Used Volkswagen Touran cars for sale

Used Volkswagen Touran pros and cons

Is a second hand Volkswagen Touran a good car?

The Volkswagen Touran is a car that proves we were all wrong to clamour for SUVs. This plain-wrapper MPV has way more space and practicality in its roomy cabin than any Tiguan, but it’s fallen out of fashion. 

Inside, there are seats for seven, and the massive rear doors mean that it’s easy to load and unload even from the third row. That third row is even roomy enough that adults can squeeze in, and kids have plenty of space. Not something you can say for many mid-size seven-seaters. 

The middle row has three individual seats which slide and fold, making it much easier to carry kids in their big child safety seats, while up front there’s plenty of space for two grown-ups, who get comfy, height-adjustable seats too. 

The penalty for carrying lots of people is that the boot shrinks to a tiny 137 litres when all seven seats are occupied. If you need more than that, you may need to upgrade to the larger, pricier VW Sharan or Seat Alhambra. Or maybe invest in a roof box. With the third row of seats folded away, the Touran’s boot expands to a massive 937 litres, which is bigger even than that of the massive Skoda Kodiaq. There are plenty of storage bins and cup holders dotted about as well, so this really is a very practical, useful car. 

The Touran isn’t the most stylish car inside — a Citroen Grand C4 Spacetourer, has a more interesting-looking cabin — but the build quality is typically VW-solid, and it’ll stand up to plenty of family-life abuse. 

VW clearly put a lot of thought into how the Touran’s interior would be used — hence the handy seat-fold mechanism, and the spring-loaded cup holders that firmly grip bottles and cans of different sizes. No more spilled Ribena… Even the picnic tables in the backs of the front seats have a sturdy ratchet-style hinge.

It’s a very safe car too, important when you’re going to be filling it with children. The Touran was a five-star car according to the independent crash test experts at Euro NCAP, but it’s worth going for higher-spec models as they got more safety toys, including emergency automated braking before it was mandated as standard equipment. It’s worth remembering that options for the Touran, especially for earlier models, tended to be expensive, so by the highest spec model you can find if you don’t want to end up with a sparse cabin.

Over its life, the Touran used a huge range of engines, from 1.6 and 2.0-litre diesels, to 1.4 and 1.5 turbo petrols. The best overall engine is the later 150hp 1.5 turbo petrol, which is smooth but also solidly economical. If you do lots of long motorway runs, maybe try to track down a 150hp 2.0-litre diesel, which will easily break the 50mpg barrier. Manual gearboxes were standard on all engines, with the seven-speed DSG automatic available as an option across the range. 

It may be tall and slab-sided, but the Touran doesn’t drive like a van. Think ‘Tall Golf’ and you’re on the right track. It corners tidily, and the light steering and big windows make it easy to thread through town. 

The overriding feeling of owning and driving a Touran is that it’s just easy — easy to drive, easy to use, easy to live with, and easy on your pocket. It’s a shame MPVs like this fell out of fashion, as the Touran is a reminder of just how good they could be.

What to look for when buying a used Touran

In general, the Touran should be a solidly-made and reliable car, but it’s a model that was recalled for various issues — including lighting problems, faulty airbags, incorrect wheels, and even a faulty fuel tank among others — as many as ten times. It’s also worth keeping an extra eye on the DSG automatic gearbox, which requires careful and attentive maintenance as it ages, and some buyers may have skimped on that.