Family 4x4 for towing-Touareg?

[fras83]

Hey, Im thinking on changing my honda civic for something bigger. I have been a vw fan for years and have owned numerous golfs. My wife now drives a golf GTD which is a brilliant car.
I have been looking at going for a 4x4 that is a capable tow vehicle too. I have a civic type r ep3 that I use for track days. Its road legal just now but ideally I would trailer it to and from the track. So on my search for a 4x4 I keep going back to a touareg. It just seems a bit more understated than some and has a 3.5t towing capacity. I like the idea of a 3l v6 engine too! I would be looking for one around 3 years old. Anyone own one of these or have opinions on them? Are they a good choice? Cheers

[brickwall]

The 2nd gen Touareg is a great car. Very understated, fast enough, good economy, and now pretty good value. I had one up to 132mph on the autobahn.

However...not sure it is (or at least all variants) rated for 3.5t. Definitely worth double-checking.

[fras83]

Yeh I have heard horror strories about the first gen touareg. It would be a newer one I would be going for if I was buying one. It seems most are the R line spec which I would be happy with. I dont want a white one but thats what most of them seem to be! I'm pretty sure the newer ones are rated at towing 3.5t. I maybe wrong though! It just seems to fit what I'm looking for- a 4x4 large enough for family, capable tow vehicle, decent running costs, good performance and they seem a bit understated which is what I like too. I'm trying to decide why I should buy a touareg over say a Q5. I know the touareg is based on a Q7 but they seem too big.

[Hainey]

fras83 said:

Yeh I have heard horror strories about the first gen touareg. It would be a newer one I would be going for if I was buying one. It seems most are the R line spec which I would be happy with. I dont want a white one but thats what most of them seem to be! I'm pretty sure the newer ones are rated at towing 3.5t. I maybe wrong though! It just seems to fit what I'm looking for- a 4x4 large enough for family, capable tow vehicle, decent running costs, good performance and they seem a bit understated which is what I like too. I'm trying to decide why I should buy a touareg over say a Q5. I know the touareg is based on a Q7 but they seem too big.

With the touareg if you're going to pull the full 3.5tonne I'm sure you need the towing pack fitted which is extra cooling for the autobox. Worth checking out before you cook something expensive and as the 2nd gen are 8 speed autos, thats not going to be a cheap fix.

Just as an aside my daughter rides horses and the touareg doesnt seem to be a common vehicle to tow a nag and it's caravan around with in these parts despite them being really well priced now. I dont know why so but maybe worth checking to see whats in favour in that crowd and why?

[ZX10R NIN]

Touaregs are rated at 3.5T towing, but it's worth seeking out the 4.2 or super rare R50 as the extra grunt makes for a better tow car & the fuel difference is small.

R50 60k

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

4.2

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

[Speed 3]

We're on our third which probably tells you enough. The 5-pot Mk 1 was a bit of a nail but the missus liked it. The Mk 2 was a revelation, amazing how much it had advanced in a few years. I really like the understated looks compared to the Q7 / Cayenne which it shares a lot of elements with underneath. The V6 TDi is very good - ours is the 262 R-Line. Reliability wise they're a bit of a mixed bag, couple of niggles on the Mk 1 and our first Mk 2 got through a couple of ignition barrels before they worked out there was something wrong with the steering column and it was off the road for a month whilst they made one. Other than that no major issues. Both previous were used (12 months old when we bought them) but the current one is new. Thought we'd done a great deal at the time - £50k list at the spec we got for £42k but that was before the scandal and I've seen similar for £40k now. That will have had a knock-on to the 2-3 year old cars so you will be able to pick up a relative bargain. The model designators get a bit confusing. They brought out an update of the Mk 1 and a lot of people called them T2's so when the Mk 2 came out they got referred to as T3's....Ours is a facelift Mk 2 so I guess that's technically a T4 to some eyes. They came out in Autumn 2014 but not too much difference to the early Mk 2's

We specc'd a hideaway towbar on our new one for a bike rack but I haven't actually towed with it. Take care if it doesn't have a factory fit towbar as the traction control logic gets altered for towing and it disables the rear parking sensors. I know this because our bike rack departed the towball in the Alps, taking all the electrics with it. There is a specific ECU on this factory option to do the traction control logic and it isn't cheap. Any aftermarket towbar would't have this. Not sure that would prevent towing but it might do some weird things with the stability control.

0-60 in under 8 secs, 26-35 mpg real world, comfortable mile muncher, not that chavvy (except in white), whats not to like ?

Edited by Speed 3 on Sunday 30th April 18:52

[Hainey]

Speed 3 said:

Whats not to like ?

