Spotted In The Wild: Volkswagen Touran

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Spotted in the wilds of Toronto today: A VW Touran TDI. Canadians, don’t get your hopes up.

Toronto is the central location for every OEM in the Canadian market, and that means that you can sometimes spot forbidden fruit out on the road, much like residents of Detroit and Los Angeles are privy to.

This Touran is here for evaluation purposes, but will not be offered for sale anytime soon. Canada’s regulatory regime is aligned with America, which makes the homologation costs too high for such a small market. Furthermore, while Canadians like smaller cars, they don’t favor small minivans. The Canadian-made Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country own the Canadian minivan market by a huge margin, with small vans like the Mazda5 and Canadian-only Chevrolet Orlando and Kia Rondo picking up the scraps.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

More by Derek Kreindler

Comments
Join the conversation
5 of 34 comments
  • Danio3834 Danio3834 on Jun 13, 2014

    Why would I have my hopes up? That thing looks awful.

    • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Jun 13, 2014

      I will say, seems like VW designs their cars to be in dark blue.

  • Zykotec Zykotec on Jun 13, 2014

    It's the perfect car for those who didn't like the road noise, reliability,wild design, huge engine or lack of seats in the luggage department in the 2nd gen Honda CRV. You can even get a 'Crosstouran'-version, making it every bit a silent comfy, slow 2nd gen Crv without the great backseat (although you can fit a lot more shortlegged children in it)

  • Brettc Brettc on Jun 13, 2014

    Even though this thing probably has a slim chance of going on sale in Canada and no chance in the U.S., where are the rest of the pictures? A man's gotta dream.

  • HotPotato HotPotato on Jun 14, 2014

    I believe this is the rental car we got for our French road trip, with a TDI and 6-speed manual. Four people in the car, luggage Tetrised all the way to the roof in back. Nice VW interior, nice VW handling, decent MPG, loads of torque, practical legs-down-not-out packaging. I was surprised this was the car the rental agency gave us, considering that the French invented the modern minivan, and continue to make ones that are roomier, comfier, and cheaper. But the VW is a nice rig--and favored by taxi drivers, which might say something about its reliability vs the domestic competition.

Next