this year 130 thousand people should be tourized. Is it a bit too much for a car, barely going into the series?

It does not hurt to believe in advertising, I decided to try on Touran. And on the way to the car dealership, he recalled that Volkswagen began to build Wan shortly after the Second World War: in 1950, the first VW Bus Typ 22 appeared. Since then, the loaf has become a skate of the company, not only cargo, but also passenger ones. By the way, the name of the new model can be interpreted as an alloy of two terms: Touring (a universal body) + Sharan (one of the most successful minivans of the company). And now the question is for experts: to which class to classify Touran if the boundaries between market segments have long been blurred? We are looking for an answer together.

According to Touran's dimensions, a typical European middle peasant. The Germans themselves compare it with the VW Golf Variant station wagon. Their length is almost the same, almost 6 cm in terms of Touran width, but in height it surpasses a colleague by 16 cm. Innovative compact van (namely, the developers of the VW Touran positions on the Fifth-generation VW Golf platform. This means not only class belonging, but also technical perfection. It is expressed, for example, in the fact that the galvanized steel body is cooked by a laser. We read between the lines: solid assembly increased the rigidity and impact resistance of the machine, at the same time improved acoustic indicators. The degree of noise penetration into the salon is moderate: 72 dB in the parking lot and 79 dB in motion. However, there is no sense of euphoria about this.

The rain that went suddenly revealed three pluses in the car at once. The first excellent work of the wipers. They do not go parallel to each other, but to meet the golden handles in the snowpock car. Due to this, the glass is cleaned quickly and effectively as in a caring housewife during general cleaning. The second high performance of the stove. In a matter of seconds, it accelerates the area of \u200b\u200bfogging glasses and improves the review. True, it takes time to create a microclimate in the cabin: after all, the internal volume is very decent. Finally, the third plus, noticed on the move, is excellent lighting. Front headlights allow you to choose the optimal driving mode in cloudy weather, and the rear lights are not even confused by the rear lights with the rear lights with a traffic light. And now the acid on the skeptics of the souls of skeptics, which are ridiculous, who consider such machines are frivolous. In order for the skepticism to disappear like the ether, it is enough to carry out several indicative operations to transform the cabin. Just think about it: VW Touran has about 500! During the test, we did no more than 20 and were already delighted. Would you remain indifferent to almost Fakir transformations right in front of your eyes? Judge for yourself. Three middle -row seats are separate, and they can be moved in the longitudinal direction, folded, folded, adjusted in width and quickly dismantled. Want a dining table please: Fold the middle chair. It was necessary to install a refrigerator instead of it, there is no problem. The seats of the third row can be hidden on the floor of the trunk and get a spacious cargo site. It is not forbidden to remove all the extra chairs and turn the seven -seater Touran into a single. Amazing versatility!

In the cabin of this transformer, there are no delights like wooden inserts and leather seats. A typical interior for the company is adapted to transport tasks, and therefore extremely utilitated. And in fact, if the owner has to drive mainly to the country and on business, quite practical plastic. But the equipment of the car is quite worthy. The serial package includes ABS, ASR, ESP electronic stabilization system and EDL differential electronic blocking.

The steering column is adjustable in height and departure, the headrests of the front seats are active, the airbag for the front passenger is deactivated.
According to the little things, you can paint a whole dissertation. There are three jackets, pockets and shelves of dozen dozen, if not more. There are three holders for glasses: two in front and one behind. The pockets in the doors are so roomy that they can put a liter bottle of drinks and three or four containers with a volume of 0.6 liters in them. The trunk has a backlight and an additional recess. On the side chairs of the second row, the ISOFIX device is provided for attaching children's seats. Family couples will appreciate this. Are you not tired yet? But I did not talk about the backlight for reading in front and behind, about three ceiling closets for sunglasses, about the armrest in the middle part of the seat with a box and two nozzles for supplying air behind. He did not say a word and about the red nightlight for switch, did not mention the indication of the need for the next, did not hint about the boxes under the front armchairs and at the legs of the second row. Yes, but there is another 12-volt outlet behind and in the luggage compartment, the back door with the Castle Castle, the Bulletin of the Fessive Falfaces and much, much more. Only all this is better to see once. Well, what is Touran on the road?

