Test Car Specifications
Model tested: Volkswagen Sharan 2.0 TDI 150 DSG SEL
Price: £34,840 as tested; starts at £26,300
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel
Transmission: front-wheel drive, six-speed DSG automatic
Body style: seven-seat MPV
CO2 emissions: 137g/km (Band E, £130 per year)
Combined economy: 54.3mpg
Top speed: 123mph
0-62mph: 10.3 seconds
Power: 150hp at 3,500rpm
Torque 340Nm at 1,750-3,000rpm
What's this?
Defeat, or at least an admission that you value usefulness and ease over style and vanity. The Volkswagen Sharan is a wheeled box, a very nice one admittedly, but a useful, practical box that's absolutely perfect for hauling you, your other half and as many as five of your offspring/relations/friends around in. The Sharan has been with us for around 20 years now, and the current one has just been revised. Not that you'd really notice, as the visual revisions are very limited, to new taillights and the like, while the interior gets some new connectivity and the engines greater economy and improved emissions.
What remains the same is its beautiful build quality inside, its usefulness, and, key among its full-sized rivals (notwithstanding its SEAT Alhambra all-but-the-same-vehicle-except-badges-and-bits cousin) sliding rear doors. And anyone, absolutely anyone who's ever tried loading toddlers, pets and all the associated paraphernalia will tell you that sliding doors are the stuff of knackered parents' dreams. Honestly.
How does it drive?
Nobody who buys one really cares, but it's nice that Volkswagen has gone to the trouble of making the Sharan a decent, if forgettable, drive. That's exactly what you want in this class though, when you've the distraction of screaming/fighting/toilet-needing kids, nursery rhymes on your iPod playlist and raisins in every nook and cranny then you don't want the steering to be sniffer-dog alert, the ride to be sporty or the engine to rev hard. You'll appreciate steering that's light and accurate, a ride that's comfortable and an engine that delivers easy power and excellent economy.
That's the ubiquitous 2.0-litre TDI here, in 150hp guise so you can have the six-speed DSG automatic, as your left hand is now for picking up dropped toys, locating lollypops and dishing out tissues to your beloved behind rather than anything as unimportant as changing gear. The 1.4 TSI petrol engine is a smoother choice, but the ability of the diesel to avoid the fuel station even more makes it a necessity. The 2.0-litre TDI is, as it is in every other installation, reasonably hushed, plentiful in its torque and works well with that six-speed DSG automatic transmission.
Hilariously, Volkswagen offered the launch Sharans with variable damping, with the choice if Comfort, Normal or Sport settings. Given the most racy thing you'll do in it is be running a bit late for nursery or school, as opposed to a track day, spend your money on useful stuff, like rear-window blinds and integrated booster seats instead. The Sharan's about comfort, nothing else, and it's very good at it, though a 0-62mph time of 10.3 seconds is pretty respectable.
Sliding doors are the big sell, but so is the space, allowing the Sharan to swallow everything you could conceivably think of putting into it. Speaking of conceiving, there are three Isofix child seat mounts in the middle row, while the rearmost two seats, which fold into the boot floor, do without. If you've five young enough to need child seats, then good luck to you. The middle row slides, folds and tumbles out of the way, giving lots of options, and with the two rear chairs stowed under the floor the boot is massive.
If we've concentrated on families in this review then that's entirely deliberate; it's the Sharan's target audience after all - Volkswagen really should sell them outside Mothercare or Mamas and Papas. However, if you've the need to ferry around people, be it a taxi, hotel tender or suchlike then the Volkswagen Sharan's got it covered too; everything that makes it a great family machine makes it's pretty brilliant at everything else. Four trim levels offer plenty of choice, S, SE Navigation and fully-loaded SEL all sensibly specified, with touch-screen infotainment, Bluetooth connectivity and three-zone climate control on all. There's a more powerful 184hp version of the 2.0 TDI that you really don't need and a 115hp one too that's fine if you're not after the option of that DSG automatic.
Verdict
People without children won't understand, but give them six months with a baby and they'll see the Volkswagen Sharan in a new light. Never has a wheeled box been so appealing. Anything that makes your life easier when you've not slept properly for months becomes the stuff of dreams. If you can remember sleeping long enough to actually have a dream, that is.
Exterior Design
Interior Ambience
Passenger Space
Luggage Space
Safety
Comfort
Driving Dynamics
Powertrain
