Volkswagen Touran Review & Prices

The Volkswagen Touran doesn’t look exciting at all, but the payoffs for its high roofline and slab-sides are lots of interior space and huge doors for great access – making it one of the most practical family cars you can buy.

It also has seven seats, and those big rear doors mean anyone with a degree of flexibility can access the back row, which – unusually for a seven-seater – can accommodate an adult so long as they’re under six-feet tall. That means there’s plenty of room back there for kids. The middle row, meanwhile, has three individual seats that slide backwards and forwards, so adults will have no trouble getting comfortable. Both front seats are height adjustable too.

The Volkswagen Touran only has a 137-litre boot with all seven seats in place, which is barely enough space for a weekly shop – so if you need to carry seven people and their things then the larger Volkswagen Sharan will be a better bet. However, the Volkswagen Touran’s boot grows to a whopping 937 litres when the car’s in five-seater mode. Factor in the 47 separate smaller storage areas that are dotted around the interior and few cars this size can compete with the Touran’s practicality.

You’re not going to buy a Volkswagen Touran on account of its interior style. It has none of the flamboyance of the now discontinued Citroen Grand C4 Spacetourer, but it does have a straightforward layout and build quality that feels like it’ll stand up to years of use.

A lot of thought has gone into the design – simple mechanisms make the seats really ease to fold, the cup holders have a sprung grip that wraps around energy drinks as easily as they hold a can of coke, and the picnic tables on the backs of the front seats have a ratchet function that holds them in place even if you lean on them. These are the things you’ll appreciate for years to come.

The Volkswagen Touran is a safe car too. It scored five stars when Euro NCAP crash-tested it in 2015, but it’s worth upgrading from S to SE models and above just to get automatic emergency braking fitted as standard – it’ll reduce the chance of low-speed crashes.

The Volkswagen Touran’s once broad selection of engine options have been whittled down to just one 148hp turbocharged petrol unit. It’s perky and efficient though, and is available in manual or automatic form.

You’ll be surprised at how well the Volkswagen Touran drives. Although it looks like a van, it doesn’t feel like one – in corners it feels like a taller VW Golf. It doesn’t lean much going around corners and the light steering makes it a doddle to park and easy to use around town.

In fact, ‘easy to use’ pretty much sums up the Volkswagen Touran. It does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s built to carry people comfortably and easily, and it doesn’t let frivolities such as sexy styling and sporty driving dynamics steer it off course from its main objective of being family friendly.

The seven-seater MPV population has been in slow decline in recent years, and leaves the Volkswagen Touran with few direct alternatives aside from the Ford S-Max, which comes in quite a bit pricier and is now offered only as a self-charging hybrid. 

Van-based seven-seater MPVs like the Vauxhall Combo Life, Citroen E-Berlingo and Peugeot Rifter offer even more interior space, but these are only available in purely electric form, something that may not suit everyone just yet. Prices are largely comparable to the Touran, though and running costs will be much lower. 

Of course, larger SUVs like the Peugeot 5008, Skoda Kodiaq and SEAT Tarraco are now the more popular route to seven-seater motoring. They offer a more modern design, but aren’t always as practical and tend to cost more than the Touran.

Its boxy looks may suggest otherwise, but the VW Touran is good to drive. It may not be quite as sharp as the best SUVs, or have much off-roading ability, but it’s one of the best family-friendly offerings around  

In town

The Touran offers a commanding driving position, thanks to its height, and the squared off extremities aid parking manoeuvres. You get front and rear parking sensors as standard, handy for those really tight parking bays. Autonomous emergency braking is another useful driver aid when driving around crowded city streets.

The ride is comfortable over most surfaces, and there’s none of that slackness to responses that you sometimes get in large family vehicles. The Dual-clutch DSG automatic gearbox works well around town, although the manual is a great choice too.

On the motorway

The refined and quiet interior makes the Touran a great long-distance cruiser. Large windows and plenty of interior space will keep the passengers happy, and the 148hp turbocharged engine has no trouble maintaining speed up hills, even when fully loaded. 

A driver fatigue detection system is standard, as well as adaptive cruise control and lane change assist.

On a twisty road

The Touran is based on the Golf hatchback platform, and it feels much like the smaller car when hustling around tight and winding roads. It offers plenty of grip and lean around sharp bends is well contained. The Ford S-Max also feels sportier than you might expect, but its ride quality can’t quite match the Touran.

There’s plenty of passenger space in all three rows, with plenty of clever storage solutions. Boot space is rather limited with a full complement of passengers, but folding the rear rows down reveals a massive loading area

Getting comfortable in the Touran should be a doddle. The driver gets a rake and reach adjustable steering-wheel, and there’s height adjustment and lumbar support for both front seats. There’s a centre armrest that folds up to reveal a large storage area, and two cup holders are placed between the front seats. The door bins and glovebox are huge, capable of taking large water bottles or handbags.

