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Steve, Host
http://www.ukintpress.com/engineoftheyear/above4.html
http://cbsnewyork.com/shamestories/local_story_303155456.html
I talked to the sales manager, and they're moving lots of them but he claims they have never had a T-reg on the lot that wasn't already sold before it arrived.
And they're already holding deposits on V-10 TDIs.
They appear to still be a hot commodity in this part of the world (although I only saw one while driving 700 miles in NY/NJ/Penn/Mass last week)
I've had VW diesels before and I think the V10 TDI will probably perform better and give significantly better mpg than my MDX. By the time the oil burner arrives my need to occasionally seat seven should no longer be a consideration.
The sales people were unable to answer some of my questions. Maybe someone here can.
What does one do with a full size tire that goes flat? The spare is the kind that must be inflated before use and is quite small when stored. It just fits in the well under the rear floor. The under floor location for the spare looks to be much too small for a full size wheel and tire. If one has the back seat in use and the area behind the back seat full with luggage there appears to be no place to put the tire that went flat. The salesman, in jest I think, said to just leave it on the side of the road and buy a new wheel and tire later. Does the owner's manual say what to do with the flat tire?
None of the cars at the dealer had rear seat climate control. The sales people said it is available as an option. There are vents back there in the standard climate system, and the front climate controls determine what and how much comes out of these vents. Does anyone know if the optional rear controls can operate the A/C for the rear seats passengers if the front seat passengers don't want A/C (and can the people in the rear get heat when the front A/C is running)? In short, can the rear climate control be run independent of what the front climate control is doing?
As I've seen posted here, VW did nice job on the interior, but I did find the rear seat bottom rather hard and it was a bit hard to get my feet through the back door opening. I hope VW can hold the price down for the TDI and also upgrades the navigation system to a DVD 'all of the country' type from the obsolete 'part of the country' CD type.
"We did make a mistake." Volkwagen's embarrassed Press Relations Manager spoke with us (CBS news)via satellite from Detroit. Tony Fouladpour admitted the tongue weight of the trailer in the ad is too heavy for the Touareg, a fact VW's marketing department failed to check.
VW says it's in negotiations to compensate other owners who were misled by the ads. It plans to send letters to every Touareg owner explaining its towing capabilities.
Unquote
Has anyone received this letter and found out the T-Rag's true towing capability?
What's next, are we going to hear the T-Rag can't really tred through 22 inches of water?
In the 50,000 miles that I put on my 2000 GTI GLX, I had to replace:
Rear shock top mounts (twice)
Rear struts (twice)
Starter motor
A/C condensor
A/C clutch
Engine temp sensor
Coilpack
Plug wires
Rear brake disks at 20,000 miles
Turn signal/cruise control switch
Controller for engine cooling fans
When I sold the car, the 2nd gear synchro was going bad and the front wheel bearings were shot. No, I didn't race the car. No, I didn't abuse the car -- I'm 43. No, I know how to drive a stick shift -- I've been driving a stick for the past 25 years (until this August).
I'll be glad to give you the VIN if you think I'm making this up.
Don't get me wrong, I like VWs. I like their interiors. I loved the dash lighting on my GTI. I just wish it was reliable.
'99 VW New Beetle (2.0L gas, 5 speed). Purchased in December 1998. Currently at 53,000 miles.
Problems and issues:
-> 02 sensor replaced
-> A/C seal replaced
-> Cable to gas cap release repaired
-> Power window switch replaced (broken by someone who didn't know how it worked)
-> Front belly pan replaced (torn off by wife when driving in 6-8" of snow - she should have known better - she's from Wyoming!)
And that's it! Have done all required services, plus bought a new set of tires (the stock Goodyears gave up at about 27,000 miles - replaced with Pirelli 4000's which still look good).
In my mind, pretty reliable. Nothing that has caused the car to leave us stranded. All repairs effectively taken care of by the dealer where we bought the car -- only once has it had to stay overnight -- dealer arranged for a free rental car.
We have an Explorer that is coming off lease next spring. Wife likes the looks of the T-reg and we may consider a V6 when the time comes. Will continue to monitor this board to see what else is said and how people feel about it.
I guess my point is, my car is a sample of 1. So was the other posters. Hard to draw a reliable conclusion about an entire brand from 2 vehicles.
Also, I would suggest, but cannot prove, that most of the posters here will talk freely about problems, but the owners of vehciles (regardless of brand and model) who don't have problems don't have much to say.
I've been on these boards now for 6+ years. I've bought and/or leased 6 vehicles in that time. When I do the research on what we're interested in, I hear all about the problems of this car and that SUV, plus some positive comments thrown in for good measure. I take it all with a grain of salt.
I will admit to being a bit skeptical about VW's reliability when we got the NB. Some friends of ours have a '98 NB and have had much more trouble with it than we have with ours.
Overall, I've been pretty impressed with our VW. Enough so to consider the brand again when our next vehicle needs to be purchased.
My German cars have been the best driving cars and I wish they had been more reliable.
I have test driven and/or rented dozens, probably hundreds, of cars -- many of them Japanese.
Personal taste: there just have not been any Japanese cars that interest me enough to spend my money on them. All the raves about reliability do not phase me -- and yes I wish my German cars had been more reliable; and continue to improve in their reliability.
But even the few Lexus and Infinity cars I have rented and/or test driven (and I grant they are nice) don't push my "this is a fun car to drive" button.
