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The Bug Grows Up (33-1) By Garth Cane Volkswagen's all-new Touareg sport utility vehicle boasts excellent handling, luxurious features and enough guts to haul a 30-foot trailer with ease.

Lets get this straight right from the beginning - this is not your father's Volkswagen Bug. In fact, the Touareg - Volkswagen's all-new, premium luxury SUV - is a capable tow vehicle with off-road capability. For the company's first entry into a category that lives on superlatives, it's a real eye opener. The word Touareg apparently means "free folk" and has its roots in a nomadic tribe from the Sahara. With a full-time four-wheel-drive system and room for five passengers with lots of cargo (31 cubic feet with the rear seats up and 71 cubic feet when folded), the Touareg boasts a trailer towing rating of 7,716 pounds with either the base V6 or optional V8 engines. Since the trailer hitch for the Touareg is a $1,398 dealer-installed option, we took our test vehicle to Cedarbrae Volkswagen in Toronto's suburbs, where Mike Bruene dropped the rear bumper, bolted on the hitch, installed the lighting control unit and re-programed the lights, re-installed the bumper, then wired the Tekonsha brake control under the dash for us. This process took about three hours to complete. I would like to think that this would be done at the factory where nothing would need to be taken apart, but for the present time at least, VW prefers its dealers perform the hitch installation. The sophisticated, full-time four-wheel drive system is called 4XMOTION, and automatically shifts power between axles to match driving conditions. The 4XMOTION system includes an adjustable multi-plate clutch of the center differential that is automatically controlled by a Differential Control Module (DCM). During normal operation, torque is distributed from the engine to the front and rear axles on a 50/50% split by the automatic transmission and center differential. The multi-plate, center differential lock is allowed to disengage whenever the DCM determines a power differential between the front and rear axles is required. A transfer case, equipped with off-road reduction, delivers power to the appropriate wheels. With the optional rear differential lock, up to 100 percent of the torque can be used by any wheel that still has traction. The enhanced Traction Control System prevents the drive wheels from spinning on snow or loose gravel with braking action or engine torque. The standard Electronic Differential Lock makes it easier to drive when one wheel is on the pavement and the other on the shoulder of the road, where different surfaces have different friction, by braking the spinning wheel. ... (Read full article in the magazine.)