Well, unforeseen circumstances led to the sad sale of my 2018 Land Cruiser. That was a great rig, super comfy, tons of space, unbelievably poor gas mileage, haha!
I really wanted to keep the spend on my next daily fairly low, and I wanted a heavy enough SUV to qualify for the tax advantages of being able to depreciate it all in one year. I was all over the map car wise, as evidence by my thread here, https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/another-what-car-thread/261713/page1/. The used car market right now is also still a little weird. There's more for sale and prices are more normal, but it's still worse than Pre-Covid.
German cars are kind of my jam, I like how they drive and I'm used to working on them. Since we've had such good luck with our Cayenne diesel I decided maybe I'd get another one of those. The issue with Porsche's in general is they're a la carte as far as options. It can be a real struggle to find one equipped how you want. I wanted one with roof rails, tow package, heated/cooled seats and a heated steering wheel. Basically the same we currently have. That turned out to be basically impossible to find, which was shocking.
Then a nice looking VW Touareg TDI R line popped up in Winter Park, about 1.5 hours away from me in Denver. Hmmm. The VW's come loaded, all of them have roof rails, tow package, etc. The R line adds sports suspension (which I suspect is just the Cayenne stock suspension), 20" wheels, different front and rear bumpers, side skirts, rear wing and brushed aluminum interior trim.
I went and checked it out, 2 owners, current owner has had it since 34k miles and bought it as a CPO vehicle. All dealer servicing since new, he had all the records. Very well maintained, nothing weird fixed in the records. It drove beautifully, honestly I think better than our cayenne. We worked out a price and I bought it. I left it at my friends condo in Winter Park, he's going to drive it down to Denver for me tomorrow evening.
One bummer is that it only came with one key. Which I discovered after I'd negotiated price. That really bummed me out as the keys are eye wateringly expensive and dealer only. The seller did make it up to me by giving me four passes to Winter Park though. I ordered the key from my local dealer already, I like having a spare key.
I did compromise on cooled seats and a heated steering wheel, but it's got everything else. Plus tinted windows and clear bra, so that's nice. Recent tires and brakes front/rear, mechanically it's really solid.
I bought a Malone Tune for the Cayenne but never used it because my wife could care less. I reached out to Malone and they've graciously agreed to swap it over to the Touareg for me. I'll add the transmission tune at the same time, which I've heard makes a huge difference in drivability.
Phone holder is on the way, I'll order an oil dipstick and start looking for a snow tire/wheel setup locally. Other than that, just drive it and enjoy the fact it'll easily double the gas mileage of the Land Cruiser...
Pics coming soon, it's silver exterior/black interior...