Touareg V6 Wafting Daily Towcar
Discussion
After selling my much loved W204 C63 Estate in August to mainly fund a driveway revamp, I needed something to replace it. Initially this was a £650 shed of a Mk5 Golf TDI, then an equally sheddy but slightly better E53 X5 but I wasn’t too happy with either to be honest.
No
I’m no stranger to VWs I think I’ve owned at least one of every model up to 2011 over the years save for a Touareg and Phaeton. Whilst lying in bed one night trying to arrange yet more repairs on the X5 I took it in my head I wouldn’t mind a Touareg. I’ve driven one once, I had no idea what they were like but after having the X5 I liked the space it offered, towing ability and general workhorse appeal of it. The hunt for a Touareg was on
I found this one first, less than 30 miles from home, it had the V6 TDI engine I wanted, it’s my preferred T2 variant, it had a towbar, wasn’t black, under 90k and advertised at £3500.
It was an old advert which I expected the car to be sold, much to my surprise after making contact that night I woke to a message from the seller letting me know he still had it. Excellent. Contact was made and a viewing arranged for the weekend.
As it happened I was passing the seller that evening with work so we rearranged the viewing and whilst waiting for him to meet me at our arranged meeting point I was getting cold feet. I had an X5 needing work I really should be selling before jumping feet first into another potentially ruinous money pit.
The seller arrived and seemed to be down to earth, he’d done the front suspension and fitted awful all terrain tyres, but those aside the car seemed straight enough and he still had the original winter grips at home.
Small issues were EML on, headlight bulb out, rusty rear arch and tailgate.
We agreed on a price of £2900 with the tyres swapped over, he kept the all terrain ones and I collect it on the Saturday.
Fast forward to the Saturday, i collected the car after a short train ride to the village he lived in. It was pretty grubby if I’m honest but I gave it a clean out on the Sunday.
The exterior colour is apparently quite rare Galapagos Grey, I’ve only seen one other since owning this. The interior has a very biscuit and chocolate ambience to it the steering wheel is very brown, however it’s a refreshing change from grey and light beige.
As mentioned previously the car isn’t without its problems, it’s a 14 year old VW after all. These are all relatively easily rectified thankfully.
EML turned out to be the usual swirl flap actuator arm, the bits came from TPS at £15 and 10mins to fit.
Headlamp bulb, that was easy, I ended up replacing both along with the side light bulbs whilst there and new rear number plate bulbs and lenses as these were LED and the car didn’t care much for them.
The tailgate is past repairing, rotten at the bottom, so I’ve procured a good replacement from EBay however due to the rarity of the colour I had to settle for black and a repaint at the same time as the rear arch.
Just recently I have picked up an R53 Mini JCW that I plan to bring back to life over winter to hopefully use for track days, this is a new venture for me and as such I’d prefer to trailer the car to events. The Touareg was never purchased with this in mind but now I have it, it fits the bill perfectly.
No
I’m no stranger to VWs I think I’ve owned at least one of every model up to 2011 over the years save for a Touareg and Phaeton. Whilst lying in bed one night trying to arrange yet more repairs on the X5 I took it in my head I wouldn’t mind a Touareg. I’ve driven one once, I had no idea what they were like but after having the X5 I liked the space it offered, towing ability and general workhorse appeal of it. The hunt for a Touareg was on
I found this one first, less than 30 miles from home, it had the V6 TDI engine I wanted, it’s my preferred T2 variant, it had a towbar, wasn’t black, under 90k and advertised at £3500.
It was an old advert which I expected the car to be sold, much to my surprise after making contact that night I woke to a message from the seller letting me know he still had it. Excellent. Contact was made and a viewing arranged for the weekend.
As it happened I was passing the seller that evening with work so we rearranged the viewing and whilst waiting for him to meet me at our arranged meeting point I was getting cold feet. I had an X5 needing work I really should be selling before jumping feet first into another potentially ruinous money pit.
The seller arrived and seemed to be down to earth, he’d done the front suspension and fitted awful all terrain tyres, but those aside the car seemed straight enough and he still had the original winter grips at home.
Small issues were EML on, headlight bulb out, rusty rear arch and tailgate.
We agreed on a price of £2900 with the tyres swapped over, he kept the all terrain ones and I collect it on the Saturday.
Fast forward to the Saturday, i collected the car after a short train ride to the village he lived in. It was pretty grubby if I’m honest but I gave it a clean out on the Sunday.
The exterior colour is apparently quite rare Galapagos Grey, I’ve only seen one other since owning this. The interior has a very biscuit and chocolate ambience to it the steering wheel is very brown, however it’s a refreshing change from grey and light beige.
As mentioned previously the car isn’t without its problems, it’s a 14 year old VW after all. These are all relatively easily rectified thankfully.
EML turned out to be the usual swirl flap actuator arm, the bits came from TPS at £15 and 10mins to fit.
Headlamp bulb, that was easy, I ended up replacing both along with the side light bulbs whilst there and new rear number plate bulbs and lenses as these were LED and the car didn’t care much for them.
The tailgate is past repairing, rotten at the bottom, so I’ve procured a good replacement from EBay however due to the rarity of the colour I had to settle for black and a repaint at the same time as the rear arch.
Just recently I have picked up an R53 Mini JCW that I plan to bring back to life over winter to hopefully use for track days, this is a new venture for me and as such I’d prefer to trailer the car to events. The Touareg was never purchased with this in mind but now I have it, it fits the bill perfectly.
Carlososos said:
Really nice barge! Always liked the toerags. If that was a recent purchase under 3k is outstanding. I bet once clean and no rust 6k all day at the moment.
