VW Touareg?
Looking at a Touareg 3.0 V6 TDI BlueMotion Tech 262 R Line Tip Auto.
Opinions on this as a towcar welcome.
Caravan is a twin axle MTPLM 1900kg.
Comments
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls23tHPX8mQ
They can pull a fair bit too
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Unlike our current XC90, the VW has no self levelling suspension, it is a pre registered stock model, so we would have to take it as is. Not sure whether the lack of the self levelling is important when towing.
Noseweight is a healthy 140kg. Rear overhang looks quite short too.
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Hi,
I had a previous generation 3.2 v6 petrol towing 1750kg twin axle. The outfit was extremely stable and the car comfortable, basically a joy to tow with. I sold it because the towing consumption was around 14mpg, so it was not a long term prospect for me.
The diesel should be even better, I am guessing you may get 22 to 24 towing at motorway speeds. Be careful about the spec of the car you are looking at. Make sure the cooling pack and towbar are dealer fit as the typical quote is £1800. Although the max tow is quoted as 3500 kg, I believe this only applies with the cooling pack fitted by factory or vw dealer. Dont worry about the self levelling suspension - I never needed it. Test drive it first to make sure you are happy with the ride quality on low profiles. Personally I hate them.
Brilliant car, try to do adeal on the cooling/towing pack.
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If it comes with low profile tyres, does that mean you have to stick with them?
You can tell it is a long time since we bought a new car! Not up on all this technical stuff, and not a "car enthusiast" either.
The wheels look huge compared to the tyre depth, Our Volvo has much deeper tyres.
We would ideally want to fit "mud and snow" type winter tryes first time they needed changed, would that be possible?
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Virtually ALL cars come with low profile tyres these days & have done for years ... it's just that some are lower profile than others. It's the second number you're looking at ie the ratio of the wall in relation to the tyre width, the smaller the number, the less tyre wall you get. You'd need to change to smaller rims if you wanted a bigger profile tyre.
https://www.kwik-fit.com/tyres/information/writing-on-my-tyres
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Dealer has quoted £900 for the VW detatchable towbar with fully wired 13 pin socket, possibly less expensive elsewhere, but would prefer to have dealer fit it.
Will need to look into the cooling business.
The car was registered in September, so 4 months old now but has only 10 miles on the clock, so unused. We would lose the 4 months of the warranty, but the discount is almost £10k and the spec otherwise good.
Going for a test drive in an identical model on Tuesday, should be interesting! Better take the cheque book along, OH is keen!
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The February 2017 edition of Practical Caravan has a used car review on the Touareg. It states that if the towbar is factory fitted an updated cooling fan is fitted as well. Not having the updated fan could invalidate the warranty. The review was very positive.
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I have a 2006 Touareg I don't know if it has the updated cooling van but I do know I can put my caravan on towball without checking the nose weight never give me any problems and it returns 24.6 mpg towing on a long run
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Being a Landrover man I have driven their full range on many occasions on customer days. I did compare two Range Rover Sports immediately after each other, one with low profile tyres the other without. The low profile model was a noticeably harsher and noisier ride. Other down sides they tend to wear quicker and be more expensive. Personally I would never consider low profile tyres especially as I do take my Discovery off road on rough tracks and low profiles are more susceptible to alloy rim damage. It sounds like you have a good saving KJellNN, enough even that if it had low profiles and you couldn't live with them you could always swap to a smaller rim size and sell the low profiles.
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The Touareg 3.0 V6 is a very good tow car, will tow most any caravan without any issues. Not a car you see much around the caravanning fraternity but very underrated. Can chew through tyres, depending how aggressive you drive, otherwise as good as any Land rover.
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I rather regret buying a Passat in preference to a Touareg I looked at last year. Better car in my opinion than an RR and closely related to the Porsche Cayenne. In respect of the tyres it is the wheel diameter that you need to be careful with. You can't simply stick a less low profile tyre on the existing wheels, you will mess up the gearing and speedo readings. I would be wary of anything with larger than 19" wheels, 18's will be the best size for ride comfort and reduce tyre replacement costs. If it has a poor ride simply buy some smaller wheels on fleabay anf flog the originals. I have done that, did it with my Audi A2 which should have 17" alloys but the ride was bone jarring so bought some 15" Audi alloys for peanuts on fleabay.
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I am now on my second VW Touareg and I have to say it is probably the best tow car I have owned - and I say that having previously owned 4 Discos and used them extensively off-road. It is a dream to drive with the DSG gearbox which is so smooth and all the other features such as hill-start assist etc make for very easy towing. I tow a Bailey Barcelona and you hardly know it's on the back.
