Here we have a very pretty Volkswagen Individual Touareg W12, seen on a second-hand car market in the great city of Chengdu in China in 2016. The massively impressive SUV was on sale for a steep 520.500 yuan. Good deal! When new in 2006, price was a far steeper 1.58 million yuan. Not many were sold in China, so seeing one in the wild is very special.
The first generation Volkswagen Touareg was made from 2002 until 2010 with a facelift in 2006, the car we have here today is a post-facelifted example. The 6.0 liter W12 engine had an output of 450 hp and 600 Nm. At the time, it was one of the most powerful SUVs in the world. Unlimited top speed was 272 kilometers per hour and 0-100 was gone in just 5.9 seconds.
The Volkswagen Individual badge. ‘Individual’ basically meant the customer could get his W12 with whatever he wanted, as long as he transferred enough money to Wolfsburg!
And here we can clearly see what the Individual program could do. The seats are of a non-standard wine-red leather, finished with dark white edges. The color comes back on the door panels. The steering wheel and wood inlay in front of the passenger are in a dark-black kind of wood.
The alloys are standard but the shiny exhaust pipes are not. The 2nd and 3rd row windows are tastefully darkened for cool-ness and privacy. Light visors are a shade darken than standard, going perfectly well with the darkened windows.
The W12 badge on the back. Will Volkswagen ever make a W12-powered SUV again? Probably not. The times are against it. But let us never forget; at the time this car came out, it was at the pinnacle of automotive engineering.
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