For offroad in the US, the first gen 7L's are the best as they came with high and low range with locking centre and rear diffs. Optional air suspension was also available. In this case, the first gen was made globally from 2002-2010, with the facelift coming out in 2007 if I'm not wrong. Buy the newest, lowest mileage and best maintained example you can buy.

 

Hey dude! Thanks for responding. I'm gonna be a little more specific and say that I plan on buying a cheap high mileage one. I can get a 13 or newer for approx 10k usd. This won't be my first or even second car. I already have a pretty nice tow vehicle. I just want a diesel I can lift, delete, tune and beat the crap out of. I'll probably drive it on the beach and maybe tow my dirt bikes to places that would scratch the paint on my truck.

I guess my question is, is it better to get a gen one with the off road goodies, or a gen two that's newer and more powerful? We have no smog checks and I don't care about creature comforts if that makes a difference.

 

If you're on a budget the gasoline V6 models will be cheapest to maintain... the diesel models are really nice to drive but require a much larger budget for repairs and maintenance.

These are very complex vehicles that have expensive parts, and require quite a lot of maintenance, especially if used in remote places. People buying them as 'beaters' usually don't keep them longer than a few months, from what I've seen on here. They're essentially an offroad supercar, and even the low end models are substantially similar to the turbo V8, V10, and V12 models.

If you want to do serious offroading with it the 2010 and earlier models are substantially more suitable with a low range, locking center diff, and optional locking rear diff and air suspension. However the 2011+ T3 is still a very capable offroad vehicle.

Overall, all of these vehicles are quite old at this point, so how well it was maintained matters a lot more than the age. All of the USA Touareg models are quite powerful, much more than you will need offroad.

 

Thanks for the reply my man. I appreciate the budget consideration. I specifically want a diesel though. This will be pretty far down the line if I have to rely on it for transportation. It's strictly about fun. I'm not going to do any real wheeling because that's not my thing. I'm guessing I'll enjoy the added hp's more than the lockers.

 

There’s a lifted and deleted 7P for sale on here right now for something like $10K? Has a new engine in it, was replaced under warranty. I think 150ish on the body maybe a bit more.

 

The 7P loses all the off road bits. It’s basically just a lifted Audi

Be very careful disseminating heresy, or the hardcore 7P circle-jerk off-roaders will crucify you.

 

Bu-but mine has air suspension so it is a proper off roader🤓😂

 

Me personally, for a "dedicated" off-roader in the USA, give me a 1st gen with the proper lockers and the V8 fsi motor. 3 inch lift, 33's, the proper skid plates, that'll be good.

If you want to be a masochist, get the same but with the V10.


Given what you said, I believe there's two years (2009/10) that in theory you can get the 3.0tdi in the old body and with the lockers and hi/lo

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/10d06b39-49ac-4502-8e69-0669a6835429/

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/8aa7d729-e609-4743-a96b-d521fe243ddc/

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/4cbfa9c4-5c33-495f-9234-99dbd8d5244a/

Note, none of those appear to have both center and rear, just the center lockers.


The picture I attached shows the center and rear locker, and what you'd search for.

 

Me personally, for a "dedicated" off-roader in the USA, give me a 1st gen with the proper lockers and the V8 fsi motor. 3 inch lift, 33's, the proper skid plates, that'll be good.

If you want to be a masochist, get the same but with the V10.


Given what you said, I believe there's two years (2009/10) that in theory you can get the 3.0tdi in the old body and with the lockers and hi/lo

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/10d06b39-49ac-4502-8e69-0669a6835429/

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/8aa7d729-e609-4743-a96b-d521fe243ddc/

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/4cbfa9c4-5c33-495f-9234-99dbd8d5244a/

Note, none of those appear to have center and rear, just the rear lockers.


The picture I attached shows the center and rear locker, and what you'd search for. View attachment 269370

all 7Ls have center locker. Rear locker is less common.

 

Thanks for all the info guys. I've been learning alot. What are the opinions on the 7l vs 7p transmission and engine? Is it really just a slightly bigger turbo? I'm not going to be rock crawling or driving through rivers. Just down muddy trails and on the beach. Will I really miss the center locker?

 

Haven't owned or even driven a 7L so cannot compare from personal experience but I have a 7P with the later-model CNRB motor (240HP, 406TQ compared to 09-12 TDIs making 225HP/406TQ) and mine has the 8-speed transmission.

The engines are basically the same. As Casio said, the CATA's chains are perhaps a bit better for longevity than the CNRB's. Perhaps. The CNRB has a common "clacking" sound from the chains on startup as the oil builds pressure. It's so common that I call it a feature, not a bug. The CNRB makes a bit more horsepower (slightly bigger turbo, slightly).

The 8-speed is whatever. It's fine in lower gears and when unlocked, but if you're on the highway and want to downshift it sucks at dropping multiple gears and the manual gear selection is terrible, have to wait a minimum of a second between gear shifts or it will just ignore the +/-, though most people just leave their SUVs in D lol.

The Aisin 8-speed is not comparable imo to something like the ZF box that is so ubiquitous and loved. But the Aisin box is meant for towing and the ZF is meant for passenger car performance.

