So we’ve just bought a 3 year old vw touran (I’m not defending it). Turns out there’s no fader on the stereo, the kids in the back want it louder, but the oldies in the front need ear plugs. Seems there’s no fader because there’s nothing to fade to. It’s seems vw are penny pinching in the audio department and the s spec model has no rear speakers! Its supposed to be able to take 5 people in the back, but not listening to the radio, which incidentally doesnt have so much as 3.5mm aux input.
So tell me the worst, what can I do spending as little as poss (as we’re skint now). I think the radio will fade if there are rear speakers attached, could live with the radio for now and use a fm transmitter thing but the speakers need sorting. All the kits I can find seem to be for pre 2010 models and I’m a bit scared of messing up the interior trying to fit them.
Any clues?

Fit a couple of variable resistors (ie volume controls) to the front speakers if you can fit rears. Or get a cheap amp and wire up some rears to it and set it up louder.

All sounds a bit Heath Robinson was hoping for an invisible solution. Don’t mind spending a bit but not hundreds.

Or get some headrest screen/media players with wireless headphones so you don’t have to listen to their rubbish.

Edit: resistors if you don’t get a fade option.

To be honest can probably manage with the same volume front and rear, but clueless about fitting speakers and the wiring. Let alone getting the right parts.

Hehe, we discovered this in our Touran in 2007.
Some do have rear wiring in place. Some don’t. You just need to peel back the flexible rubber tube/ seal at the rear door that carries wire and see what’s in there.
Don’t even think about finding out how much wiring for a towbar is on them as well for similar reasons….

Show us a picture of the radio. I suspect it has 4 speaker outputs, you could probably just wire some in and then the fade option might appear. I’ve read up a bit on the VAG stereos, and even though I have the cheapest model (RCD300) it still has fade controls. RCD300s are £50 ish on ebay.

I managed to put some rear speakers into our old fabia without too many difficulties. I would imagine the head unit does have fade on it.

If it doesn’t have it visible it might be a plug in option to enable it when you have rear speakers enabled.

Might be worth asking on one of the VW forums to see if it is a known thing.

You will probably find the wiring will already be in place too, pop a door card off and have a look for the connectors. If they are there you can either buy standard VW speakers and use the connector or just chop the connector off and fit spade connectors to use with 3rd party speakers. It’s worth noting if you use 3rd party speakers you’ll probably need a speaker adapter to hold it to the door at a suitable depth.

As said above you may find the wiring is there as they are often bundled together to save money. Its easier in the long run having one wiring loom than 3 or 4. If you do find the wiring in place and the doorcards dont have the areas for speakers look at eBay or a VAG breakers to get replacement door cards or panels for pence. You cant be the first person to have this issue.

Yeah. First job is to see if there is any wiring for them. If there is, then it’s a simple enough job to get the door cards off and wire the speakers up.
I haven’t looked for many years, but all the usual car audio suspects (Kenwood, Pioneer, Alpine etc) had speaker selectors where you put your car in and it told you what speakers would fit as direct replacements, which would make choosing them nice and simple.

VW are particularly special at scrimping on stuff like this – yeah, lovely quality dashboard and the doors make a nice heavy thunk, but we won’t bother with rear speakers as we have to save money somewhere. My sister’s 05 Polo came with a cassette player as standard – on a brand new car in 2005!

My car came with rear speakers 🙂

My base spec skoda came with rear speakers – although I never checked (phew though!).

I do remember the days of the early Polos which mostly had 1 speaker in the middle of the dashboard. Count yourself lucky.

it has replaced a 2003 Zafira that was better equipped in the stereo department, sounds like there’s hope. I was planning on a towbar too so matt_outandabout’s comment has me worried. I did look on the VW forums but the conversations all seem to be about the older models, so wasn’t sure how much had changed.

I might just see if I can find someone local to sort it all out. Not my area. My wife is really p155ed off about it, after I persuaded her not to buy another Vauxhall!

Buy the kids headphones?

Might be worth phoning a dealer about it. They might be able to tell you if you have the necessary wiring in place or not for the speakers and towbar, just by referencing the reg no.

Steal Molgrips’ car.

You will probably find the wiring will already be in place too

This is not the case in MANY of the Tourans it seems.
VW did some serious penny pinching.
It is worth finding out, and as I said you can see by peeling back / unclipping the protective tube for the wires between door and car, in between the door and body. Dont take off the door cards, it is a pain (been there, done that).
The head unit HAS the fittings for the rear speakers, just not plugged in. You can whip the head unit out really easily (pop off front plate trim and undo four screws) to look and test.
When you do fit the speakers leading the cables is a pain, but I lifted up a few wee edges of trim around front doors and hid it all without removing anything – back of the dash needed a couple of zipties to hold cables up.
The rear speakers also need a spacer to get them in the right place – ours were £10 off ebay iirc, not the £60 a main stealer wanted.

Simple: Allow the kids to sit in the front and drive, while you relax in the quiet sereneness of the rear.

Steal Molgrips’ car.

Please.

I was planning on a towbar too so matt_outandabout’s comment has me worried.

Towbar express did mine, cost about £150 for the wiring and I’d already paid £90 for a bar that I fitted myself. I got full active wiring not a bypass relay, but the electronics unit was 3rd party rather than VW own.

Why aren’t they listening to phat beatz on their iPods like normal kids?