Which car: Touareg 3.0 TDI instead of a Cayenne?

Our 2004 'Pepper' is over 170K miles now and although it is still a great, reliable hauler, it is feeling like an old SUV now. Time for an updated model. I've been looking at 2010-ish models, preferring the style to the later generation and planning to spend about $15k for one with up to 120k miles. While searching I came across a couple 2012-ish VW Touareg 3.0 TDIs and they look pretty good. Perhaps more for the money than the Porsche, but ...it's not a Porsche. What does GRM say in the used Touareg TDi vs Cayenne (VR6, S, or GTS) arena?

I just read through https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-vw-touareg-tdi/161999/page2/ and it looks favorable towards the Touareg.

Edit: Wife pointed out that the world has ended and deciding which Euro SUV to buy might not be the best use of time at the moment.

As far as I'm concerned you either buy a Cayenne Diesel or a Cayenne Turbo.  The other models might as well not exist because you pay for the badge, get worse reliability and none of the performance you expect.

When we bought our cayenne diesel we drove it back to back with a touareg diesel.  Despite them being the same SUV chassis, power train etc, they drove very differently.  I liked the transmission tuning on the Cayenne more and the handling more.  I liked the interior and exterior styling of the Touareg more.

You mention 2010ish, there's a significant difference.  10' and older models have the 6 speed auto transmission, 11' and newer an 8 speed automatic.  The 8 speed is significantly better in feel.

Can't comment on the differences between VW and Porsche, I never drove the Cayenne as the price point on the Touareg was so good.

I recently bought a 2012 X5 diesel and am really loving it. Paid ~$15K for it with ~75K miles, fully loaded. Adding a hidden hitch next week, so I haven't towed with it yet, but they are evidently great at doing so. Maybe consider them as well?

I was specifically warned away from the X5 diesels by my friend who's a service writer at one of our local BMW dealers.  Said they're horribly unreliable.  Hope that isn't your experience but another friend of mine had one and dumped it immediately when the warranty was about up as it'd spent many, many visits at the dealer getting fixed while under warranty...

AAZCD said:

Our 2004 'Pepper' is over 170K miles now and although it is still a great, reliable hauler, it is feeling like an old SUV now. Time for an updated model. I've been looking at 2010-ish models, preferring the style to the later generation and planning to spend about $15k for one with up to 120k miles. While searching I came across a couple 2012-ish VW Touareg 3.0 TDIs and they look pretty good. Perhaps more for the money than the Porsche, but ...it's not a Porsche. What does GRM say in the used Touareg TDi vs Cayenne (VR6, S, or GTS) arena?

I just read through https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-vw-touareg-tdi/161999/page2/ and it looks favorable towards the Touareg.

 

Edit: Wife pointed out that the world has ended and deciding which Euro SUV to buy might not be the best use of time at the moment.

Its never a bad use of time at the moment to ponder 'what car?'..