Well a month off the road and you cant tow with it without the dealer 'bend over' pack is where I'd start

Sorry. In jest and you obvioulsy love it but I think you highlight some pertinent points as to why they arent that popular on the tow scene.

[fras83]

Yeh thats what I was wondering as well- why you dont see a lot of them used for towing. Didn't realise it was so complicated to fit a tow bar to them though! I fitted a tow bar to my civic and it was pretty straight forward compared to how this sounds. If I was going to buy one and it didn't have a tow bar fitted I think it would be something i'd have to negotiate into the deal.
I doubt I would be towing the full 3.5t very often but would maybe have a trailer on it rated to that. When its towing it would mainly be for my ep3 civic track car. Although it would get used for other trailer jobs occasionally.
Ideally I'd be looking for a 2014/2015 model so hopefully all those issues mentioned have been sorted out in the newer ones!

Edited by fras83 on Sunday 30th April 15:00

[Hainey]

FWIW I tow my track car as well, a litte Renault 5 gt turbo, and even though it's lighter than your civic (because its made from painted bacofoil it seems) once you throw the snap on chest, fuel, tyres, spares, camping gear etc on the trailer you get a fright just how quickly the weight starts to climb.

But as I am a closet at heart, I tow with an old td5 disco as the thought of hoofing out 40k for a tow truck fills me with fear. I like my holidays in California with the family flying business class (ohh get him!) twice a year far to much to write the cheque on something like that

[Speed 3]

Hainey said:

FWIW I tow my track car as well, a litte Renault 5 gt turbo, and even though it's lighter than your civic (because its made from painted bacofoil it seems) once you throw the snap on chest, fuel, tyres, spares, camping gear etc on the trailer you get a fright just how quickly the weight starts to climb.

But as I am a closet at heart, I tow with an old td5 disco as the thought of hoofing out 40k for a tow truck fills me with fear. I like my holidays in California with the family flying business class (ohh get him!) twice a year far to much to write the cheque on something like that

Sounds like a well balanced philosophy to me - fun, practicality and other things to spend your money on. I have the MCS & Tuscan for fun and the Mrs primarily uses the Touareg, we put up with cattle class when flying.

[Hainey]

Aye it works for me. There is only so much money to go around in the real world and 40k on a motor every two years say more than covers my helicopter flying habit (I have my heli licence as well as my airline licence on fixed wing) and I'd rather the fun money went to the heli amd kick ass family holidays. It's is just pure fun if somewhat expensive but the wife is cool with it. She knows how hard I graft for it.

The track car is really cheap thrills, same as the off roader, and something I can teach the spannering to my lad with as passing that on is important to me. I want him to be confident getting into the guts of his car when I'm not here or to old and frail to help and I've also made good money from it when times have needed it, maybe he can do the same.

[fras83]

40k is too steep for me too! I am still considering whether I can justify going 30k. Although I do want something fairly new and as well specced and as nice to sit in as the golf GTD my wife has.

[ZX10R NIN]

For around 24k you can get some very good low mileage options as long as you don't mind a 2012:

ML350

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

Grand Cherokee (these run the same drivetrain as the ML)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

X5

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

Touareg R Line

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

[fras83]

Thanks for all the ideas! Well I passed my trailer test a couple of weeks ago so its all go in finding a new steed now. I will also be on the look out for a good second hand trailer for towing the civic. I've been keeping my eye out for a Brian James car transporter. Any opinions on what model to go for?

[fras83]

I also went and test drove a 2015 touareg a few days ago and must say I was very impressed with it. It was the 262ps version. Although I did think the visibility wasn't amazing but it wouldn't put me off it. Its just trying to find one around that age that has a factory fitted towbar and isn't white!

[Speed 3]

Some good news and bad news....

Had to hire a trailer to swap cars 200 miles away so had my first experience of towing with ours. The good news: chatting to Indespension when I picked it up, they said they can fit aftermarket towbars to Touaregs and similar Audis and that the TC logic is contained within the main ECU rather than a supplementary one as VW had told me when we had ours repaired. They do a software update as part of the package (but can't be undone except at a dealer if you were contemplating taking the towbar off at sale).

Now the bad news....without anything on the trailer it was fine but as soon as it had any weight on it, the Touareg turned into a Toerag. I had a constant small frequency "lurching" back and forward. Only subtle but drove me mad after 200 miles. Don't know whether its the drivetrain or the 4WD/TC system (suspect the latter). I was hoping the brain would "learn" after a while but it was the same after 200 as it was after 10. My car maybe an oddball or it may be the particular trailer but before investing in one I would try to test drive it with a decent load like you need it for.