So, I too take the preponderance of complaints on these town halls just as the poster said -- people who have problems post "more" than people who have none.
I took one of those sales courses -- so I don't really have anything scientific to go by -- where they claim that if you have problems [with a product or service] you tell 5 people and if you have no problems you tell only 1.
By that reasoning, these boards are a distortion a negative distortion of the folks who could but don't post.
For the life of me, other than those "damn lawyers" I can't figure out why the auto manufacturers themselves don't post on these town halls and message boards and chat rooms across the world wide web!
But now I would like to own a German made vehicle since its handling and performance is superior to the Japanese vehicles (IMHO). Now I need to decide whether I could put up with the problems. BTW, I think that German electronics is a step ahead of the Japanese in the automotive industry. However, the Japanese will take what the Germans invented and improve it ten folds. This is how they make a superior product and of course reliable.
Fact is, modern cars despite their complexity are very impressive beasts, and the reliability gap between the Japanese manufacturers and VW may seem large in relative terms, but in absolute terms it's just not that bad. Now, I'd be the first to contend that there's room for improvement for VW, but it's not as big of a deal as some Japanese aficionados would want to make you believe.
I guess is true most people come to these boards when they have a problem and the other half just to make conversation.
I wish I could afford the V10 TDI, it promises to be *awesome*. And great fuel economy, too. Who can argue with that?
I spent about 16 hours driving my sister's '00 NB a couple of weeks ago going and coming from VA to TN. Drove well, solid feeling ride and the seats were very comfy. It's a bit tricky getting the power windows to go up and down though :-).
Steve, Host
Too bad, I had a Scirocco that ran forever and seemed pretty reliable, except the factory hooked the a/c unit up backwards and I developed a glacier at the base of my inside wheelwell everytime the a/c was on. Which then led to mold, etc. Dealer couldn't figure out the problem until 65,000 miles at which point the car smelled like an aquarium.
I bought a Toyota 4Runner Sport with the V8 and dual Borla exhaust. The XREAS and other amenities make the vehicle unbelievable, if you had a similar experience at the VW dealer try the 4Runner. Having owned over 15 new vehicles of varying manufacturers over the years, I can say without a doubt the 4Runner is the best vehicle (SUV/car) I have ever owned. I like the TReg though, especially the soon to be optional V10 diesel! Happy motoring!
The dealer had put his additional window sticker on the cars that added $2500 to the factor window price. Like you experienced, all three of the 'sales' people I spoke with left me with the feeling that this was not the place to buy.
I still like the T-reg, but I'll shop somewhere else. Maybe that dealer will know where to put a flat tire and how the rear A/C system works (or have a T-reg with rear A/C).
Thed did not know where the T-reg was but were notified of the new date on the Monday morning updates. Dealer said he would try to locate the T-Reg.
Dealer just call today to confirm the the T-reg was spotted by VW Houston and will be sent to Chicago asap.
I did not call the dealer he took it upon himself to keep informed. Could not ask for more.
By the way he gave me a good deal. Very hard to find a V-8 in the chicago area with the right equipment.
I assume by your name youre up north. The funny thing i found about all of the dealers down here in Southern California is that they are all very mellow about selling. I almost found them to be too distant. I dont know whats going on in other parts of the country but i really assumed that the salespeople are almost told to back off and let you do the talking.
According to the T-reg Window stickers I saw the car comes from Slovania (sp), the transmission from Japan, and the engine from Hungary. Most of the other VWs on the lot had stickers that said Germany for all three.
It's interesting that highender's Cay also has that same tranny, but some other chassis components are not the same between the two, as far as I know. So the tranny was part of the plan from early on.
Hey by the way, the T-reg has added another feather to its crown. This one is hilarious. (Forgive the duplicate post, the other thread where I posted this is not very active.) It was voted best Texas SUV. Now if that's not a badge of honor I don't know what is:
http://www.autofan.com/newsdetail.asp?id=785&mn=10&yr=200
T-Reg but for those of you considering it, wait till next year when they get all the bugs out. It seems that the shop has had my car more than I've had. A recalled part has already been replaced and the team of "VW Touareg Engineers" can't seem to give my service department a call back to tell them why they can't get the fault light to turn off for the tire pressure monitoring system. Other than that annoyance, I absolutely love this truck. Especially after driving the loaner car and sliding all over the road in the rain. I've had a Trooper and a Tahoe and this is by far superior. I wish it took regular though because $37.00 a pop for a fill up is pretty steep.
First off, beware of cars on the lot; they'll have good bargains especially for V6's, but some of them may be older than others. Check the build date. Don't let them sell you one that's old. I actually ordered one, if you order one now you'll get it at the beginning of Feb or so.
You can get better deals on the V6 than on the V8, so in real terms the difference in price will be larger than the MSRP difference (after you pile the premium on to match the V8 features). Your estimate of $5-$6k more for the V8 is probably realistic. The extra performance wasn't worth the higher price and increased fuel consumption, I'm not an agressive driver and the V6 seemed adequate.
26000+ vin number. My V-* just got to the port in the last week or so and has a VIN in the 27500 series.
So yeah - what is a good vin#?
Thanks.
Does anyone have experience with the Nav in the T-reg. I would appreciate your comments.
Do they give you a grid coord. book so you can tell where you are? Just kidding. I have made in inquiry to VW and am awaiting their reply.