First Generation Touareg?

Spare me the knee jerk VW hate.

My folks are shopping for an XC90 replacement.  Their '05 XC90 is beyond 200K mile mark, and they're ready to move on.  Dad once owned a Passat wagon, he liked until it burned to the ground, literally.  He's found an '09 Touareg V6 (VR6?) with 120K miles on it, and documentation of dealer service since new.

Jewels and I have owned 3 VWs, a Jetta, Sportwagen, and a Golf, all of which were/are TDIs, so I'm obviously a "VW expert" and should be able to answerer all of my dad's Touareg questions off the cuff.  I've attempted to steer them toward a 4Runner, or splurge on a Sequoia, since they have a late model Tundra that they love so.  I thought I was making headway, but they went and looked at the Touareg yesterday...

Any experience with these?  I searched here, but all of the threads I've found seem to focus is on the TDI Touareg and Porsche Cayenne.

The particular example being an '09 is a "facelift" first generation according to wiki, with a lot of different parts from the pre facelift first generations.

I have extremely limited experience with them, but I do have 2 separate anectdotes.

Anectdote #1:

A cousin had one. I spent some time in it, and it seemed nice from a passenger's perspective. The cousin routinely expressed dismay with the thing however, and commented multiple times that they hoped it would be totalled in an accident soon. Frequent dealer trips and high part costs soured the relationship. I think they ended up trading it for a new Mini Countryman and are much happier if that tells you anything.

Anectodote #2:

Wife's friend has a 1st gen Toureg. Her husband is a smart, mechanically inclined guy that curses the Toureg and longs for the day that they get something else. Don't know specifics, but he's a DIY car guy, does most of the maintenance on their fleet and can't stand the thing.

My boss had a V8 one, which I rode in a lot.  I don't honestly know if it was a 2008 or a 2009, but it was one or the other.

It had a ton of the usual VW electrical problems, and spent a fair amount of expensive time in the shop, like a couple times a year in its 4-5 year life with him.  Towards the end, it still drove well enough, but many of the little electrical niceties were nonfunctional.  Like, the hatch would open itself randomly.  The power closer was dead.  I'm not sure the back door windows still went down.  He traded it in with an unfixable CEL.

It had some physical issues, too.  Opening the hatch, even after days of dry weather, resulted in water pouring out through the interior trim panels.  This is I'm sure the cause of the self-actuating hatch.

The brakes were massive, and expensive to replace... and it seemed to need pads and rotors every 25,000 miles.

He has 2 kids and does not keep his cars spotless inside, but I wouldn't say the interior held up particularly well.

He bought it new.  He loved the thing at first, but by the end he couldn't wait to be rid of it.  I'm sure he took a financial bath on it.

I'm not a knee-jerk VW hater, but it's notable that the pre-'09 V10 TDI was the most polluting passenger vehicle in the world for a while:

https://www.roadandtravel.com/planetdriven/2008/worst-polluters.htm

And that's based on pre-Dieselgate knowledge.

Friend of mine had one until recently. It makes my Disco look like a Honda in terms of reliability. It did blow my disco away in fit, finish, economy, and power though.

I don’t get the knee jerk comment, since you want opinions... but anyways, I would just take your phone or tablet to your parents and show them this thread. That is exactly what I did to talk my mother out of a Jag. They are not DIY at all, they also don’t make the money to pay a jag mechanic. Once I showed them a thread from here, they ran for the hills and bought a new KIA. 

In reply to Trackmouse :

You've been here long enough, you get it. 

Based on my most recent text conversation with my father, I think I've swayed them away from the Touarge.

Thanks for the input!

Don't walk, run. 

I'd rather own a 200k+ XC90 than a Touareg with any mileage. 

No first hand experience, but the few that I have been around have been nightmares.

My previous employer sold a very clean 60k-ish example to a very good customer. Over the next three years and 60k miles or so, he spent north of $10k on maintenance. When I left the job a few months ago he was trying to limp it through another inspection because he was buying a house and didn't want to buy a car as well.

Much more recently they sold another one, a slightly newer facelift model with similar miles. It's WELL on track to repeat that feat, with numerous expensive issues almost immediately. 

Every time a Touareg or Q7 came in for any kind of work, you could pretty much count on tools being thrown in our VW guys bay.

It's a Phaeton wearing SUV clothes.  That really should be all you need to know.

I know one person who had one, lots of expensive issues all covered under VW warrantee.  He got rid of it before the warrantee expired.  I agree I'd feel better with a high mileage XC90.

8valve said:

I know one person who had one, lots of expensive issues all covered under VW warrantee.  He got rid of it before the warrantee expired.  I agree I'd feel better with a high mileage XC90.

My boss miled his out of warranty well before the time clock ran out.  Most of those expensive issues were on his nickel.