Toerag R-Line v6 TDi review
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 8:43 pm
As mentioned on the Facebook group I’ve won the hire car lottery this week when my “Focus or similar” (it never is a Focus, have had close to 150 hire cars over the last 3-4 years and not once has it been a Focus. Most often Renaults, Kia/Hyundais or Vauxhalls) turned up in the form of a 66 plate Toerag R-Line v6 TDi.
This is not only the biggest upgrade (previous best was a Volvo S40), but also my first experience with a premium SUV and the most powerful car I’ve driven on UK roads, and the second most powerful one ever.
With 20k on the clock it was still a very nice place to be and nothing was broken, rattled or worn out (based on experience I would suggest that one hire car mile is equal to seven normal miles).
It immediately feels like a plush thing, with the heated leather seats and steering wheel and very efficient heating keeping me toasty and warm in the rather nippy temperatures this morning. The opening glass roof helped making it feel light and airy and at low speeds it was quiet and comfortable.
I am immensely impressed with the DSG gearbox, shifts really are seamless and only the rev counter needle dropping gives a shift away. The engine has a pleasant large capacity rumble when pressing on and with some judicious use of the paddles it can be made to shift smartly, although it isn’t properly quick. It does pile on the speed unobtrusively and at a decent rate of knots though, so caution is needed.
It has an interesting feature. When the car is stopped it holds it still without needing to have a foot on the brakes, as soon as you press the accelerator it releases and starts creeping forward. If the stop/start has activated, it also (duh!) starts the engine. I like the idea, but the execution is a bit lacking. On a number of occasions, it makes for quite jerky getaway with the car surging forward on a very small throttle opening.
Driving it is as you’d expect. Steering is completely without feel and you pilot it by trust, not any sense of what is happening under the wheels. It is very heavy though, which feels odd. The amount of effort to get it to change direction is at odds with how light all the other controls are.
The Toerag is large and numb through and through, but rolls a fair bit which is quite disconcerting. It does grip and go, no issue there. Firing it down one of my local stretches (left turn followed by a long lefthander that turns to a shallow righthander before turning into a shallow left again and finishing at a roundabout), I found myself braking for the roundabout much sooner than expected, but apart from the fun of the rumble and the push in the back, the rest is joyless. It is very much an efficient way of driving, not a fun one. The way the car (doesn’t) communicate does not inspire confidence when pushing on and the gearbox, smooth changes aside, seems often to find itself in the wrong gear and jumping up and down. But that could well be down to a learning algorithm that is baffled by being abused by hundreds of hire car drivers.
Finally, it is mahooosive and feels it. There is no “shrinking around you” sensation as car journos often describe the best cars do. It is a beast, but not very large inside and likes a drink. Without pushing on a lot (mostly cruising on the M25) it still only did 30ish mpg.
This is not only the biggest upgrade (previous best was a Volvo S40), but also my first experience with a premium SUV and the most powerful car I’ve driven on UK roads, and the second most powerful one ever.
With 20k on the clock it was still a very nice place to be and nothing was broken, rattled or worn out (based on experience I would suggest that one hire car mile is equal to seven normal miles).
It immediately feels like a plush thing, with the heated leather seats and steering wheel and very efficient heating keeping me toasty and warm in the rather nippy temperatures this morning. The opening glass roof helped making it feel light and airy and at low speeds it was quiet and comfortable.
I am immensely impressed with the DSG gearbox, shifts really are seamless and only the rev counter needle dropping gives a shift away. The engine has a pleasant large capacity rumble when pressing on and with some judicious use of the paddles it can be made to shift smartly, although it isn’t properly quick. It does pile on the speed unobtrusively and at a decent rate of knots though, so caution is needed.
It has an interesting feature. When the car is stopped it holds it still without needing to have a foot on the brakes, as soon as you press the accelerator it releases and starts creeping forward. If the stop/start has activated, it also (duh!) starts the engine. I like the idea, but the execution is a bit lacking. On a number of occasions, it makes for quite jerky getaway with the car surging forward on a very small throttle opening.
Driving it is as you’d expect. Steering is completely without feel and you pilot it by trust, not any sense of what is happening under the wheels. It is very heavy though, which feels odd. The amount of effort to get it to change direction is at odds with how light all the other controls are.
The Toerag is large and numb through and through, but rolls a fair bit which is quite disconcerting. It does grip and go, no issue there. Firing it down one of my local stretches (left turn followed by a long lefthander that turns to a shallow righthander before turning into a shallow left again and finishing at a roundabout), I found myself braking for the roundabout much sooner than expected, but apart from the fun of the rumble and the push in the back, the rest is joyless. It is very much an efficient way of driving, not a fun one. The way the car (doesn’t) communicate does not inspire confidence when pushing on and the gearbox, smooth changes aside, seems often to find itself in the wrong gear and jumping up and down. But that could well be down to a learning algorithm that is baffled by being abused by hundreds of hire car drivers.
Finally, it is mahooosive and feels it. There is no “shrinking around you” sensation as car journos often describe the best cars do. It is a beast, but not very large inside and likes a drink. Without pushing on a lot (mostly cruising on the M25) it still only did 30ish mpg.
