Am I doing the wrong thing?

[nathanrobo]

for the last nearly 10 years I've had 2 100 series - V8 & 4.2 TD 50th Anniversary. I've been a member of both forums for some of that time too!

The 4.2 is going... fancied a change! My three oldest boys are all petrol heads and have been goading me towards a tourareg V10 TDI with 553 FT/lbs of torque, and 370 BHP with the DPF removed!

Am I doing the wrong thing? I've had about 55 cars now including classics that never really go anywhere, company cars etc. but I've never had anything German yet alone big and German. Anyone with serious views on the VW engine / box etc?

If I make the jump, how long before I'm back?

 

[adrianr]

No doubt the v10 is a monster. Have heard that the beefy taureg is not so good in longevity and a tad pricey to fix when it goes.... And i think they may have discontinued it

Not bored of the cruiser cos it rarely goes wrong are you (tongue in cheek)

Could you consider a cruiser 200 ttd and chip it then you have a ridonculous amount of torque to play with and its still a cruiser. Much more torques than the tuareg and itll be reliable too.

Everything german i have had has been great, and expensive to keep that way.

The japanese stuff has just run and run and run, oh did i mention run?

Just my thoughts...

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I was under the impression the VW had reliability problems but I can't point you at sources of that [mis]information ... I too got a bit bored with my 100 this summer having had basically the same car for over 10 years but I'm over it now If your boys want a VW how about they buy one

 

[chadr]

I must admit that I'm a bit fickle when it comes to cars and get bored very quickly (most of my previous cars only lasted about 2 years on average before I changed hem on). The grass always seem greener on the other side....

When I bought the LC in 2004 it lasted till 2008, when I sold it to an office colleague/friend. However I missed it so much, that I ended up buying it back 11 months later.

However, if I had your asking price handy, I wouldn't be trying to talk you into keeping it, I'd be ripping your arm off!!

P.S. Touaregs are OK until they go wrong - and unfortunately they wrong more often than VW would like you think, they do cost a *lot* to put right.

 

[SpinDrift]

The Tuareg is a very nice car. I like them and they seem capable. Seems to have some kind of low box in it and some even come with rear diff lockers. Clearance could be an issue if you take it off the road. But in America they modify them and take them out into the Moab. Depends what you want to do with it.

Have a look at this:

[youtube:1vs191ja]OpWK8IzUvdw[/youtube:1vs191ja]


Apparently VW are trying to sell them to the German military:

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I had a blast coming back from Wales in mine on Sunday, would be better if it had a blower but it was still fun, maybe you should go back to a V8 100 series

 

[nathanrobo]

Thanks guys!

Not as straight forward as I was thinking... Like the comment... "If your boys want a tourareg tell them to get one!"

Got to be said, there's not one thing that I've disliked about either cruiser.

 

[nathanrobo]

The video's pretty entertaining! Kind of expected it to roll or get grounded!

 

[Mike Stonehouse]

Hi,first proper post on here so be gentle. I had a look at the big Touareg before I got the 100 I have now. Lovely vehicle, very quick for what it was but felt heavy at the front to me. The one I had a run around in belonged to a friend and shortly afterwards the turbo died. No big deal you would think but apparently it is an engine out job to do and cost thousands. There are a few other instances of this as well when you have a look on the tinternet. Still a beast of a car though and the PD engine would be happy on biodiesel as well.

 

[Lars Bo Kjeldstrom]

Hi ...we have quite a few Touaregs here in Denmark as well. The beasty 5.0TDI was very popular indeed. I think they were suffering from weak transmissions as well ...hehe, I sure if you ask the Touareg afficionados they will advise you all too sell these dinosaur landcruisers ...anyway, the second hand prises on these cars are low in Denmark which indicate that they are costly to continue.....if you insist, then why not go all the way -and get the twin...Porche Cayenne ?

The Touareg is not a true off roader (no chassis frame!) so it also depends on whether you want to go cross country (-or crash condominios )...or you want a softroader

I would also go for the LC 200 T2D...its a thrill to fly -and rather economic as well (and well build!)

Lars

 

[nathanrobo]

Mike / Lars

Thanks for your post... the recurring theme on research seems to be turbos, transmission and niggly electronics. Being bio friendly is very important, my fuel tests within ASTM standards and has saved £1000s with the Landcruiser.

I'd love a 200 series and up to a couple of years ago would have just shelled out for one. I came out of a mega bucks job in '09 and right now I've put most of my savings to my business.

The attractive thing is that I can sell my 10 year young LC and buy a 5 year old WV without adding anything to it (says more for the landcruiser than it does for the VW). Sounds like it may be a false economy.

Ref off-roading other than the occasional bit of camping I've not been off road since the early '90s when I had a Range Rover 3.9. But it's always nice to have the ultimate go anywhere car. As said I got my first 100 series to move the 6 kids around (oldest in nearly 18 now & learning to drive).

 

[chugga90]

Hello,
I am still without a 100, but actively looking for a new to me one. I hope to get another V8.
On the VW thing, I know someone who works for a firm who supply the dealers with peace making gifts when the cars go wrong, do not arrive on time or the dealer has really annoyed the end user. VW Audi group have a lot of issues with the product at present and the amount of stuff they are giving away to keep people happyish reflects this!!!!

