Comments on: 2008 Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI Review

By: diesel4me

diesel4me — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:30:07 +0000

I get a kick from all the strong opinions from people who have never driven this vehicle. I’ve got 108000k on mine. It’s easily the best vehicle I’ve ever owned. It’s quiet, comfortable, powerful, fast, safe and it will go offroad.I’ve driven it from Vancouver to Cabo twice and to Yukon. It’s been through some of the most incredible snowstorms and got me through safely. Where are people coming up with those mileage numbers? I do most driving in the city and use less than 11 litres / 100k. On the highway I use anywhere from 8.5 to 9.5 depending on terrain. I drove from Tijuana to La Paz (over 1400 k) for $75. And that is varied terrain. As far as emissions, I use a bio-diesel blend to help, but that aside, a recent study showed that I’d have to drive 1.12 million miles to spew the same pollution as burning a cord of wood in a fireplace,which don’t have. I guess some of you in the US will have to wait for the electric car to feel better. Then you can plug it in every night and your coal fired power plants can work even harder. Out of sight, out of mind. Thanks for letting me rant. Cheers!

By: robuc1

robuc1 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:52:09 +0000

i don’t know where these mileage numbers come from, but i’ve owned my v10 tdi for over a year. the cars fabulous computer gives my mileage since purchase, mileage since refill, and mileage since starting the truck. i’m mostly in town (living on a mountainside), and average 17mpg. since purchase, i’m at 17.1. when driving on the freeway (mixed up and down through mountains) i average 23.5. i am not a feather foot either.
this is by far the best suv i’ve ever driven, however i haven’t driven a cayenne.

By: tonykara

tonykara — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:12:01 +0000

I just got rid of a 2005 V8 Touareg and while I took it in the shorts money wise, I’m glad I did it. I own a vintage Porsche 911 Targa Carrera, and was interested in the Cayenne at the time. I was happy with the though of the Cayenne and Touareg being ‘related’. I love the car when it was working, but this is the biggest P.O.S. I’ve ever owned. No one said it would go through a set of tire every year (10k miles if I’m lucky), and the mileage was much worse than the sticker indicated. VW service sucks, and I know this because the car was in for service at least 20 times in the 2-1/2 years I owned it. It had more little broken electronic and trim stuff than I care to remember. I really wanted to like this car, but I had to get rid of it. Now I have a 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe, with great features and 27MPG. Hopefully the years ahead will be filled with fewer trips to their service dept.

By: kevinb120

kevinb120 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:43:15 +0000

Why not mention American cars in the thread? VW and Hummer have been dukeing it out yearly for the worst reliability records in the industry, flirting in the manage e trois with Land Rover.

By: wallace

wallace — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:43:49 +0000

I have owned two V10 tdis’,overall nicest vehicle I have owned.It is sad but with the quality of American vehicles,they should not even be mentioned in this discussion.The biggest complaint I have in over 170,000 miles is the lack of support and knowledge of the vehicle that the US dealers have of this vehicle.I purchased the 2nd Touareg with a damaged turbo due to the dealership leaving loose parts in the air intake after replacing the air cleaner.After getting astronomical estimates and being told how difficult and complex of a vehicle it is,I ordered a manual and found a good source for parts and repaired it myself in my garage for a fraction of the cost.When I originally purchased my inlaws had a new Hummer,and like most Americans thought that VW was an econo car and thought I had lost my mind.After driving the Touareg and gassing up the Hummer for 2 years they now own a 2007 V10 Touareg.The worst quality vehicles I have worked on by far for the price are Cadillacs from the electronics to the body cosmetics,it is not even funny it is sick.If Americans even built something close in quality I would buy.I hope I am wrong,but I see GM not being around much longer and hopefully Ford will improve before it is too late for them.

By: Geotpf

Geotpf — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:44:28 +0000

bolhuijo :
June 20th, 2008 at 8:56 am

3.6 indicated mpg on acceleration? I wonder why it bottoms out there? Suppose Gunther the on-board fuel computer system programmer (working in metric of course) decided to store the fuel consumption values in milliliters per 100km, and he used a 16-bit integer value. What’s the largest number the thing can handle: 2^16 or 65,535 ml/100km. Translate to US units: 3.6 mpg. Hey, at least it doesn’t crash with an overflow.

Fascinating, and quite logical. I’m curious as to why you bothered to calculate this out.

By: prndlol

prndlol — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:28:09 +0000

Well at least they’re about as popular as Arsenio Hall as of late.

By: Jonny Lieberman

Jonny Lieberman — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:50:08 +0000

prndlol:

The Touareg with the V10 weighs 5,825 pounds, not 5,100.

And oh yes, 5 big stars.

By: prndlol

prndlol — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:17:42 +0000

Five stars for something that tips the scales at 5100 lbs?! What is this, the year 2000?