There’s a storage slot ahead of the gear lever for your phone and plenty of other storage spots dotted around the cabin for things like keys, glasses and wallets. There’s even a storage bin in the roof just behind the rearview mirror.

Space in the back seats

The second row of seats offers tons of leg and head room, and instead of a narrow and uncomfortable centre seat, you get three individual chairs and no irritating hump in the floor so getting in and out is easy, too. All three chairs have ISOFIX mountings, and the wide-opening doors allow you to get bulky baby seats in without breaking into a sweat. 

The door bins are huge in the back, too, and there’s a pair of foldout picnic tables installed into the back of the front seats. Unlike in some alternatives, a handy ratchet function prevents them from collapsing when pressed hard. 

The third row is inevitably compromised, being a bit trickier to climb back into, but the two rearmost seats will still accommodate most adults under six feet without issue. A pair of ISOFIX mountings are also provided if you feel the need for some distance between you and your offspring.

Boot space

If you fill every one of the Touran’s seven seats, you’ll be left with just 137-litres of luggage space. That’s not a lot. Even a VW Up! offers 251 litres behind its rear seats. If you don’t need the rearmost seats, then you can fold them flat to increase your load space to a frankly huge 937 litres. 

For those trips to IKEA, you can fold both rear rows flat to get a massive 1,875 litres. The Ford S-Max offers even more, with 285/965/2,020 litres in those configurations, and seven-seater SUV such as the SEAT Tarraco offers 230/700/1,775 litres, which serves to highlight just how versatile MPVs are.

The Volkswagen Touran has a no-nonsense approach to its interior. Everything is logically laid out and material quality is good throughout. It’s missing the design flair that you find in some alternatives, though

The VW Touran has been around for quite a while, but thanks to regular updates the interior still looks suitably modern, and an 8.0-inch digital driver display and touchscreen infotainment system are standard fitment. 

Trim levels consist of the SE, SEL, SE Family and R-Line, with not much separating the first three alternatives, pricewise. That makes the SEL a rather tempting buy, offering three-zone climate control, a larger 10.25-inch digital cockpit and the option of a Deep Mocha leather interior. SE Family models make do with the standard digital cockpit but add a dual panoramic sunroof which greatly enhances the cabin ambiance.

The R-Line adds larger 18-inch wheels and some cosmetic updates, but we’d save our money and opt for one of the other trims considering the intended use of the Touran. Features like keyless entry, the larger digital cockpit, panoramic sunroof and Park Assist can be added to the lower trims if you prefer to mix and match the spec.

The infotainment system isn’t the latest offering available, but that’s actually a good thing as it forgoes the irritating touch-sensitive climate controls for physical buttons which are far easier to operate. 

Sat nav is standard on all but the SE trim, but Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included so you can just use your own navigation app if you prefer. SEL and R-Line trims also offer wireless App-Connect. Bluetooth connectivity and digital DAB radio are standard on all trims.

The Touran engine range now comprises just one 148hp 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol unit. It drives the front wheels through either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, and delivers between 40.9mpg and 42.8mpg depending on the trim level, with the economy figures are the same for both the manual and auto. CO2 emissions are between 150g/km and 157g/km.

A 0-62mph time of 10.9-seconds is competitive with the 2.5-litre petrol hybrid in the Ford S-Max, but the Touran’s claimed fuel economy figure is slightly worse. The SEAT Tarraco SUV is fitted with the same 148hp engine in base trim as you find in the Touran, and both performance and fuel economy figures are largely similar.

If your commute is made up mostly of short city trips then you may want to consider one of the van-based MPVs from Citroen, Peugeot or Vauxhall. They all come fitted with a 134hp electric motor and 50kW battery pack which offers around 170 miles between charges. With similar pricing and no road tax or ULEZ and congestion charges, the running costs should be far less than the petrol-only Touran.

The VW Touran underwent Euro NCAP testing way back in 2015. It scored a full five-star rating, but the testing procedures have changed to such a degree that this rating has since expired. 

That said, the Touran has received a number of tweaks and updates over the years, getting a a package of additional standard safety systems that weren’t available at the time of its launch. 

The standard active and passive safety systems now include adaptive cruise control, a driver fatigue alert system, autonomous emergency braking, front and rear parking sensors and lane change assist. Optional extras include keyless entry, Park Assist and a rearview camera.

The Touran has been on sale for quite some time, and owner reviews have found it to be a reliable vehicle overall. There have been 10 recalls for the Touran since it was launched, most occurring in the earlier years of production with no new recalls since 2020. 

A basic three-year/60,000-mile warranty is standard, with the option to extend it to four years and 75,000-miles or five years and 90,000-miles at additional cost. This is comparable to Ford’s warranty offering, but falls well short of what Hyundai and Kia offer.

A VW service plan is available for £269 and covers the first two services of the vehicle. Payment can be done up front or over a 24-month period.