Tow Rig Daily Driver, 4500lbs That Isn't A Pick Up

In reply to Toyman! :

There are a few things going on here: 

I'm currently towing with a 9ft high 35 year old Ford twin I-beam front suspension van; most so your's and Docwyte's version of "tows like crap" will likely be a revelation in comparison.

I've driven a Cayenne (on track) and like them alot. I will assume a Touareg drive similarly well.  As you said Germans specialize in needlessly complicated. This means I will be paying for someone to work on it. I no longer wish to deal with anything but the most simple jobs.

As I said in my opening post I'm cheap. If a Touareg is no more fussy / expensive to maintain than a Lexus GX than I'd be onboard.

In reply to Tom1200 :

I'm 35k miles into mine. It has about 128k on it. I bought the TDI Sport, which does away with most of the bells and whistles and reduces the complications. I've had it in the shop once for a gasket failure on the oil cooler. Naturally, VW mounted it under the intake so the intake had to come off. I had the shop replace any and all soft parts they had to remove to get to it. That set me back $1400, which I thought was reasonable. 

When I bought the Hummer, my wife drove the Touareg for 6 months. Mostly mile-long to the grocery store and back. That promptly stopped up the DPF so I bought her another car and then removed the offending parts. That cost another $1200 and half a day. That's avoidable if you drive it enough to keep the filter clean. 

I have also had to replace one wheel speed sensor and I did the front brakes last week.

Total spent, about $2600. While not great, that's only about twice what the Ridgeline cost while I had it and probably half what my 2007 Silverado cost. 

So, less fussy than a Lexus GX? I honestly don't know but probably not. I looked at a GX but didn't buy it because of the fuel economy and an air suspension that can be prone to failure and expensive to repair. Coming from the Ridgeline, towing was a priority and frankly, diesels just tow better. In the world of modern mid-size diesels, VW wins. 500 lb-ft of torque at 2000 rpm is the bomb when you have 5k pounds behind you. 

Another selling point was the range. The GX has a range of about 350+- miles. The Touareg is right at 600 miles. 3-4 weeks between fill-ups is kind of nice. 

Flex w/ tow package is 4500. 

In reply to Toyman! :

That's not to bad as far as maintenance goes.

Getting 18-20MPG towing an enclosed trailer would be nice as would 600 miles of range.

We've put 100k miles on our Cayenne, it has close to 125k on it now.  There have been a few emissions related things replaced under warranty but that's it.  It likes brakes and tires, I bought the brakes once at FCP Euro and done.  I've put 10k miles on my Touareg, it has close to 115k on it now and has had nothing go wrong with it outside of normal maintenance, ever.  I've got all the service records on it and nothing has broken on it.  Mine is the R line version, so the sporty one but it doesn't have things like adaptive cruise, or parking sensors even. 

I can't delete mine here since I live in Denver, my commute is 10 miles each way, my wifes is 17 miles.  Emissions wise that's long enough to not cause issues with the DPF.  You can tune out the DEF and just leave it all installed, there are delete kits out there for the DPF, SCR, etc if you live somewhere you can do that.

In reply to docwyte :

Thanks for that information, that's really helpful.

I instruct at PCA events so I have good relationships with a couple of Porsche independent shops.

My 2015 Cayenne Diesel is at 165k. I've owned it for about 15k. One owner before that always serviced at Porsche under their ownership, crazy $1000 oil changes at the dealer every 5k / 6 months. It will hopefully not see the dealer again. I've got all the records, very few issues. They replaced an Adblue heater at one point and I did the valley coolant reseal. Other than that, just the usual maintenance items. Mine still has all the emissions stuff, and will likely stay that way until something craps out. Crazy range on the highway, and gets decent mileage towing my 20' enclosed, that's about 5,000 lbs loaded. It's not an F250 or a sports car, but fills a niche of something I can park in a city parking garage when the need arises, take an Exec to dinner, and still tow the race trailer 5 or 6 times a year.

If you're interested in a Touareg / Cayenne and want Toyota reliability, there's the Highlander to consider.

2nd gen Sequoia tows great, and more importantly has plenty of brakes for size/weight. Mileage sucks but that's gonna happen regardless towing a travel trailer. (by comparison, 1st Gen Sequioa tows ok, but the brakes are pretty marginal for towing IMO. And it's nowhere near as stable with a load on as the 2nd gens with the IRS. Not to mention it has cavernous cargo/seating space of its own if you don't want to overpack the trailer, or whatever. I also had a 2008 4Runner, which towed ok (same trailer/load) but is small inside and definitely got pushed around in windy areas, even with an open trailer. I personally wouldn't want a vehicle that size (or Touareg size) for towing a boxy trailer, but that's just me...YMMV. 

I regularly tow well over 5k (racecar/trailer/gear), mine is on +1 size load range E all-terrains with a roof box/rack and it returns around 12mpg for long hauls and I almost forget the trailer is there. Obvs a travel trailer has more to deal with regarding wind, etc. It has 190k miles on it and has had no significant mechanical issues in my ownership or in the extensive records from the PO, FWIW. 

As to DD...well, I drove mine to work the last couple days while my GTI is out of action. It's a big vehicle, but fine for commuting I guess, other than the MPGs. I wouldn't want to do it regularly, but then again I like small sporty cars for the DC beltway. Depends on what your "daily driving" consists of, really. 

I need to exit this thread so as not to buy a diesel VW Toureg. 

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

As I mentioned my current van is getting 7.5 mpg towing my 8x16 race car trailer, 12 mpg would be welcome.

My job is 9 miles each way. My Outback is getting about 24 mpg; the difference in gas at 14 mpg is 3 gallons per week. So even with premium gas we're talking $50 a month / $600 a year. At 12 mpg vs 7.5 mpg I'd save $300 a year towing; so the net increase would only by $300 / $25 a month.

As for sporty; I have the Mustang for the occasional Friday drive. My drive is all of 20 minutes and I'm starting to value something quiet and comfy over sporty. 

My plan is to keep the cayenne/touareg's until the rear timing chain covers begin to leak. That's an engine out job to fix and I'm not doing that in my home garage, nor paying a shop to do it.  So I'll get rid of them at that point, until then, I'm keeping them.  I do wish I'd gotten another cayenne vs my touareg, as the cayenne is much nicer inside.  However, finding a cayenne in the spec I wanted was a lot harder than I expected.  I wanted roof rails, tow package, heated/cooled seats and preferably a heated steering wheel.  Couldn't find one with roof rails/tow package, which I thought were the easy options to find...