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:02:18 +0000

And besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

By: alpha94

alpha94 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:55:25 +0000

Consumer reports will tell you to avoid this vehicle at all costs. The build quality in general is bad but the engine is entirely unreliable.

By: davey49

davey49 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:13:38 +0000

I’d buy a Jeep Patriot. I wouldn’t pay over $20K for a car.
maybe a 2005-2007 XTerra

By: Brock_Landers

Brock_Landers — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:46:40 +0000

Cayenne T comparison was made with engine/performance/mpg specs in mind, not a direct price comparo. Purely the existance of Cayenne T renders Touareg V10TDI totally sensless.

I’ve driven the V10, it FEELS crazy fast because of the huge torque thrust, but really it’s not. When I would have to buy a diesel SUV, I’d take the twinturbo X5 3.0 diesel any day over the VW V10.

By: davey49

davey49 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:32:50 +0000

The Cayenne Turbo costs significantly more than the Touareg.
The Mercs might well be 5 star cars also. I’m sure we’ll know if TTAC gets to drive them
The Tahoe Hybrid and various Cummins equipped Dodge trucks will not likely get 5 stars
Cars aren’t all about objective numbers, stats will make a lot of cars seem better than others. Obviously this car felt to the reviewer to be a 5 star car.

By: JRobUSC

JRobUSC — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:04:07 +0000

just out of curiosity then, why wouldn’t I just get an X5 diesel at the end of the year? That bi-turbo 3.0L diesel six cylinder produces 265hp and 425lb-ft, which isn’t quite as high as that turbo V10 but is enough according to BMW to provide better acceleration and better fuel economy. It’ll also cost probably $15k less with similar equipment.

By: carlos.negros

carlos.negros — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:35:41 +0000

This would be a perfect vehicle if I were a member of the Janjaweed milita and I wanted to raid some villages in Darfur. The government of Sudan would subsidize my fuel costs.

If I were Dick Cheney, I would buy one of these to take Justice Scalia on a hunting trip.

Other than that, send it to the crusher.

By: RedStapler

RedStapler — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:07:02 +0000

For the price of this goofy vehicle you could purchase two vehicles:

A Cummins Ram pickup that is better at doing all the chores that trucks do

AND

A Civic Hybrid or Prius for daily driving.

By: blowfish

blowfish — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:10:34 +0000

a friend of mine took an SUV which was purchased two years ago for just over $45k, expected to get $30k and was offered $8k

No wonder Banks & repo guys are so stuffed with them & not even wanna to hook any more back.

By: Skooter

Skooter — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:10:28 +0000

Diesel? VW? 10 cylinder? A pig that is destined to plummet in value as soon as the sucker leaves the lot (if there are any takers).

By: theswedishtiger

theswedishtiger — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:00:26 +0000

OK, so the reviewer admits it is a gas hog. And it is hard to exuse anyone extolling the virtues of such excess. However, what do you think the resale of this SUV would be? In my town a friend of mine took an SUV which was purchased two years ago for just over $45k, expected to get $30k and was offered $8k. The reason is that any SUV is a real tough sell right now. The car lots are full of them.

In todays enviroment, I as a user of this site, would far more appreciate a comparison of fuel sippers that cater to piston heads.

By: ra_pro

ra_pro — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:41:53 +0000

Did anybody mention the miniscule size inside of this elephant, Golf is probably bigger inside than this and all just for the price of small oifield that probably wouldn’t even feed this – whatever it is for for much of its lifetime.

By: Jonny Lieberman

Jonny Lieberman — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:49:01 +0000

And John Horner, you have to drive it.

By: John Horner

John Horner — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:50:02 +0000

“The V10 TDI isn’t actually legal to drive in California.”

Not exactly. It isn’t legal to sell as a new vehicle in California, but if purchased and registered in one of the 43 states which do allow it’s sale then you can drive it in California all you like without breaking the law.

Also, once the beast has 7,500 miles on it (ouch, the fuel burned!) then it can be purchased and registered as a used vehicle in CA.

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffvr29.htm

Back to the main topic. This vehicle makes a Tahoe Hybrid looks like the best value of the century.

5 stars? You have to be kidding.

By: Steven Lang

Steven Lang — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:33:08 +0000

Yep, and the Mercdes ML and G classes get 18/24 and 17/23 respectively.

I still think a head to head comparo between the ML and VW would be very interesting. The current ML looks to have addressed the quality issues of the prior generation, and though it may come down to a choice between your preference between more sport or more luxury, I still think both SUV’s will appeal to many similar demographics.

By: Brock_Landers

Brock_Landers — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:09:38 +0000

quote: 14/19 MPG is still good because an equivalent gas engine would likely get 9/14
The Touareg is one of the nicest cars I’ve ever been in.

Same size Cayenne T – gasoline engined SUV, with much better acceleration and engine characteristics gets 12/19.