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2015 Volkswagen Touareg [w/video]

The second-generation Volkswagen Touareg has been in production since 2010, and is therefore staring down the last part of its model cycle. To keep buyers interested, the company has undertaken a refresh of its upscale midsize SUV. As is typical of these things, the changes include some exterior and interior rejuvenation, as well as increased content levels and a slight uptick in price. The basics of the styling changes are pretty straightforward. The 2015 Touareg can be pretty easily spotted versus the outgoing model by way of its four-bar chrome grille, a cleaner headlight design, bigger VW badge and a completely new lower front clip. (I got one photo of the old and new models side-by-side for my Twitter followers before we rolled out on the drive.) There's also a thin strip of chrome that runs around the bodywork, standard LED taillights and a selection of three new wheel styles and five new paint colors. Inside, I found it harder to spot the changes, old to new. The Touareg's switchgear has been updated and there's a new frame for the infotainment display, but there's no piece that stands out and says "new model year!" Powertrains and mechanical bits all carryover from the 2014 Touareg, too. But there were a few functional changes to the vehicle, primarily in the new Driver's Assistance Package, for me to take note of as I took a lap of my favorite Ann Arbor, MI driving route. Drive Notes Let me start with the newest news then, the Driver Assistance pack. Volkswagen will sell you this suite of safety gear on either the mid-level Lux or the top-end Executive trims, for $2,500. The package included adaptive cruse cruise control, "Front Assist" for emergency braking situations, lane-keep assist and blind spot monitoring. If the contents of that package don't strike you as revolutionary, you're not alone. Some or all of the technologies that are new to the Touareg have been around other showrooms – and other VW family products – for quite a while. Still, they're nice to have as options. All of the driver assistance features that I was able to test worked as advertised, too. The adaptive cruise uses cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors, so it isn't likely to be impacted by inclement weather, which is nice. I also appreciate that the lane-keep assist (which offers the driver a haptic buzz to the steering wheel when straying out of the lane) can be turned off, or turned down in terms of intensity and reaction time.

EPA message to automakers: You're on notice

With top administrator Gina McCarthy speaking about the "moral obligation for climate action" on Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would ramp up its oversight of the auto industry in the wake of Volkswagen's emissions cheating. In a letter sent to manufacturers Friday, the agency said it would begin examining cars to see whether they contained defeat devices "in addition to the standard emissions test cycles." "We are putting vehicle manufacturers on notice." Exactly how the agency plans to test for these devices – which are not devices per se, but algorithms contained in millions of lines of software code that govern vehicle functions – remains unclear. Christopher Grundler, the director of the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, divulged few details in how the agency would uncover so-called defeat devices used by cheaters. "Not today – or actually ever – I'm not going to be describing what new ways we'll be using to detect these defeat devices." Later, he said engineers will have to "come up with some clever ways to do this." The only insight he offered was that the EPA, California Air Resources Board, and Environment Canada would partner on testing more cars for emissions and anomalies. Grundler also said the EPA would diversify its testing fleet. In addition to relying on vehicles provided by manufacturers, the federal agency will now also borrow cars from "private citizens" and utilize rental cars for tests. "We are putting vehicle manufacturers on notice," he said. Joint investigations between EPA and CARB have "been very successful in protecting human health and the environment," said Janet McCabe, the agency's acting administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation. "But we also know, and the Volkswagen violations before us now make it clear, we need to adapt and step up our oversight." That may include an increase in on-road testing in addition to the five emissions tests now more relied upon. The EPA owns and maintains 23 portable emissions-monitoring systems like the one used by West Virginia University researchers who first detected elevated levels of nitrogen oxide emissions from two Volkswagen diesel vehicles. Right now, they're almost exclusively deployed to monitor emission from heavy-duty vehicles, whose NOx emissions "dwarf" the amount produced by light-duty vehicles, which produce less than 2 percent of the total, according to the agency's figures.

Volkswagen preparing Tiguan Coupe R

Volkswagen has might proliferation plans for the SUV side of the VW brand, Autocar listing a range that will comprise seven models and variants on sale by 2018. The next-generation Tiguan will play a large part in tripling VW's crossover lineup, a development discussed a year ago, with a standard model, the three-row long-wheelbase version to be built in Mexico, and a five-door "Coupe" variant that will get an R version worked up by the in-house R team. The Tiguan Coupe R is aimed at the performance end of the compact crossover field, giddyup coming from a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with something like 300 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque that works through a six-speed dual-clutch transmission. Underpinnings are expected to be cribbed from the Golf R; a hotter suspension tune with a lower ride height and four-mode damping. The sprint to 62 miles per hour would clock in around 5.1 seconds, and handling nous would be aided by all-wheel drive and electronic torque vectoring. It will need all of that in order to catch up to the competitive set listed by Autocar of the 375-hp Mercedes-AMG GLA45, 309-hp Audi RS Q3, and potential Range Rover Evoque SVR and BMW X2 M. The CrossBlue Coupe seen in Shanghai earlier this year will provide the styling cues, we're told, with rakish glass front and back, and thick C-pillars supporting a leaner greenhouse. We'll likely see the basic Tiguan at next month's Frankfurt Motor Show, then will come the long-wheelbase in 2016, the regular Coupe in 2017 along with the Touareg and US-built CrossBlue, then in 2018 the Tiguan Coupe R, CrossBlue Coupe, and Nissan Juke-fighting T-Roc. Related Video: