Agreed. No US Touareg V6 TDI is nothing but lost opportunity for VAG.

Spot on mate, I can’t understand the hybrid SUV idea. If anyone truly gave a **** about the environment they wouldn’t be buying a Touareg / Cayenne anyway.

Of course the killer is that the car will be scrapped once the environmentally horrific batteries die because they will be way too expensive to replace relative to the cost of the car. This problem is accentuated in small cars so the concept is screwed either way.

If the true environmental impact of the car is considered from its construction to its scrapping it turns out that you are doing much less damage to the environment if you continue driving your old high-polluting car, than if you buy a new one, of course this is not something that the manufacturers want to tell you…

Now, talking ’bout cars, in my unpretentious (and pessimistic) opinion I really think electric cars are the way of the future. I say pessimistic ’cause once there’s no longer internal combustion cars, I’ill certainly prefer to ride a bike. Maybe hire a chauffeur. Can you figure electric Ferraris and Porsches? Even Mustangs and Corvettes? Of course ‘Vettes and Ferraris aren’t the reality for most of the crowd, but they are for me. I hope there will be demand for as-we-see-today sport cars for some time yet. I wonder if people who are so enthusiasts with this electric revolution are car enthusiasts at all. It’s not a bad thing, but I think they are actually “technology enthusiasts”. I hope BMW succeeds with its hydrogen-combustion development program (although I think this battle is already lost, sadly).

Check your facts please. Nuclear reactors generate heat which drive steam turbines which connect to and turn the propellors. No electric motors in the power transmission system, at least not yet.

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Hybrids only yield one advantage long-term: the ability to recover braking energy which would otherwise be lost to heat from friction. It is also reasonable to assume that a hybrid requires a smaller engine because the electric motor/battery is providing some of the acceleration. In fact the engine in a hybrid can be as small as would be needed to push the vehicle down the highway at its rated top speed – nothing more. However, current hybrids are implemented using heavy and expensive NiMH batteries which are a disposal problem and suffer from a general lack of longevity (something Prius owners will become intimate with if they keep the vehicle long enough).

At the very least a move to LiPo batteries would be reasonable: higher power density, much lighter and not as difficult to dispose of. Maybe in the next generation of hybrids that will happen, at an even higher front-end premium to the consumer.

A diesel hooked up to an efficient transmission (DSG, anyone) is the real way to go, at least short term until Tesla Motors et. al. delivers the plug-in that people want with decent range at the price they can afford.

Well said, modern turbo deisels like the Fiat 1.9 are the way to go.

PS- Isn’t there a different site for ship dorks(XeroBlue/TheStig) to discuss ships?

I’d pay a small premium for the V6 TDI but wouldn’t consider the V10 engine because it’s very fragile and largely rendered obsolete by newer engines in VAG’s lineup. IMO, the V10 is probably on its way out. Too bad the V12 TDI from the Q7 doesn’t fit the current Touareg.

These cars need less weight, not more.

id still rather pay the extra 20-30 grand for a V10 diesel.