2005 Volkswagen Touran Sport review from UK and Ireland

Only problem so far has been with one of the key fobs. The battery seemed to die prematurely and needed replacing. Volkswagen claimed this was not covered under the warranty and so charged for a replacement, even though the car was only a few weeks old. A little disappointing...

As a practical family vehicle the Touran is superb.

I have three children, and as a family we must have crawled all over most of the popular MPV's on the market.

The Touran was by far the best.

It feels well screwed together compared with much of the competition, and although it is one of the most expensive, I feel it's worth it.

Having the mk5 Golf's underpinnings helps with the handling. It is surprisingly agile for a tall vehicle, holding lines well through corners, and allowing you to accelerate hard out without giving the Electronic Stability Programme too much to complain about.

My favourite thing about my Touran has to be the refined 2.0 TDI engine and the great partnership that it forms with the Direct Shift Gearbox.

The engine produces a healthy 140PS and a whopping 320nM of torque.

The gearbox is just something else!

Have it as a manual in tiptronic mode, or cruise in auto mode - the choice is yours.

It delivers the power so smoothly.

Gear shifts are hardly noticeable, and drop it into sport mode and all hell breaks loose!

I'm still in the honeymoon period with this motor I guess, only covered 1800 miles so far. But it's behaved well when loaded up on family holidays and trips... and most importantly I still get a grin on my face when I drive it.