Touareg Research
Posted August 10th, 2005 @ 08:00am by Erik J. Barzeski
I've spent a large portion of the past two days doing Touareg research. It seems that the early 2004s were essentially rolling lemons (and sometimes they refused to roll!), but that the bugs were squished and the late 2004s were solid, and the 2005s even more so. Never buy a first-generation product!
At any rate, the Touareg is rated very highly for crash tests and safety. It has quite a few standard features, and it gets pretty decent gas mileage. It may be "underpowered" (I'm considering the V6) but I'm also coming from a 2WD (AWD when traction control kicks in) car with 180-210 HP.
I found a dealer in Ohio about an hour from now that is willing to give me just over $3k under invoice and a good value on the Camry trade-in. Incidentally, another Touareg site exists at clubtouareg.com. I like that cars have a little community for hacks, mods, troubleshooting, and just general picture sharing.
Donate Life
Posted 10 Aug 2005 at 10:06am #
I know you've been talking alot about the Toureg here, and it's a nice car. Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in about my Honda Element. We love it, it's roomy, spacious, on-demand AWD, good audio (including aux. plug for iPod/XM), and has a few great web communities. I've been really happy with it for the year+ we've had it.
Posted 10 Aug 2005 at 10:15am #
It's a reasonably safe bet that I will never own an Element.
Posted 10 Aug 2005 at 10:30am #
You really should check out the Acura MDX. We bought one in April and it's a great car. Safety and reliability were my number one concerns (since we're having our first kid in January) and the MDX tops those lists.
Posted 10 Aug 2005 at 10:51am #
I made the mistake of buying a 99.5 Jetta. I got rid of the car with 36k miles on it. I'm unlikely to ever by another VW, at any price.
Posted 10 Aug 2005 at 7:00pm #
I wonder if the little community site things are a staple of the import market. Today I found two fairly complete communities dedicated to the Mazda6.
Good luck with the Touareg. If I was going to get a SUV, it'd be very close to the top of the list..
Posted 10 Aug 2005 at 10:43pm #
Jim, what happened with your Jetta? I currently own an A4 Jetta 1.8T, albeit a 2003 model, not a 99.5 model. Mine currently has about 38k miles on it... so far no problems.
Posted 11 Aug 2005 at 1:16am #
What's your take on a Jeep? I had a '96 Jeep Grand Cherokee until last year and it worked well for me. I put over 100,000 miles on it and never had a problem other than batteries dying.
Posted 11 Aug 2005 at 7:35am #
The short story is 3 driver side window regulators, a coil pack, a few other minor problems, and terrible dealer and VW corporate service. Of those repairs, all but the first window regulator happened out of the 2/24k warranty (but after much haranguing I got VW to reimburse me for 1 additional window regulator replacement.)
Posted 11 Aug 2005 at 7:50am #
Jeep? I've heard bad things, and never been terribly impressed when I looked at or drove (rentals) them.
Posted 11 Aug 2005 at 10:54am #
Touareg, Schmouareg, what you want, and NEED, is a Pinz-Gauer, the King of all Four-Wheel (or Six-Wheel, for that matter) "Sport Utility Vehicles". Well, if you knock the Mercedes G-500 out of the running. And possibly the Chinese Roadawg, though it lacks a little of the penache of the Pinz-Gauer. You know it's the right thing to do...
Posted 11 Aug 2005 at 11:39am #
Too bad the Club Touareg FAQ isn't showing up... I'd really like to know why they stopped making the diesel Touareg. It was a V10 with more horsepower and more torque than the gas versions - and also got 10 - 15 more MPG (every mile to the gallon counts whether you care more about the environment or your bank account).
Posted 11 Aug 2005 at 3:03pm #
An EPA test force VW to stop selling the V10 TDI in the US. VW Press Release