I bought it around 6 weeks ago, and I know myself I’ve done well price wise. Hopefully I can run it for a while “free”
Cambs_Stuart said:
Nice barge. As i remember, the interior was a nice place to be.
Not sure what happened to VW's ability to rust proof cars. On my 2009 VW CC i was always chasing patches of rust.
Thank you. It certainly is a nice place to sit, very very comfortable.Not sure what happened to VW's ability to rust proof cars. On my 2009 VW CC i was always chasing patches of rust.
I know what you mean, my Mk6 GTI, wife’s R32 and this all suffer from corrosion issues.
AJB88 said:
Nice I looked at the V10 and V8 versions of these for a while.
As cool as they are, I don’t have the brave pills/enthusiasm required for either of those. Most jobs on them are a complete ball ache and in my experience when I was a tech at VW 10 years ago usually very costly Roughly 1500 miles in and I’m absolutely loving this thing, we did 350 miles in it on Sunday and it just wafts with absolute comfort, the heated seats in this weather are awesome.
I still can’t believe this cost me less that £3k.
I have replaced the ARB bushes up front, that was a doddle, cheap, and eliminated the slight clunk when going over bumps.
I retrofitted a 9W7 Bluetooth kit I had lying in stock for my Golf GTI and much to my surprise it worked, well sort of.
It doesn’t talk to the steering wheel or dash display and the old MFD2 headunit doesn’t offer control of the phone. To make or receive calls the handset had to be used. No good.
The older 9W2 Bluetooth unit that is meant for the car works with the MFD2, dash and steering wheel but not with my phone. Hmmmmm
I had a few options but the old MFD2 had to go regardless and as I like keeping headunits OEM, my only option was an RNS510, this would offer me control of the phone from the stereo. I found one on a Touareg page at a good price and duly snapped it up.
I got it all fitted on Monday, and it works a treat. I Still can’t get the steering wheel or dash to connect to the Bluetooth unit I have, my only option to get this to function is replace it with a compatible 9wZ one at around £200. For the moment I can work with what I have.
I still can’t believe this cost me less that £3k.
I have replaced the ARB bushes up front, that was a doddle, cheap, and eliminated the slight clunk when going over bumps.
I retrofitted a 9W7 Bluetooth kit I had lying in stock for my Golf GTI and much to my surprise it worked, well sort of.
It doesn’t talk to the steering wheel or dash display and the old MFD2 headunit doesn’t offer control of the phone. To make or receive calls the handset had to be used. No good.
The older 9W2 Bluetooth unit that is meant for the car works with the MFD2, dash and steering wheel but not with my phone. Hmmmmm
I had a few options but the old MFD2 had to go regardless and as I like keeping headunits OEM, my only option was an RNS510, this would offer me control of the phone from the stereo. I found one on a Touareg page at a good price and duly snapped it up.
I got it all fitted on Monday, and it works a treat. I Still can’t get the steering wheel or dash to connect to the Bluetooth unit I have, my only option to get this to function is replace it with a compatible 9wZ one at around £200. For the moment I can work with what I have.
We had one for several years - a V6 TDi. Great tow car and great for moving dogs about, and comfortable with the air suspension, but I find my X3 a far better “drive”.
We had a fuel injector decide to depart the engine on two separate occasions, a known weakness of this engine apparently. The car just lost power and coasted to a halt with a strong smell of diesel.
We had a fuel injector decide to depart the engine on two separate occasions, a known weakness of this engine apparently. The car just lost power and coasted to a halt with a strong smell of diesel.
Looks like a lot of car for the cash.
A family member had a silver (he wasn’t very imaginative with colours having had about a million VW’s from new all in bloody silver) one of these for donkeys and I think it was generally a reliable old thing.
VW’s ability to rust proof modern cars is pretty poor really.
A family member had a silver (he wasn’t very imaginative with colours having had about a million VW’s from new all in bloody silver) one of these for donkeys and I think it was generally a reliable old thing.
VW’s ability to rust proof modern cars is pretty poor really.
andy97 said:
We had one for several years - a V6 TDi. Great tow car and great for moving dogs about, and comfortable with the air suspension, but I find my X3 a far better “drive”.
We had a fuel injector decide to depart the engine on two separate occasions, a known weakness of this engine apparently. The car just lost power and coasted to a halt with a strong smell of diesel.
It’s absolutely brilliant for towing, I’m very impressed with it thus far. We had a fuel injector decide to depart the engine on two separate occasions, a known weakness of this engine apparently. The car just lost power and coasted to a halt with a strong smell of diesel.
No air suspension on this one, which, seeing as it’s a cheap daily I’m thankful for. As nice as it is, the simplicity of a coil spring and damper, with no level sensors is less to go wrong.
Court_S said:
Looks like a lot of car for the cash.
A family member had a silver (he wasn’t very imaginative with colours having had about a million VW’s from new all in bloody silver) one of these for donkeys and I think it was generally a reliable old thing.
VW’s ability to rust proof modern cars is pretty poor really.
It certainly is, I’m still shocked that I got it for so little. A family member had a silver (he wasn’t very imaginative with colours having had about a million VW’s from new all in bloody silver) one of these for donkeys and I think it was generally a reliable old thing.
VW’s ability to rust proof modern cars is pretty poor really.
I’m hoping this proves to be a reliable car too, initial impressions are certainly positive.
It’s just the rear arch and tailgate which appears to be a common issue on them unfortunately.
Whilst looking at others for sale the other day, it seems my initial thoughts of mine being a standard SE model with no options isn’t quite right, the electric seats, rear privacy and my favourite rear sun blinds all appear to be options. The latter quite rare it appears
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