VW Touareg - Altitude
Discussion
Sadly, my wifes Tiguan, the family car was written off a few months back by a careless driver that drifted onto her side of the road. It was one of the most reliable cars we've owned and quite rare, being a Mk 1 R Line in 2.0 TSI petrol guise. It was remapped too at 250bhp and 313 lb ft and we put 48k miles on it over 4.5 years. The only negative was we struggled to fit everything in on longer European trips on holiday, with 7yo and 3yo children.
So I started to look at X5s and Touaregs around the 2010-2013 age £10k mark. Whilst the X5 is a better steer, better interior and have slightly more punchy engines, they are a lot of things that could and do go wrong. So I focused my search on Touareg's.
Whilst i would of loved a 4.2 TDI V8 they are quite rare and sadly out of budget, so that left the 3.0tdi's. I didn't want an SE, so the next level up was 'Altitude' - VW changed this designated model to R-line from 2014 onwards.
Its a 2011 car, with 98k on the clock, 4 owners, previous owner had it for 6 years. Crucially its had oil changes every 12 months regardless of mileage, rather than long-life. Its on 19 inch alloys and standard springs, no air. The comfort level is unbelievable, it rides really really well, no knocks, creaks or rattles. The steering is nicely weighted, more on the heavy side but I quite like that. The seats are comfortable, its quiet with good sound insulation. It has nice touches like heated steering wheel, auto dim mirrors, front rear and side cameras, dynamic bi-xenon head-lights and cornering fogs, parking sensors front and rear, auto tailgate etc.
Whilst it is heavy, its 240 bhp and 406 lb ft of torque helps hide this to a degree, even with 5 people in. The mid range grunt is there where you need it and the 8 spd Aisin tip-tronic whilst a bit lazy compared to the 7sp DSG, does its job well and is in its element at motorway cruising speeds. I'm seeing the 'cough' VW manufactures claim of 38 mpg too. With an 85L tank the first fill up was expensive, but could be worse, the 4.2tdi has 100L. In theory this should give a range of about 700 miles if you drive like a nun.
I managed to negotiate a bit off the asking price on the basis the brakes were showing 70% worn at the last service in January - circa 2k miles ago. Also advised was the V belt was showing early signs of cracking. 4 new Nexen tyres were fitted in January by previous owner, whilst not my normal choice of tyre they seem to suit the car well and lets face it no need to fit performance tyres on a heavy SUV.
Apparently these tow really well, up to 3.5tonnes, not that i will be doing that, indeed there is no tow bar fitted, so potentially the car has had an easier life.
I took it to my local VW Audi specialist yesterday to get some quotes for things that will need doing over the coming months:
- Front brake discs and pads - done
To do:
- Rear brake discs and pads
- V belt
- front cornering fog lights - 1 is bright white, the other halogen, told the brighter 1 is potentially illegal so will need to look into that
- fuel tank support cover brackets are pretty crusty - needs new
- Service/MOT in January - oil, oil filter, air filter, pollen, fuel filter
- Very slight weep from rocker cover gaskets
- New front number plate to stick on rather than screwed (previous owner had personal plate).
Anyway enough waffle, some pics:
So I started to look at X5s and Touaregs around the 2010-2013 age £10k mark. Whilst the X5 is a better steer, better interior and have slightly more punchy engines, they are a lot of things that could and do go wrong. So I focused my search on Touareg's.
Whilst i would of loved a 4.2 TDI V8 they are quite rare and sadly out of budget, so that left the 3.0tdi's. I didn't want an SE, so the next level up was 'Altitude' - VW changed this designated model to R-line from 2014 onwards.
Its a 2011 car, with 98k on the clock, 4 owners, previous owner had it for 6 years. Crucially its had oil changes every 12 months regardless of mileage, rather than long-life. Its on 19 inch alloys and standard springs, no air. The comfort level is unbelievable, it rides really really well, no knocks, creaks or rattles. The steering is nicely weighted, more on the heavy side but I quite like that. The seats are comfortable, its quiet with good sound insulation. It has nice touches like heated steering wheel, auto dim mirrors, front rear and side cameras, dynamic bi-xenon head-lights and cornering fogs, parking sensors front and rear, auto tailgate etc.
Whilst it is heavy, its 240 bhp and 406 lb ft of torque helps hide this to a degree, even with 5 people in. The mid range grunt is there where you need it and the 8 spd Aisin tip-tronic whilst a bit lazy compared to the 7sp DSG, does its job well and is in its element at motorway cruising speeds. I'm seeing the 'cough' VW manufactures claim of 38 mpg too. With an 85L tank the first fill up was expensive, but could be worse, the 4.2tdi has 100L. In theory this should give a range of about 700 miles if you drive like a nun.
