It's only three years since the VW Touran went on sale in Britain, and though it still compares favourably with the competition Volkswagen deemed it wise to facelift the car to keep it in line with its newer VW siblings. The facelifted Touran will be revealed to the public at the Paris Motor Show at the end of this month.

The most obvious modification is to the front-end, where the general headlight and grille shape used on the Eos has been adopted. The rear lights have also been slightly altered. With the addition of new colours and wheels the Touran should continue to find favour amongst small families; nearly 33,000 examples of the current car have already been sold in the UK.

Other changes are minor, with new fabrics and the use of stainless steel in the cabin for the first time. The options list now features an MP3-compatible stereo and ParkAssist. The latter is more than just a few proximity sensors, with VW claiming that the car parks itself: "Acoustic and visual displays guide the driver to the correct parking start position, then once reverse gear is selected the car parks itself in under 15 seconds. All the driver has to do in this time is accelerate and brake - the Touran does all the steering." Sounds intriguing!

Under the bonnet, customers can have one of two petrol units, including the new 1.4-litre TSI unit, or one of four TDI engines, ranging from 88bhp to 168bhp. Prices will be announced closer to the launch at the start of 2007.

Shane O' Donoghue - 13 Sep 2006