$300 sounds about right for a HID bulb replacement at the dealership... The bulb retails around $170 if I remember correctly, and I could see some dealers charging an hour of labor to replace it. Of course, you can buy the OSRAM bulb (w/o factory part number) for about $80-100, or you can buy a set of bulbs from DDMTuning like I did for $50 for the pair.

Again, for the oil changes, it depends on where you go. Roughly 9qts of oil ($6-8/qt) + $12-15 for the filter, plus labor. Add 0.5hr for labor (around here VW dealers are around $110-115/hr), and you are just shy of the $150 mark

Simply put, unless you are comfortable in your own mechanical abilities, you have to pay to play... And even if you are mechanically inclined, you still have parts prices to deal with

 

Anand's right.

The Touareg is a big, heavy, complex 4x4 that was expensive when new and remains just as expensive to fix when older, especially if you use main dealers. And when they are older they are more likely to be suffering from parts wearing out and / or breaking.

There aren't very many independent VW garages that know the Touareg well either. There just aren't enough Tregs sold for the very detailed technical knowledge these cars demand for Treg technicians to be commonplace.

You can mitigate some parts costs that are generic to other cars such as bulbs for example, and by reading forums like this for things like the drive [prop] shaft, but most parts are specific to the car and can be expensive.

IMHO you should not expect to run a Treg on a shoe string budget unless you really do have some mechanical aptitude.

 

Price of repairs is in line with what the vehicle costs to buy new...any $50-$70K vehicle will cost more to maintain and repair than your average $25K vehicle.

 

And since 25k vehicles sell orders of magnitude more, VAR parts are found everywhere.

As to

There aren't very many independent VW garages that know the Touareg well either

I would say there aren't many VW garages that know the Touareg.

siberian

 

and $150 to get oil changes.

Just got an oil change done at my local Virginian VW dealer and I paid $110. It came with a detailed 28-point inspection and free windshield wipers.

They keep sending me coupons and specials. Yesterday I got a 20% discount coupon on any OEM parts.

 

Plus... your oil change intervals are 10k miles... so it winds up coming out to be about the same amount of money from the old 3k intervals.

 

Costs

Thanks for the imputs, yes it costs more to drive a high end vehicle and as the old saying goes "If you want to run with the big dogs you need to learn to lift your leg a little higher".
I guess I am still on board, cannot find anything that will tow my 4500lb boat comfortably and when not towing still get 28MPG on the highway.
Still seems to be a good choice, Touareg TDI.

 

I use my dealer. The key is finding a good service department. My dealer charges less than the other dealers near me and has good techs.

But, yeah, if you're not inclined to do normal maintenance yourself (that's me) expect to spend some money.

My wife drives a Honda Pilot. No issues after 7 years and it's been a reliable, safe vehicle...but it's boring. Everything about the Honda, including service, is less than the Treg...but the Pilot boring.

My only advice about VWs is to be sure you get a good one (my B6 Passat Sport was a complete dog). Stay away from first-year models. If you get a good one, treat her well and you will get it back.

 

"If you want to run with the big dogs you need to learn to lift your leg a little higher".

Well I beg to differ on that. A more appropriate saying would be "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch".

Hard to run on 3 legs as one doesn't stop for pees, if one did that and you have a dozen dogs on your team, you'd be stopping at every bush or moose nugget None of my male dogs lift their legs to pee nor raise the seat

siberian

 

I pay about 90 for my oil change every 6 months, not that bad. And I get a boat load
of coupons in the mail for other discounts from the dealer as well. My break lite came on and they want to do the brakes for 1500, so I have to figure what to do with that.

 

I pay about 90 for my oil change every 6 months, not that bad. And I get a boat load
of coupons in the mail for other discounts from the dealer as well. My break lite came on and they want to do the brakes for 1500, so I have to figure what to do with that.

Don't go to a dealer for brakes!

There's loads of folk who can do them far, far cheaper. Brakes are one of the few things on a Treg that's not rocket science!

 

Unfortunately there are many people buying used touaregs on a shoestring budget. Thet are about to find out they have to take on a second job just to pay for maintenance