I managed to negotiate a bit off the asking price on the basis the brakes were showing 70% worn at the last service in January - circa 2k miles ago. Also advised was the V belt was showing early signs of cracking. 4 new Nexen tyres were fitted in January by previous owner, whilst not my normal choice of tyre they seem to suit the car well and lets face it no need to fit performance tyres on a heavy SUV.
Apparently these tow really well, up to 3.5tonnes, not that i will be doing that, indeed there is no tow bar fitted, so potentially the car has had an easier life.
I took it to my local VW Audi specialist yesterday to get some quotes for things that will need doing over the coming months:
- Front brake discs and pads - done
To do:
- Rear brake discs and pads
- V belt
- front cornering fog lights - 1 is bright white, the other halogen, told the brighter 1 is potentially illegal so will need to look into that
- fuel tank support cover brackets are pretty crusty - needs new
- Service/MOT in January - oil, oil filter, air filter, pollen, fuel filter
- Very slight weep from rocker cover gaskets
- New front number plate to stick on rather than screwed (previous owner had personal plate).
Anyway enough waffle, some pics:
Quick update on this too. Anyone thinking of getting a Touareg as a family car id highly recommend throwing it into the mix if you don't need 7 seats. Really impressed in the 4k miles covered so far.
Just had a main service, rear discs and pads, brake fluid, fuel tank support covers. Running smooth as a nut, heated steering wheel in these temps is pleasant, I'll hand in my PH man card at the door..
Just had a main service, rear discs and pads, brake fluid, fuel tank support covers. Running smooth as a nut, heated steering wheel in these temps is pleasant, I'll hand in my PH man card at the door..
We've done about 11k miles in this since we purchased last November, currently on 109k miles. We had an intermittent EML which turned out to be the EGR P04 fault insufficient flow. Unfortunately our local VAG specialist didn't do us any favours as despite changing the EGR valve and cleaning pipework, and EGR regeneration it came back several times. Knowing a big trip was looming and rather than potentially having to replace the EGR cooler and risk potential issues down the line I took it to my other specialist and they dealt with it properly.
It's now a bit more urgent and free flowing..
So we loaded up with 3 adults and 2 children, plus a full boot and cruised to our holiday villa in Provence. The weight was barely noticeable. The engine has really decent mid range torque and the 8speed box means a quiet low stress cruise at 85mph at 2k rpm, returning no less than 38mpg. The moderate 19 inch alloy and 265 tyre size means its comfortable too, the French are obsessed with speed humps in towns now.
Air con is very quick to cool the car down in 38c. The dynamic cornering headlights are worth a mention, amazing and a simple button allows you to switch for driving on the right.
All in all still very impressed with this car.
The French have some really quirky small city cars.
It's now a bit more urgent and free flowing..
So we loaded up with 3 adults and 2 children, plus a full boot and cruised to our holiday villa in Provence. The weight was barely noticeable. The engine has really decent mid range torque and the 8speed box means a quiet low stress cruise at 85mph at 2k rpm, returning no less than 38mpg. The moderate 19 inch alloy and 265 tyre size means its comfortable too, the French are obsessed with speed humps in towns now.
Air con is very quick to cool the car down in 38c. The dynamic cornering headlights are worth a mention, amazing and a simple button allows you to switch for driving on the right.
All in all still very impressed with this car.
The French have some really quirky small city cars.
Well we made it back without any drama, 2010 miles in total and I think 4 tanks of diesel but we have a 3rd left. What a brilliant car for the trip. Happily sat at 85mph with cruise control on and it just ate it up. Even managed to squeeze in 2 cases of wine!
Weirdly I didn't see 1 other Touareg 7P in France for the whole 16 days. It is quite wide as I found out on the train, with only 1 inch spare either side of the wheels but probably my fault for not booking the larger vehicle class. I did try to join that que but was told by a very French lady in an authoritative voice : ' I have made a mistake!'
I noticed a slight rotational squeak just before starting the long journey back, once warm at about 30mph, it didn't last long and went away at higher speeds. Hoping it's a wheel bearing on way out and not propshaft but putting it down to lots of weight, all in I reckon we were at about 2.8tonnes. Will get it looked at when it's in for a service soon.
Weirdly I didn't see 1 other Touareg 7P in France for the whole 16 days. It is quite wide as I found out on the train, with only 1 inch spare either side of the wheels but probably my fault for not booking the larger vehicle class. I did try to join that que but was told by a very French lady in an authoritative voice : ' I have made a mistake!'
I noticed a slight rotational squeak just before starting the long journey back, once warm at about 30mph, it didn't last long and went away at higher speeds. Hoping it's a wheel bearing on way out and not propshaft but putting it down to lots of weight, all in I reckon we were at about 2.8tonnes. Will get it looked at when it's in for a service soon.
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