Got the chance of a hand-me-down Touran from a reliable source, well looked after, for a grand. Are Touran’s any good? I want something reliable and not too costly to run/fix, although we probably only do around 4,000 miles per year between us, so it won’t get used tons. It’s a diesel I think, 2004. Any owners got out to say? Ta.

Had one from new for 9 years, really liked it, only bother I had was it used to get broken rear springs and the front electric windows had to get new workings, the cables bloke and made a right mess of the workings. My brother had one that had a problem with the ABS sensors on the brake callipers and it wasn’t cheap to fix! Mine went to trade in still on the original exhaust. Mine used to carry 5 plus a dog, used a roof box for a bit extra luggage space, 7 seaters don’t have a spare wheel just a compressor and a tub of goo, was good as a van with the rear seats removed

Bought one (1.9PD tdi) with 14,000 miles on it about 6 years ago. Coming up for 80,000 miles now. Two front springs have broken, a rear brake was binding and I’ve changed the timing belt.

Quite dull but the most practical car I’ve ever owned.

Being Golf MkV based, they are known to have abs, egr and steering rack faults, none of which are cheap to fix.

Yes, we have the 2.0tdi engine sport, not too sluggish and handles well for what it is. I really like it as much as you can for a wee people carrier but it does suffer the known vw faults, water pump replaced but foc by vw. Egr also failed but easy to replace. I’d take a touran from a known source for £1k without hesitation.

comes to mind

practical though.

I had three in succession as company cars. Carried bikes, Marshall stacks, drum kit and sometimes 7 people all over the place. Great cars but no frills. Had one problem in 9 years, a water pump failure. Just switched to a Golf for a change. Wouldn’t hesitate if I were you.

Sounds Like a great buy. I have a 04 zafira, same sort of thing, touran is probably better built (although the old zafiras are pretty good).

Love mine, very practical. Carries just about anything you want really.

We’ve had our diesel zafira for 6 years and over 90000 miles. Mostly been good, few EGR valves, radiator etc. Most expensive repair was the DMF (and clutch), I think it went at about 120000. If yours has a DMF, check if it’s been changed, as it would cost more to fix than you are paying for the car.

Most expensive time was between 100000 and 125000 miles I think, been pretty good since. Now in nearly 160000.

Brother in law owners a garage and said that on tourans the turbo can fail.

How many miles has it done?

Too be honest, I’d just get it anyway…….

Simone

They’re not as reliable as you’d expect. We had steering rack issues, submerged ECU for the air bags and something else I can’t remember go in the 6 months after the warranty expired, cost around 2.2k. Volkswagen didn’t want know. However given the age of the one you’re looking at it’s probably passed through that and they are very practical cars. We got a second one despite the issues with the first one.

We had a 2005 1.tdi from 2 years old/20k to 160k/9 years old.

It was practical, pretty comfy and generally ace for shipping three kids and loads of gear.

It was built poorly – both in quality and spec (no rear speakers in a 7 seater? No wiring for a towbar?). Generally it was a lot less reliable than we we would hope – it had issues with suspension (multiple times it ate drop links), steering rack, ABS module (£1500 fault, well known about), airbag connections, DMF, DPF, glow plugs etc etc.

Would I get another? I am torn – it was a good car, it cost a lot.

What are your expectations for a £1K car?

Got a 2.0 TDi Sport DSG. Had it for 9 years and 100k. Still got it and drives as good now as it did then. Only really money I’ve spent other than consumables is a new turbo 5k ago at 115k miles.

We’ve had one for coming on 5 years now, bought with 35k on, and now as 80+k… ECG/ABS unit went early on – replaced under warranty, but otherwise just servicing, tyres and brakes.

practical inside, with lots of options of seats out/ in/ kitchen sink etc. although the rear seats (6/7) are not for adults really! 7 seat version has no spare wheel, just a can of goo – which once you use is a replacing the tyre job everytime.

we find that with 3 kids (all under 7), bikes, camping kit etc. it’s a bit small and needs a roof box and bike rack. (thinking about a T5!!)

we find that with 3 kids (all under 7), bikes, camping kit etc. it’s a bit small and needs a roof box and bike rack. (thinking about a T5!!)

When our turbo finally went, we looked long and hard at vans. We ended up with a (new shape) Galaxy. It has just done a fortnight to southern France, loaded with two canoes, five bikes (one in boot/four on rack) and all the paddling, cycling and general family gear. It fitted in easily, comfy, and still managed 38mpg over 2.5k miles… The vans are good, but I am just not convinced of the cost of them, especially when the larger people carriers do 90% of what a van does.

