[pnw_ski_reg]

Hi All, this is my first post to club touareg, and while I do not own one yet, I am seriously considering it.

A little bit about myself: I have been a VW owner for quite some time, everything from vanagons, to GTI's, to Jettas, I have not owned a Touareg though. I currently own a vanagon and if any of you know about these underpowered, finicky vehicles, I'm a bit over having to worry about breaking down on the side of the road due to bad grounds/head gaskets/etc. I'm interested in the a Touareg because it initially appears to fit my budget, has plenty of power to truck me up a mountain, the 4WD to do it in the winter, and the space to take the wife and the kids up too. I am a mechanical engineer who enjoys doing his own wrenching. I have gone over the things to look for when buying a Touareg as well, they don't seem THAT bad.

So, onto my questions. In general:

In my research I have noticed that most people say to stay away from the 2004 model, V6, v8 & TDI, and go for the 2006 ones since they seem to have bugs ironed out. Is the 2005 model year sort of half ironed out? Also do the 2004 ones, once they've hit a certain mileage have their quirks ironed out as well, or are they constantly having new issues?

Is there any real reason to go with a V6 gasoline? It appears to have only slightly better gas mileage and significantly less power than the V8 (V10 TDI is out of the equation for me unfortunately). Does it tend to have better reliability? etc.

Should I stay away from the air suspension? Any other options to stay away from?

Relative to other VW's of the same age, do these vehicle seem to have more, same, or less issues? I'm no stranger to VW's sensor problems, how many of the ones that commonly go out would I be able to do myself with the service manual (Bentley manual is the best I'm assuming?)

I keep seeing brakes costing $1000+ to change, are these OEM brakes (pads, rotors, calipers) being done at the dealer? how much if I do it myself? at somewhere like Midas?

Sorry if my thoughts seem jumbled at the moment, I'm out in the woods drinking beer. Thanks for any responses though!

Erik

 

[Marbles]

Make sure you research and get a history of what ones you are looking at. Repairs can get expensive fast without an extended warranty.
Read nooby' buying a used Touareg threads, really good information.

Brakes don't cost that much about $500 for rotos, pads, sensor and hardware if you shop around for the parts and a half day to a whole day dependent on work speed and access to a lift vs gravel driveway jacks and two young assistants that keep moving your tools and wanting to play or the 4 legged ones that figure out they can get in you face since you hands are busy.

As to the v6 vs v8 I don't know never looked into either went with v6tdi and love them even with there problems.

Maintance costs are higher that your previous VW's do some research on that too. But if you have had experience with costs on full size SUV and pickups the prices are not that bad.

The suspension all depends on what you want it to do. The air helps out greatly towing and when fully loaded for vacation.

The costly thing are tires and that depends heavily on the wheel size.

 

[FSJ Guy]

The "T1" series has some known issues. My biggest turn off was the peeling paint on the buttons. You can get stickers (yes, STICKERS!) to place on top of the switches, but otherwise would have to replace ALL the $witche$.

The 2007-2010s (aka T2 or facelift models) have the direct injection (FSI) motors. More power but supposedly have carbon build up issues. Since I have a V8 FSI motor, I would not want to "step down" to a VR6 FSI. It's a fine motor. I have a non-FSI VR6 in my Eos and love it. But for a larger vehicle, there's noting like the grunt of the V8. I, too, did not have the $$ for the TDI, and nor did I want the extra expense of maintaining one.

Again, since having an air suspension vehicle, I like it. It can be $$$ as heck if something goes wrong, but that does appear to be rare. Mine blew out an air line less than a month after I bought it (used). Paid more than I should have for a repair, but now I know. No big deal. It is nice to drop the vehicle to "load level" for easy in and out as well as (wait for it....) loading things. And at the full Extra-Height setting, the ride is bouncy, but it will get you over the obstacle.

If you're patient, you can find one with the features you want. Mine has virtually everything offered in 08, short of ACC, which I think was extremely rare, even less common than the rear locking differential.

I can't think of a feature to avoid. <shrug> Who doesn't want window shades in the rear doors? LOL!

 

[pnw_ski_reg]

Thanks for the responses! I actually have read the 'buying a used touareg' thread, I was just curious about a few things that didn't seem explained as fully as I would have liked

My 'maintenance' costs on some of my previous VW's included major repairs such as new engines, super awesome I know , but, I am fully willing to pay for parts and do the work myself, which as I've found on VW's really cuts down cost of ownership, even though with it being an SUV with a large engine (extra fluids, much more expensive tires, brakes, etc.). Luckily for me I have a co-worker who is an ex-VW mechanic and is willing to help me out for a case of Rainier if I need it.

I was really wondering about the air suspension because one of the other cars I was looking into getting, an Audi Allroad, has it and it apparently has some issues.

I really just don't want to sell off my relatively reliable vanagon, get a lemon, and then have my wife murder me

 

[noobytoogy]

I really just don't want to sell off my relatively reliable vanagon, get a lemon, and then have my wife murder me

You have written your will . . . haven't you?>

And THIS is my 16,000th post. :surprise:

Time to go get a life myself, methinks!:grin2:

 

[GazzaK]

THIS is my 16,000th post. :surprise:

I reckon there's a bit of life in you yet.... Next target will have to be 20,000!

 

[FSJ Guy]

You can get a lemon in any car. Try and buy as new as you can afford or want. Remember, some of the features in the earlier models were dropped in later models, esp. in the NAR region.

I think the fear of air suspension failures is overblown. Obviously, you only hear of the failures. Never of the hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles. And now you get get aftermarket parts so you don't have to go to the stealership to replace your airbags. :- )

I personally like mine. And that was one of the reasons I bought a Touareg.

 

[pnw_ski_reg]

Thanks FSJ Guy, I did mainly wonder about the air suspension since I have no real experience with them and only really hear the bad things, although, the extra lift and lowering would be really nice .

I know you can get a lemon of any car, but, VW seems to have more than other car companies as far as used ones go, although I tend to blame this on them being more fun to drive than your average honda. I had a '97 Jetta a while ago and it was constantly needing repairs, it's big one was a cracked throttle body which I think took much longer to correctly diagnose than it should have. I just worry that I'll get one, the person I buy it from won't be honest, it'll be constantly breaking down and will force me to get rid of it. But, it seems to fit my requirements perfectly for my next vehicle, safe, modern, powerful, 4WD, german, etc.

As long as I can get some sort of reassurance that while it is more expensive being a large SUV, it doesn't break down any more or less than an equivalent vehicle of the same age I'm happy and my mind is made up

 

[FSJ Guy]

After repairing my air suspension, I have had no problems with mine. There's an oil leak on the engine, but I think it's the O-ring for the filter housing, the one that requires intake manifold removal.

Although you lose the electric powered tilt column on the T2s (except the TDI) in NAR, I'd recommend a T2 or later. Seems like more of the problems have been either fixed or just haven't shown up, yet.

When I was shopping, most of the first gen versions were more beat up. These were all at independent lots, not VW dealers.