anyone test drive them, any likes or dislikes?

is vw's 4motion similar to the audi quattro?

 

Friend has a loaded V8 version. It's a very nice ride. He's had some quibbling reliability issues, but likes it overall. He's doing a lemon law buyback on it and is trying to get VW to put him into a new one.

 

One of my buddies bought one for his wife- she hates it because there's always something wrong with and even VWOA apparently has no clue how to fix it.

He was going to trade it in on something else but it has such horrible resale value that he's way upside down on it, he didn't want to spend the cash to get rid of it.

 

not too reliable
too heavy....unless you actually go off-road with it.

 

The manufacturing manager here at work bought one. Well, sort of. He bought it and the first time he turned on the climate control, it failed.

So, he went back to the dealership and they put him in a nicer one at no extra charge.

Oh yeah - his Jetta had an A/C problem at the start as well. He actually bought a Jetta and Toureg (V8) at the same time. He almost backed out completely after they both had a failure on the first day, literally within minutes of each other.

That said, it's a beautiful truck. Great interior, very classy, excellent materials, with nice features. His has the automatic adjustable seats that slip back when you get in and then move closer to the wheel when you start the vehicle. I'd gladly buy one just for that interior. The V8 has a lot of punch but it's still trying to move an awfully heavy vehicle. Looks extremely nice with optional 19" wheels (they may be 20s - not sure)!

Bottom line - typical Audi/high end VW product. Great interior, powerful motor, but fairly heavy and not the sportiest SUV in the bunch. Don't expect superb reliability either.

 

my best friends dad has one, he too has tried to get the lemon law on it. there is always something wrong with it, since it was bought from a vw/audi dealer, he stipulated he would not buy it without a loaner since vw's dont come with loaners. needless to say, he has used the privledge enough but like most have said otherwise its a great truck.

 

I have one.
Has had no issues. Does chew thru tires and gets 10-12MPG with the wife behind the wheel...
Overall its a nice ride.
The early ones can tend to have problems. If you get one, buy a late 04 model or an 05.

 

Depends on what you need. It's more off-road worthy than a MDX or FX, but IMO 99.9% of SUVs are used as tall cars/vans so I'd rather have a MDX or FX or RX for example. Plus (in general) Japanese should be more reliable and have better re-sale.

 

I have one, a late model 04 and have had no problems after 10k miles.Like earlier stated the early 04 models had some problems but have been addressed.

I like it b/c of it's somewhat scarcity, fantastic interior, and overall good looks.

Also safety, my wife was rear ended at 30 mph and it held up fantasticly well, the other guy totalled his GMC envoy, we had 5k worth of damage and is back as good as new.

 

Heres the negatives ive see nas far as cars i have had come into my dealership:

1. Tire Pressure Monitors are notorious for malfunctioning
2. Tires wear extremely quickly
3. Using aftremarket tires other than the originals will cause some drivetrain windup (ive seen it on tires with even the same overall diameter), i just did a front differental on one due to this.
4. There was a safety belt recall that should have been done on almost every vehilce due to defective safety restraints in the rear seats.

Overall as long as you keep it stock and dont put on 24" spinners or anything your probably good. I would give them a model year or so to work out the kinks before buying one myself though..