4000 miles a year you’d be miles better off financially with a petrol model.

spend another £500 on a remap and uprated anti roll bars and your’e laughing! Mines grey, its dull, but great, just driven 4 kids and 2 adults across france, averaged 40mpg at 130km/h, comfy, loads of storage, better than a proper people carrier and bigger than an estate (middle seats slide/forward and back too). I’m sold, though next time I’ll get the 170bhp and remap to over 200bhp, but thats just me!

I love ours, most comfortable car I’ve driven. 7 seats, tinted windows and 170bhp. Plus a tow bar.
We’ve not had any big bills but I know there’s potential issues. Currently at 115k miles but I hope to get it to 200k with general maintenance – some preventative.

At £1k it’s worth the risk. It’s easy enough to work on although I’ve no experience of replacing various ECU modules, and never do I hope!

Cheers all. Useful stuff here.

Do any of you owners consider the clutch to be stiff compared to other cars? Friend has a 58 plate diesel (assume 1.9 but don’t know) and the clutch is horrendously stiff, wondered if it was worth getting it looked at?

didn’t like mine, was like a van, nasty interior, very basic everything

4000 miles a year you’d be miles better off financially with a petrol model.

When I looked, petrol and auto people carriers were silly, silly cheap.
For 4,000 miles a year I would go petrol and auto – what you save in the purchase cost and running costs will be way more than extra mpg.

*edit* – look at Honda Streams, Mitsubishi Grandis and last of the Toyota Previa’s as well.

Here’s mine, absolutely stunning isn’t it..?

Ok, maybe it isn’t an object of desire but it’s never let me down, cheap to run, surprisingly nippy (170bhp & DSG) and I can get bikes in with wheels on no problem.

Can’t see myself getting rid of it now until it dies. It wouldn’t be worth more than 3 grand now and I wouldn’t get finance on a new one even if I could stomach another few years of finance payments. The plan was that I’d have the wife’s golf gti when she gets a new one but I’d rather keep the Touran, it’s just too practical. The wife hates it though and won’t drive it.

She’s obviously a tit!

Hell, if you don’t want it for a Grand, I’ll have it!

And there is me thinking the tourans were posher than the zafiras, with less problems! Does not sound like it after all (going by my 1gen zafira anyway).

Interior tough as old boots, and we chuck in anything and everything (including large matal signs etc for work), not really managed to break it yet (apart from door speaker grill). 04, 160000 miles.

Leather seats with heating (5 different settings), and comfy even after an 18 hour journey.

Perhaps get an old zafira elegance petrol for a few hundred quid instead, most of our repairs have been diesel related….

For a grand your getting a car thats it! It will most likely have problems and will require money being spent on it, if it was perfect and not need anything doing to it we would all drive one, pays your money takes your choice. Just dont believe all the german cars are fantatic hype, thats coming from someone who has had 9 german cars in the last 30 years. They used to be fantastic but times have changed, they aint what they used to be!

Borrowed my old mans touran for a trip the Alps last year, got 3 people, bikes and kit in there, only problem he’s ever had is starter motor, it’s on about 180k now and still going strong,

Absoutely love mine (the wifes really!). 09 model in grey as pic above. Excellent storage space, cubby holes etc.
Only downside is we got the lowest horsepower model (95 I think!) so its a bit of a swine to overtake a french lorry when fully laden but not too bad at all when normal load.
Get one….

For a grand your getting a car thats it! It will most likely have problems and will require money being spent on

I sold mine for £1900 knowing the turbo was on its way out, the clutch was slipping occasionally and it needed a timing belt at the next service (2k miles away)…

my friend has the same model as Loddrik and has nothing but trouble with it. he bought it from a trader in kent and on driving it back it conked out just outside manchester.
the trader offered to pay for the repair, but as soon as it was identified that the mechatronic on the DSG box had gone he went silent.
my friend managed to take the mechatronic off and gave it a good clean and all was running fine again. we even managed to drive to BPW and back without issue…then it went again about 6 weeks later.
this time the RAC and the garage confirmed that the whole DSG and mechatronic unit had died.
he ended up selling his bike and all his quadcopters to pay for the repairs….the car should be back in the next week or so. other than that the car is in perfect nick and is a very good runner…i think he was unlucky in getting a duff one.
i’m still trying to convince him to chase the trader and force him to pay the £2.5k repair bill