Without a doubt the VW is a much better car, the VW group have many more resources to develop a car than Volvo. To your points against the VW, you have to remember that the Touareg's big brother, the Q7 is the 7 seat option, and I agree with you the trim elbow down is not as quality as the Volvo, but again they need to differentiate against the Q7, why else are you going to spend an extra £10K on average for the Audi when essentially its the same car.
As you said the Touareg is around £200 p/m cheaper, I would have had the Touareg had there not been a spike in prices while I was swapping, plus even the new Black edition Touareg is now cheaper on lease than the Volvo.
As for dealers, I think you old school Volvo owners are going to be in for a shock, there is obviously a drive from Volvo UK to bring in the large dealership groups like Stoneacre, who I got my car from, but wouldn't let them service a dinky toy, so it will be to Riverside for servicing, but how much longer can they hang on before Volvo UKs demands make it impossible for them to compete.
The Volvo is not a bad car, its just not polished enough for the price and the fact its nearly 6 years and still has a lot of quirks and niggles is unacceptable, the random things the software does, just shows the lack development and testing, and I'm sure its the Chinese influence (if you ever owned one of the Chinese market Android phones, you'll know what I mean) but I'm not sure they are going to cut with the prestige market and with companies like KIA/Hyundai snapping at their heels I think their market is shrinking, especially in the large SUV market.
I know you Volvo Fanboys are going to get defensive about this, but as someone who has no particular allegiance to any manufacture, and just gets the best value large SUV at lease renewal time, I don't think it will be a Volvo for me next time.
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