Thinking of buying one with the smaller diesel engine for towing horses/bike moving duties. Interested in experiences/costs of running one outside of manufacturer warranty period. Cheers

Doh wrong forum – sorry

Drove a bigger one in Oz a few years ago. OK for cruising, but not nice round bends and no bigger inside than a Mondeo estate. It was nice to borrow for free (Sister in law worked for VW on Oz) but I wouldn’t buy one in a month of Sundays.

Stick to a car.

They look nice but are abit of a reverse-tardis and I question their longevity for a bit of work.

I know these can be thirstier for a diesel but why not a Mitsubishi Shogun?

like a q7 or cayenne with all the bits that make them handle taken out

If you like regular visits to kwik-fit get one – they eat tyres like mad!

2 mates have them: 1 smaller diesel, 1 the 6cyl diesel.

Both get same mileage, as smaller diesel works much harder for same weight/speed etc. Buy the bigger engined one if you get one.

As Hora said – they are the equivalent of an Inverse Tardis – huge outside, small inside. No bigger than a normal family car.

My wife’s 16yr old Isuzu Trooper and my cheap as chips Kia Sedona are much more useable for packing family/kids/bikes/dogs in as well as towing.

That said, I do really like the driver’s seating position in my mates higher-spec Touareg – very nice!

They’re OK to drive and, if you get the 5.0 V10, stupidly quick. Handle like a sack of spuds, but unless you’re expecting a 4×4 to be Elise-like on the bends, you know won’t be surprised. The 3.0’s probably the best one – the 2.5’s very slow (and has Tiptronic rather than a conventional auto), and the 5.0 handles a lot worse ‘cos it’s a very heavy engine!

Typically VW drab inside, but everything works well.

Running costs aren’t terrible – the 3.0TDI auto I drove for a bit averaged 31mpg, and servicing’s OK if you go to an indy – VW will charge you £400 for a nothing-extra service. Where it can get pricey is on brake pads & discs (it’s a heavy car, and genuine VW is expensive) plus tyres. Again, nothing dramatic, but depending on the wheel size, you could easily pay £800 for a set of tyres every 20k.

Some get hit with prop shaft bearing failure (not all by any means) which is a few hundrd quid to sort at a good indy (Inde-Tech in Milton Keynes are excellent), up to £1k at VW, because they only fit an entire brand new prop shaft. Sledgehammer to crack a nut.

cheers have been looking at a high spec 2.5 model, looked at and loved the v10 but couldn’t justify burning that much petrol. Looks like I’d need to source a good independent vw garage. Not bothere by driving dyanmics it’s to tow two horses or a bike rack with three bikes and I drive a 4wd Qashqai at the moment (don’t buy one by the way)so you’ll gather the driving experience isn’t hugely important or the internal size. Nick – what’s the main difference between a nomral auto and the tiptronic – none of the online reviews have mentioned/commented on it?

Get this http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/1757291/3d783d91/vierwielaandrijving.html

WOW! die gast moet stalen ballen hebben.. hahaha… +1

Get this http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/1757291/3d783d91/vierwielaandrijving.html

😯

I know you said diesel……..

But my girlfriends mum used to have the 4.4 V8 toureg, got a combined 13MPG!! It used to eat through tyres at 600 quid a pop too so needless to say they no longer have it!

I think the arse has fallen out of the market for big-engined cars. So you’d get a good deal but I think the market knows what it’s about.

Buy pre-2006 to avoid big VED’s

They looked huge when they first came out. How times have changed.

eye on a black altitude model – stainless exhaust, piano black trim and leather and lots of toys (no bluetooth though as that was a £500 option – wtf!) seem to have found a good place for towbar fitting, thankfully not the vw agarage who wanted….wait for it…..£1,000!

Sack it off and get a proper 4×4

oops… forgot the smile 🙂

eye on a black altitude model – stainless exhaust, piano black trim and leather and lots of toys

Surely that’s more Porsche Cayenne territory

similar without the tossy badge and lacking the petrol guzzling engine…

And I don’t want to be taking the family on visits around the country in a defender – although that way they would stop talking to me 😉

Re Tiptronic, I think I’ve managed to confuse myself.

I thought the Tiptronic transmission in the 2.5TDI was a variant of the CVT transmission as seen in the A6 2.7TDI some years back. I was wrong. Certainly the auto on the 3.0 is excellent.