Oh Lord!! What have I done!! A German car!! (Insert terrified emoji)

The mistakes I have made in my life are many and varied. Most of them I went into willingly, eyes wide open. Many of them I've even enjoyed. I've found that the only way to avoid mistakes is to never take chances but where's the fun in that?

I decided to replace the Ridgeline. Even though in other threads I said this is the worst time to buy a car, I'm doing it anyway. Mistake #1. 

I really like the Ridgeline. It is the perfect vehicle except for a couple of glaring exceptions. First and foremost, ZERO TORQUE. It won't haul itself around without constantly downshifting. The 3.5 wouldn't pull a sick whore off a bed if you didn't spin it up to 4500 rpms first. Second and not as important is noise. It's a loud vehicle. Every imperfection in the road is amplified by the unibody. It's every bit as loud as my XJ. Lastly, it's getting long in the tooth. It's about to turn over 260k miles. My youngest backed it into a tree and beat up the bumper. The roof is rusting. And lastly, it won't tow my boat or my enclosed trailer for any distance. It will stay in the family, but not as my primary vehicle. 

For torque and towing, I wanted a diesel. V8 torque, 4 banger fuel economy. I did not want a full-size truck. BTDT and I don't want to drive one every day. There was zero chance I was buying a small diesel from the big three so scratch the Colorado, and Ranger. The problems with them are legendary. They are also all in trucks and command premium pricing, $30k plus. That's more than I wanted to spend. The Grand Cherokee popped up. Priced right but Jeep has had many issues with their Italian diesel. 

Then the Porsche Cayenne popped up. My first thought was HELL NO!! A german diesel? I'd have to be insane. But being the open-minded person I am,  I did some more digging. There are fewer problems reported on the German diesels than the comparable diesels by the big 3. 7700 pound towing capacity. 240hp and 406 lb-ft of torque. That's more HP and torque than the 460 in my motorhome. The Porsche was still more than I wanted to spend, but it had a cheaper, less-loved idiot brother called the Touareg TDI dressed up as a VW. Interesting...

Enter Carvana. Their prices are fairly high but damn their website works. You can search nationwide. A carfax is available with every vehicle. I didn't have to drive around town and deal with a bunch of dumbass people. Click, click, and they drop the car off at your house. The car also comes with a 4500 mile 100 day warranty. Definitely would do it again. It's worth the price difference.

With all of that in mind, Carvana dropped off a 2014 FOL'KS-vahgn Touareg TDI Sport. Or as it will be known at some point, Mistake #2. German cars and I have never really been on speaking terms. I find them to be overly complicated, difficult to work on and in many cases poorly designed. Unfortunately, this vehicle fit the bill better than anything else I could find. Yesterday afternoon, Carvana dropped off a 2014 Touareg TDI Sport at my house.

Initial impressions are positive. (drool, 406 lb-ft of torque, /drool) It drives very well. It's quiet. (drool, 406 lb-ft of torque, /drool) I won't say zero road noise but it's 75-80% less than the Ridgeline. (drool, 406 lb-ft of torque, /drool) It's comfortable, even for a big guy like me. (drool, 406 lb-ft of torque, /drool). Once I hit the interstate on the way to work this morning, it shifted exactly once where the Ridgeline shifted every time you touched the throttle. (drool, 406 lb-ft of torque, /drool)

I have 7 days and 400 miles to give it the yay or nay. At the moment, it's a yay. I'll hook the boat up to it this weekend and see how it does there. 

I really like that color. The car looks great.

In reply to Slippery :

It's a very similar color to my G35. I'm thinking that it needs some bronze wheels as well. 

I just want to let you both know good luck, and we're all counting on you.

That is a pretty sharp looking truck!

It's definitely a compelling package, German or not.  We looked hard at touareg and Q7 TDI's, ultimately settled on the pathfinder because the Nissan discount was massive... and regretted that decision seemingly every month until we finally dumped that POS.  

please post the specs on the boat after you tow it?  Length, weight, impressions, etc.  

Congrats! Obviously I am a huge fan. You should have a warranty on the entire long block and all emissions gear until 10 years or 120k miles from date of first sale. So that's good for a little bit unless you're over the mileage cap. You can talk to a VW dealership and have them run the VIN to be sure of the expiry date.

The 3.0 TDI will leak oil at the timing chain cover which is, according to VW/Porsche, an engine-out service. This is why the warranty is helpful, they covered the job for me a few months ago. Yours has either already been fixed or will need it fixed eventually. If/when they do the work, it ends up being a "we replace every part we touch" so you'll get new nuts, bolts, washers, etc and I ended up with a new water pump and oil pump, too.