I can help you re the uprated cooling fan issue. My last one didn't have this feature because I wasn't aware of the issue when I bought it. That said, it towed the Barcelona with no overheating problems. However, when I came to buy the current one - which is the Escape model with the low-ratio box, I queried with the dealer, the phrase in the handbook, which says that "VW recommend the fitting of the upgraded cooling fan if towing". Both my dealer and my local garage - who had contacts at VW Head Office, came back with the message that if you were to tow anything without up-grading the cooling fan, then the warranty could be invalidated. Since the new fan was going to cost an additional £850 on top of the £1200 the dealer wanted to fit the tow bar, I hit the roof and told them that since the vehicle was advertised with a towing limit of 3.5 tons and nowhere in any of the literature was there any mention of this being subject to a cooling fan upgrade, I wasn't prepared to go ahead with the deal. VW quickly relinquished and fitted the upgraded cooling fan FOC.
This matter has been discussed on here before and as far as I can recollect, no one has had any problems towing without the fan upgrade, However, if like me, you want the peace of mind of knowing that there won't be any nasty surprises in the future, I suggest you have a chat with your dealer along the lines of Sales of Goods Act or whatever it is now called. Hope this helps.
PS - if you were to go for the factory fit tow bar, it comes, automatically, with the fan upgrade - for a total extra cost for tow bar, electrics and fan upgrade of £750 - or it did last year when I was buying.
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An aftermarket tow bar is an accessory and attracts a premium, so relating the oem price is irrelevant tbh.
eg my tow bar as oem would have been £750 and the car would have been built with the cooling fan/pump to suit towing. However I chose the aftermarket mb towbar, my choice, to ensure compatibility of the electronics together with the cooling fan/pump revision. No 3rd party specialist tow bar supplier/fitter would guarantee the electronics interface nor would any have provided the cooling fan/pump upgrade. My reasoning being a gearbox overheat replacement £12k; electronic failure on a £75k car priceless. I accepted the figment of an aftermarket accessory would attract labour rates, albeit reduced, but for peace of mind and warranty integrity it was a no brainer.
i did end up getting the tow bar and cooling upgrade gratis due to delay in supply from mb, hire of a disco 4 for holiday to tow the caravan. No need to use soga, just communicate with the dealer principle. 18% discount on the new car due march with a factory fitted fully electric deplorable tow bar c/w some fancy aids for hooking up at £950 list less the discount.
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KjellNN - have you considered the Escape model? Off-road (?stiffer) and slightly raised suspension, low-ratio gearbox and diff locks makes it a serious competitor with the Disco and gives peace of mind that you won't get stuck on muddy fields! It's not as 'glitzy' as the R-line - almost no chrome on it at all but otherwise the same car. I bought mine through Carwow and managed to get a reduction of £9500 on the list price.
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The Touareg doesn't have a DSG (Direct shift gearbox aka double clutch gearbox) All Touareg variations since launch have a 'normal' type auto box, 6spd for early models, 8spd newer models, i.e a torque converter, planetary & sun gears etc.
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Thank you for that - I thought it did! And so did the VW salesman who sold it to me - going to great lengths to explain about the two clutches!!
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Typical unknowledgable dealer salesmen.
The DSG gearbox was never fitted to the Touareg for the simple reason that VAG group haven't been able to design one that will handle the torque required for proper off road duty. For the Touareg to compete with the likes of Land Rover, it has to be able to handle serious off road terrain, rock crawls and suchlike. This requires high levels of torque which any current DSG box simply can't handle.
Japanese manufacturer Aisin make the gearboxes fitted to the Touareg, they are a very tough unit though early high milers suffered from worn valve chests, the symptoms being a violent slam downshifting to 5th from 4th on light throttle. Remanufactured valves within the chest cured the issue. As yet, the later 8 speed gearboxes have not had the same issues reported.
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Thanks all for the info, we have today put a deposit on the 262 R line, getting it in 10 days time.
We are sourcing a towbar from a specialist fitter as the dealer is unable to fit one for us for a reason that is not clear. They are trying to get info for us from VW re the fan issue, so we shall see. They have suggested 2 towbar specialists who are already known to us, we will contact them this week.
We did try Car Wow and another place, but they were several thousand off the price we are paying. Ordering a new car with a factory fit towbar was not possibl if we were to have it before April for our holidays.
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I have exactly the same car but in Se trim, June 2015 model . I have towed caravans for over 40 years and can honestly say that this is the best tow car I have had. I tow a t/a that comes in at 2000kg fully laden (and a bit more if I'm honest), the nose weight is 120kg and the tow ball doesn't move when I hook it up. Mine is standard suspension and it tows just great. I have the factory fit tow bar so it came with the correct fans and wiring if there is a button on the right in the tailgate to drop the tow bar then it is factory fitted if not then check that the fan was changed to a higher rated one or VW will not cover any warranty work, and yes £1800 to £2000 is about right for VW to fit a tow ball and all the electrics.
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