[Mharmon92]

Hello all! I've been searching through the past posts and don't really see what I'm looking for, so I'm hoping I can get some help from y'all.
I am looking at getting a Touareg and I'm honestly stuck between a 05 v8 (gas) with 118k miles. Or a 09 v6 TDI with 115k miles.
I want to go with the 09 because I honestly prefer TDI, but/ however, price and longevity of the vehicle is very important. I know issues happen especially with higher mile vehicles, and I do my own mechanic work so that does help a bit with cost. But in yalls experience, which has the better chance of NOT costing me a billion dollars soon.

I appreciate any advice, good or bad.

 

[TommiT]

Chances are the V8 needs a new timing belt, tensioner, water pump and thermostat.

These MUST be changed every 80,000 miles or 5 years, whichever comes first, and these limits on service life are often ignored.

If the belt breaks the engine is toast.

Read this thread to get up to speed before buying the younger Tdi:

Buying a Used Touareg - What to look for ????

There have been a number of requests from new members asking what to look for when buying a used Treg. I thought it may be useful to gather all the info into one post which could perhaps be pinned. I've prepared a draft below. I wonder if the regs could suggest any amendments or additions, I'm...

www.mytreg.com

 

[volkswagens-for-life]

They're both German cars. They're complex, highly technical, niche vehicles. They both have the capacity to have huge issues (tommi mentioned the big ones with the v8).

 

[BryanMac99]

Hello all! I've been searching through the past posts and don't really see what I'm looking for, so I'm hoping I can get some help from y'all.
I am looking at getting a Touareg and I'm honestly stuck between a 05 v8 (gas) with 118k miles. Or a 09 v6 TDI with 115k miles.
I want to go with the 09 because I honestly prefer TDI, but/ however, price and longevity of the vehicle is very important. I know issues happen especially with higher mile vehicles, and I do my own mechanic work so that does help a bit with cost. But in yalls experience, which has the better chance of NOT costing me a billion dollars soon.

I appreciate any advice, good or bad.

I'd go for the 2009, no doubt.
You can expect better reliability, better mileage, newer technology, and the "fixed" VW TDI warranty (which already bought me a new Ad-Blue pump on my 2010). Of course, this assumes the fix was applied to this Touareg, you'll need to confirm. The refresh in 2008 included 2000 new parts, and reliability in the later years was much better than the earlier years. Updated styling as well.
The 2005 V8 was the older model engine that they discontinued in the Touareg as of 2007, and it's a gas hog. The 3.0 TDI is a fantastic engine, light, flexible, powerful.

The 2009 will likely have less goodies, like power folding mirrors, underseat storage, etc