THE Touareg has always been a competent and comfortable prestige SUV. It has not lived up to sales expectations, but the poor showroom showing cannot be blamed on the car itself. Rather, most Australians were not ready in 2003 to pay the type of money that could almost get them a Mercedes or BMW for something with the Volkswagen badge on the nose. The company trimmed back the prices to make the big Vee-Dub a more realistic competitor and replaced the slow selling V8 petrol model late last year. Now it has updated the Touareg with fresh styling, increased safety, new options and redesigned seats.