VW Touareg - Altitude

[si_xsi]

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:

[ChocolateFrog]

I'm biased as I used to have one but the prefacelift models looks so much better than the facelift.