The 1.9 TDI engine makes a good impression. The turbodiesel with direct injection has a 100 -hp. at 4000 rpm, and the peak of torque of 250 nm is subject to him at 2500 rpm. In other words, for good acceleration in the city, it is not necessary to gas it very much. Two valves on the cylinder seem somewhat archaic, but the first impression is deceptive: the motor is economical and environmentally friendly, it meets Euro-4 standards. Prior to installation on the VW Touran, he proved his worth on Polo and Golf models. With a permissible European bar for such motors, 5.9 l/100 km, Turanovsky 1.9 TDI consumes 0.7 liters over every hundred kilometers passed. This is the merit of a turbinean with a variable geometry of the turbine and cooler, as well as a pump-link with a conical shape of the opening of the injection and cooler of the exhaust gas recirculation system. Theoretically, with a VW Touran, a tank, which is filled under the neck, can pass without refueling 1154 km. Practically, of course, less. The Germans themselves call a figure of 1000 km. For our conditions, I think it will be less, but still the result is not bad: from Moscow to Smolensk and vice versa without refueling.

This car is not suitable for at least two things: street-reaching and Camel-Trophy. But for voyage to nature, traveling in a pleasant company and solving family problems, he needs what. At least this is the first impression.

A 6-speed gearbox is truly unprecedented for this market segment. She has a crankcase made of magnesium alloy, a cable drive and a short stroke of the switching lever. If you follow the speed limit, then there is simply nowhere to turn on the 6th gear in the city. And outside the city, traction effort seems sufficient for a confident sense of the steering wheel. However, this is true for a car with one driver and passenger, but it is difficult to say how it will behave completely equipped with a completely equipped Touran.

The indisputable advantage of the gearbox is the lack of need to serve it: the oil is poured for the entire service life. But with motor oil, the situation is different. Firstly, it requires 4.3 liters of volume not very convenient with independent maintenance, since most oils are sold in four-liter cans. So, you need to buy another liter minzurka or use the services of a proprietary service station. Secondly, the engine in the engine needs to be changed every 7.5 thousand km of run. For comparison: in most modern cars, the oil change interval of 10-15 thousand km is considered normal, and in individual brands there are more.

Well, now let's see how the German behaves on Russian roads. The suspension has established itself, surprisingly, soft, perhaps even too much. No, Touran is in no hurry to bow to every turn. But the sporting clarity of the radius drawing is also not observed. In general, the middle ground. Another concern: the front suspension is attached to the body on an aluminum subframe, and this material on bumpy roads grazes more often and faster than the usual steel. There are concerns in relation to rubber -metal hinges on which transverse levers are resting. It is clear that they increase the transverse stability of the car and extinguish fluctuations in the steering. But they allow the longitudinal displacement of the wheels, and for bad roads this is the right path to the accelerated wear of rubber. The rear axle is also attached to the body on the subframe. The four -link design is very compact and well thought out. Suffice it to say that springs and shock absorbers are installed separately, and not in the usual way (shock absorber inside the spring). When the spring is compressed, the wheel is on the way relative to the longitudinal axis and forms the convergence angle, which compensates for the change in control conditions in the loaded car. To improve the characteristics of the loaded machine, the shock absorbers are widely spaced in the transverse direction and are not installed vertically, but at an angle. In a word, the engineers squeezed out of this design everything they could.

Summing up the first acquaintance with the VW Touran, I just want to pat the Germans on the shoulder: with an inexpressive design, they managed to endow the newly -made family man with a decent set of merits. And they did it so skillfully that the compact wan occupied his niche. It can be seen: the appearance of VW Touran will not reduce the number of customers of other concern models. Rather, one of the competitors will not read the buyers of their transformers. Otherwise, where would the sales forecast of 130 thousand VW Touran come from only this year. What then expect from the next, full -blooded year of sales?!

The car is provided by Rus-Lan.
During the test, the car is insured by LLC Nation Center.

Text: Alexander Trokhachev
Photo: Yuri Dorodonov