 Volkswagen Touareg 4WD |
The Australian love affair with the 4WD is evident everywhere from Cocklebiddy to Coles Car Park. Great roaring, bull-bar reinforced, spotlight emblazoned urban assault vehicles ferry cherubic pre-schoolers and burly scaffolders alike. Most look like they’ve never seen more danger than the odd pigeon poop, so can these all-terrain behemoths really hack the rough stuff? We found out.
Our objective was to take a showroom-standard 4WD vehicle all the way to the tip of Cape York and back with a minimum of preparation and damage, whilst still enjoying a true off-road experience. Our candidate machine: a brand new Volkswagen Touareg 4WD 3.2 V6. Its big brother, the V8 version, had just won the prestigious 2003 4WD Of The Year Award, so we knew we weren't dealing with some fragile pretender.
Cape York Peninsula is a bush-driving destination of considerable repute and on the very short list of all aspiring off-roaders. The very "blokey" mix of hundreds of kilometres of dirt road, nights under the stars, true frontier country and the odd crocodile provided the ideal formula for our test of mechanised manhood.
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