My CNRB gets pretty great gas mileage though. Not saying a CATA doesn't, because again I have no personal experience, but my 5K lb permanent AWD Touareg costs roughly the same to fuel that my previous car, a 3.3K lb haldex AWD Alltrack did. My alltrack was tuned and I ran 93 octane, which costs more than diesel. And that car got 2 mpg lifetime better than my Touareg does. So for my fueling costs to remain constant despite upgrading to a powerful, heavy SUV that can tow 7K+ pounds, feels pretty good

 

The engine differences aren't really substantial... slightly more power on the later one, but the earlier (more complex) timing chain system actually may be slightly more reliable.

The 8 speed transmission is itself a substantial improvement, but the post-fix TDI 8 speeds apparently have really annoying shifting behavior, which can be fixed with a tune. I quite like the 6 speed and it's programming, it's a really nice driving transmission. The 6 speed could use a slightly higher top gear for high speed freeway driving, but it doesn't miss the lower 1st because of the xfer case.

You'll probably be fine without the low range and center locker, but I 100% always use both the low range and center locker on sand or mud. The lower gears and better traction make it feel more controllable, and reduce stress/thermal load on the engine and transmission a lot. But you'll find some list members on here have done difficult routes in T3s- including Otis with his TDI Cayenne having some ~150k offroad miles, and another list member that did the Mojave road in a T3, which includes covering a huge amount of distance on loose sand. The western part of the road is basically soft dune like sand in a dry river bed.

 

This is exactly the information I was looking for. Awesome. I tried to ask on reddit and all I got was "Buy a Tacoma" no thanks. Does anybody drag race these things? I used to have a LBZ Duramax that went 13.8s with surprisingly little effort. It would be cool to have another quick diesel.

 

Thanks for the reply my man. I appreciate the budget consideration. I specifically want a diesel though. This will be pretty far down the line if I have to rely on it for transportation. It's strictly about fun. I'm not going to do any real wheeling because that's not my thing. I'm guessing I'll enjoy the added hp's more than the lockers.

They have 200hp and weigh 5,000 lb. Keep your expectations very in check.

This is exactly the information I was looking for. Awesome. I tried to ask on reddit and all I got was "Buy a Tacoma" no thanks. Does anybody drag race these things? I used to have a LBZ Duramax that went 13.8s with surprisingly little effort. It would be cool to have another quick diesel.

If 16s and 17s is quick, then sure. Most deleted touareg run 15s. If you're lucky, a 14.9. My fastest ever 0-60 with a 1 foot run-out was 6.58 seconds. And that's across dozens of track runs. Ok maybe not dozens with an S, but at least a dozen. And that was with my full mod stack.

 

Lol very well. I guess if I can get a mid 15 that'll do.

 

The best "performance mod" on my Touareg was spending years driving normally aspirated 1980s diesels. Makes it feel like a rocket ship. Finally, a vehicle that is faster than a fully loaded semi truck up a grade!

If you want an actually fast Touareg, get a V8 Cayenne.... old Cayennes are also cheap as dirt nowadays. I haven't heard of much drag racing, but there is a lot of people in the PCA clubs track racing Cayennes, and some amateur rally racing.

 

Do you want an offroad touareg or a drag touareg... and if the latter, why? Buy one of those big bad american V8 diesels if you're just trying to be smoke blowing bro.

 

yeah this guy is confusing. Comes here for input, advice on which Touareg to buy for off-roading, rebukes the advice to buy a 7L, and now he wants to drag race instead of off-road?

 

Guys... it's not that serious. I don't want a rock crawler or a drag racer. I had one of those big smoke blowing trucks. It ran 13s. I didn't buy it to drag race. It was a tow vehicle that I ran down the strip. I have a full (american) size truck now. It also runs 13s. I have a liter bike that I do stuff with that's not putting a knee down on a race track. Me asking how fast it would be doesn't mean I want it only to race. We race all kinds of stuff. I've drag raced everything from my wife's mdx to dirt bikes to tow vehicles. I just wanted to know what to expect as far as acceleration. I really appreciate all the info. I think I know what I want. I'll post a picture when I find the one.

 

Good luck with your purchase. Pics!!! Everyone always forgets the pics lol.

 

I'm looking forward to this. You are going to be tire size limited on any SUV like a Touareg. Not sure what kind of off-roading you plan to do. Trail riding, mud, rock bouncer, or rock crawling (think big boulders) all typically have different setups; unless you are building a KOH rig that does it all (if that's the case though you aren't buying a Touareg). I'm not sure how much weight these CVs can take for tires, maybe you will find out and let us all know.

 

It may be a bit while I search around for the right POS to buy but I'll snap some pics for sure.

 

I've taken stock 80s diesel Volvos and Mercedes to the drag strip and auto-X and had a ton of fun. Honestly, I don't even see that having a faster car makes that any more fun, because the fun is in the challenge of pushing the limits of whatever you are driving. I've owned a motorcycle that could do a 10 second 1/4 mile, and had just as much fun drag racing a diesel sedan that could only do a 20 second 1/4 mile.