Our new Touareg
 

Brought home one of the "left over" 2004 Touareg V8s today. Silver on dark grey
leather, nearly fully loaded. We test drove various other vehicles, the XC90
T6, Grand Cherokee Limited (Hemi), Lincoln Aviator, Land Rover LR3 and outgoing
Discoverey, the FX45, the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder, BMW X5, SRX and a few others.
Only the Cayenne could match the Touareg's overall combination of sport and
luxury, the others were all flawed in one area or the area and most all of them
seemed a rip-off compared to the VW. Anyone considering buying one probably
should.
Steve Grauman

I agree that the Touareg is probably the best value and, conceptually, the
best vehicle in the bunch. However, I've had a load of issues with my '04
V8 -- a total of 32 days in the shop since purchase. Issues were creeky
steering column (still creeks), clunking in front under carriage (replaced
steering column), wavy windshield (replaced), buzzing in all audio inputs
(took them 8 months and a week in to solve with new wiring harness),
navigation is very poor (was told, "that's the way it is - live with it"),
key fob range bad (TSB applied), constant TPMS faults (finally replaced with
MFI that does not monitor continuous pressure). Along the way VW has
applied about 10 TSBs. I know it's version 1.0 - but c'mon - they've been
building vehicles for years. Lemons happen - I have one - I hope that you
don't. I will persue the lemon law soon...

Tod (Auburn WA)

"Steve Grauman" > wrote in message
...
> Brought home one of the "left over" 2004 Touareg V8s today. Silver on dark
> grey
> leather, nearly fully loaded. We test drove various other vehicles, the
> XC90
> T6, Grand Cherokee Limited (Hemi), Lincoln Aviator, Land Rover LR3 and
> outgoing
> Discoverey, the FX45, the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder, BMW X5, SRX and a few
> others.
> Only the Cayenne could match the Touareg's overall combination of sport
> and
> luxury, the others were all flawed in one area or the area and most all of
> them
> seemed a rip-off compared to the VW. Anyone considering buying one
> probably
> should.
> Steve Grauman

Our's is trouble free but only a few days old. However I've had flawless luck
with my GTi so you never know.

>navigation is very poor (was told, "that's the way it is - live with it")

We opted not to get the Navi because the car is for my mother and she doesn't
go far. However we test drove a V8 equipped with Navigation and it worked very
well. Maybe you need to try a different dealer. I disliked the system in the
new Jeep Grand Cherokee but it was really a matter of small qualms.
Steve Grauman

In article >,
says...
>I agree that the Touareg is probably the best value and, conceptually, the
>best vehicle in the bunch. However, I've had a load of issues with my '04
>V8 -- a total of 32 days in the shop since purchase. Issues were creeky
>steering column (still creeks), clunking in front under carriage (replaced
>steering column), wavy windshield (replaced), buzzing in all audio inputs
>(took them 8 months and a week in to solve with new wiring harness),
>navigation is very poor (was told, "that's the way it is - live with it"),
>key fob range bad (TSB applied), constant TPMS faults (finally replaced with
>MFI that does not monitor continuous pressure). Along the way VW has
>applied about 10 TSBs. I know it's version 1.0 - but c'mon - they've been
>building vehicles for years. Lemons happen - I have one - I hope that you
>don't. I will persue the lemon law soon...

I know someone who has one of these. So far the love it. No problems at
all. They usually lease their cars and get a new one every 4 years or so.
They said that they plan on keeping the Touareg when the lease is up.
-------------
Alex