Category: Sporting 4x4s 
Price Range: £29,880 to £58,000
Huge amounts of pulling power, smart looks, decent kit levels.
Ride is too firm; pricey; lethargic kickdown.
Understated bling might attract some buyers, but price isn't right.
Here's a simple question: would you shell out just under £61,990 for a 'sporting' VW 4x4 when you could buy an equivalent Porsche Cayenne GTS for £54,000 or pay for £61,000 for a Range Rover Sport?
If the badge on the front (or back) is important to you, and making a statement about your wealth is your thing, then this question is a no-brainer. You'll simply walk by the VW dealership and give the smart-looking R50 nothing more than a passing glance.
Then again, if you think all that Range Rover and Cayenne nonsense is the preserve of footballers and jumped-up city bankers, then this might be your thing.
There is no getting around the fact that the R50 is horrendously expensive: it's a 4x4 equivalent of the Volkswagen Phaeton - a lot of money for... a Volkwagen. Sort of undermines the 'Peoples wagon' badge doesn't it?
What you can say about the R50 though is that it's a) terrifically fast and b) shamelessly bling. To go with the oversized wheelarches, 21" alloys and roof spoiler is the 5.0-litre V10 TDI used on the lower-specced Touareg Altitude, with the R50's engine uprated from 309bhp to 343bhp. As well as the power boost there's an extra 73lb-ft of torque, which means the R50 delivers an alarming 627lb-ft at just 2,000rpm. It may seem like VW is over-egging the omelette but, y'know, it can tow a Boeing 747, if you like...
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volkswagen Touareg
wrote on 26 09 2007