Keep the cruiser or get another.

 

[nathanrobo]

Is there a common theme emerging here?

 

[frank rabbets]

The grass is always greener otos. I built a 6.3 V8 550 bhp Ultima GTR recently that I thought I would never sell but sold it after 12 months. In 80's I restored and owned 2 x Aston Martin DB4GT's. They were/are the ultimate British sports car. I was never going to sell them but did and moved on. They now sell for £1 Million a car.

The trouble IS the bloody traffic in this country. Anything you drive is boring because you're stuck behind lines of crap drivers doing 40 in a sixty. I like driving fast and in France I can wind the 80 up to 90 mph on the "A" roads and keep it there for miles and miles. Hearing the engine really working hard and concentrating on nothing but the corners and road conditions are my sort of fun. I decided to see how fast it would go so proceeded; on a toll road; to 108 mph for 7 miles.To my horror I realised I was producing CLOUDS of white smoke so parked up. It was all the built up grease from one UJ over the years burning off the centre box.

Back in the day when I passed my test there was no traffic, just the odd car. People moan about the price of fuel and on weekends there is more and more traffic as if fuel is free. Petrol was 4 shillings 10 pence a gallon and even labouring on a farm I never worried about fuel cost.

Frank

 

[Ecoman]

Back in the day when I passed my test there was no traffic, just the odd car. People moan about the price of fuel and on weekends there is more and more traffic as if fuel is free. Petrol was 4 shillings 10 pence a gallon and even labouring on a farm I never worried about fuel cost.

You had it good...We used to live in a shoe box in the middle of the road and every morning we used to walk 18 mile to work and pay pit keeper fo privilege for working for him

 

[chadr]

Am I doing the wrong thing?

Now which part of YES have you not understood!

 

[Charlie]

The 4.2 is going... fancied a change!
Am I doing the wrong thing?
If I make the jump, how long before I'm back?

If you are asking this question here you already have doubts…… go with you heart, not what others are telling you.

 

[Andrew Prince]

Answer to the question is it depends what you want to use it for. As you say you'll keep one of your 100s, it's not like you'll need the Touareg for "off-road" stuff.

My old man has the V10 toerag and uses it for "overlanding" around Southern Africa and I have done some fairly rough stuff through Lesotho in it with him. The Touareg is a very different vehicle to the 100/200 - much more car-like and MUCH more go, even versus the petrol cruisers (I have been in a 5.7l V8 Lexus version of the 200 in the Middle East too) because of the low-down torque. The more sophisticated suspension makes for better ride & handling on-road.
The Touareg is probably the better long-distance cruiser at high speed but the road quality and traffic volume (and plod/cameras ) means high speed motoring doesn't really exist in the UK, so the Touareg's performance benefits are moot.

Off-road, the Touareg suffers badly versus a cruiser - it lifts a wheel very easily with the independent suspension all round and the road tyres (obviously you're limited because it requires high speed rating tyres for insurance purposes and I think 18" are the smallest it will take) pretty vulnerable to damage. The traction control doesn't overcome these issues successfully. It handles bad dirt roads ok but it bumps and scrapes when the going gets tough because of limited articulation and clearance - for sure it would end in damage eventually. It's simply not an off-road vehicle - just like the X5, ML, Q7 etc. It can do a job off-road but is certainly not the best tool for the job.

The Touareg is a bit smaller inside than a 100 series and doesn't have the 3rd row of seats so will carry 5 people max. It also has air suspension, so the same vulnerability as AHC. Horses for courses at the end of the day. If you're never going to go off the beaten track and can use the on-road advantages, then the Touareg is great. But longevity may be an issue. The LC is a better all-rounder, making up off-road for what it loses by comparison on-road. Reliability is maybe less important in the UK with the AA just a phone-call away but in Africa breaking down is no joke.

As a final comment, my dad is now thinking of getting a 200 series, despite zero mechanical issues with the VW.
Nathan, if you're thinking of going the high-performance diesel route, test drive a Q7 V12 TDI

Cheers,

 

[nathanrobo]

Thanks Andrew! I'm getting really cold feet about letting the 100 go & even colder feet about the Tourareg!

I don't really off road, but when I bought my first cruiser, it was because of the three rows of seats and it's pulling power. But I also reasoned that if they were build for the bush or desert, there's little harm I can do driving it on Britain's 3rd world quality roads. Not that I mind getting the tools out (I've often done jobs just for fun). But it sounds like the VW is complex & unreliable.

Maybe just wait till the business comes good and get a 200 (assuming that Chris Hulme hasn't banned cars by then!)

 

[Dark Dude]

Funny this! Me and the Missus have just watched Richard Hammond giving a Dakar spec VW Touareg a real good bashing in the snow and the ice in a TOP GEAR re-run on DAVE and very nice it was too. Alas it isn't a LC100. I looked at the MK1 version of the VW last year and was very impressed, especially with that awesome V10 powerplant. Alas for a large five seater 4x4 the rear load space was laughable. I don't know about the reliability problems or the cost of maintenance of the VW and quite frankly I don't need to because for the amount of money the VW dealership was asking for it, I would have expected at the very least, a decent size BOOT! The difference between a Touareg and a LC100 is that one can be described as a "TRUCK" and the other can't. You can choose which hat fits......

John