Seems like the rear door lock actuators like to die. The Porsche part is $200, I assume the VW part is less.

Beyond that, they're pretty stout. Enjoy it!

ClearWaterMS said:

please post the specs on the boat after you tow it?  Length, weight, impressions, etc.  

The boat is a 20' Shamrock Cuddy

The boat, with fuel, gear, and such is probably 4100 pounds. The trailer is probably another 1000 or so. I have been towing it with my wife's Suburban. It is rated at 6000 pounds towing. 

I'm pretty sure the Touareg will pull it around just fine with a 7700-pound tow rating. 

YOU FOOL!!!!

At least it's not another 6 series. 

I seriously considered these before buying a 9 year old Frontier, which I'm happy with other than fuel economy and less than stellar ride quality. I like it enough that when it eventually needs to be replaced, I'd like to go with a 2wd version in Molten Copper, which I think is a 2016 only color. Here's to hoping your VW holds up, I know it'll be a much more satisfying driving experience than any mid size truck on a long highway run.

In reply to Stampie :

I really wanted to like that car. Classic BMW looks, but it was full of broken promises and shattered dreams. 

Congrats on the purchase!

How terrible is the V10 TDi in these?

In reply to m4ff3w :

Horrible.  Don't even think about it.  Congrats on the SUV, we've put 70k mostly trouble free miles on our Cayenne diesel

In reply to m4ff3w :

I've taken several cross country trips in a friend's V10 TDI, mostly towing. They are a great vehicle....for someone else to own. I believe it has over a 250k miles on it now and is an absolute beast, but the drivetrain has been out a few times for service stuff and he has a pretty solid chunk of change in it (as many of us do in vehicles we love). If you have to do anything on the engine, the engine has to come out. It's the most tightly packed engine bay I've ever seen.

In reply to gearheadE30 :

I read the even a water pump is an engine out project. 

I won't say the v6 is spacious but it doesn't look too horrible to service. 

German vehicles are awesome.  However, I will not own one out of warranty.  It's just risky and potentially very expensive.  This applies to dailies.  Hobby cars don't need warranties.  

I broke my rule of no VAG products last winter, bought a '10 Audi S5 with a v8 6sp manual. It's pretty much a full option car down to the sport diff & carbon interior. Outside of tires and coil packs that are already done, it will need engine mounts, a door panel armrest(crusty) and the carbon trim on the console which is notorious for warping. It's had to beat a car that can pull a Toyota out of snowdrifts in front of the house. 

In reply to Toyman! :

Apparently in some ferraris, an oil change is a engine out job.

German cars are a choice only if you can choose the micro sample of the entire lineup. IF it has this-engine in this-chassis and was built in this-year and is this-trim-level you might be okay. We've had stellar service from our Jetta 2.5 wagon. It's a great appliance. It's not a turbo, which is why it isn't especially fun, but it also isn't broken four months out of every year.  It will hit 200,000 miles early next year, at which point I'll start seeking a replacement. I wish I knew more about the diesels and may educate myself by then. 

German manufacturers are adept at making their vehicles hard to love out of warranty. I'm likely going to replace it with a Honda, because I can't be bothered to fix stuff on what is the wife's car. But if research shows I can find that ONE model of VW or Audi that doesn't require constant engine-out or 'service position' repairs I'd consider another.

We are now two days in and right at 100 miles. It's a nice car. Well mannered and a pleasant place to spend time. Man, that torque is nice. Being able to accelerate with traffic without downshifting a couple of gears is wonderful. It may well be worth the extra maintenance. Only time will tell. 

There is also some stupid in here as well. Like no engine oil dipstick.  It's an $8 part. The tube for it is in place and they went to the expense of providing a cap, but no dipstick. 

This car came with the tow package. I did some digging under the rear floor and found the hitch. It's still brand new in the box. Apparently, the PO never towed with it. 

Torque is a great thing. My wife's 328 wagon diesel has a meager 180 hp and its is slow on paper, but get on the gas and the 320 lbs-ft will push you back and make you feel like you are in a much faster car. Passing on the highway is effortless. 

I had a q7 tdi as a rental once.  Such a fun ride.  I think you'll enjoy it. 

All I know about that platform is that sister has a high-mileage Cayenne that she bought cheap (v6 IIRC) and has had zero issues with it. 

Not quite a year ago we purchased a 2015 X5 Diesel, adding 25,000 miles and counting.  From the first test drive, this rig makes me smile. Thirty plus MPG at speeds that keep you flowing in traffic, a plus.  Passing, no problem.  I have no dilutions about maintenance on this car, Audi ownership in the past has me prepared.  

Enjoy not having to fuel up with other than the required Premium gas required by your German manufactures, I do!