Car Talk 6: Best of times and Worst of Times

[CaleDeRoo]

Re: Tour X

There's a nice little community for those locally here.

[SAWCE]

They’re good looking cars

[D Griff]

Pretty hot with the cladding painted.

[D Griff]

I won’t lie though, as much as it want to say I don’t care about badge… I would not be stoked to tell people I drive a Buick.

[SAWCE]

Painting the cladding seems like a must-do.

[CaleDeRoo]

I haven't seen one with the cladding painted vs removed. That could be an interesting look.

[Tar]

We were looking for tires on the T-reg, wife was cool with buying something badass that can stay on rain, snow, or shine. I think I might have gone a bit overboard, BFG K02s

They are really cool looking, but I'm a bit worried that the wife will think they're too loud.






I think they're
What you guys think, or ?

[max225]

We were looking for tires on the T-reg, wife was cool with buying something badass that can stay on rain, snow, or shine. I think I might have gone a bit overboard, BFG K02s

They are really cool looking, but I'm a bit worried that the wife will think they're too loud.






I think they're
What you guys think, or ?

Holy shit …

I Love k02s but i wouldn’t even put them on my truck…

Are they upsized? Or stock size ?

They are great tires but make sure to rotate every 5k… unless you want a wub wub wub fest at home

[D Griff]

Man... we have just some regular BFG all terrains on the and I'd honestly be tempted to get the minivan Michelins next go round. I think K02s are actually semi-quiet for the category at least?

My buddy who bought my 328i had a (not grand) Cherokee and put these all terrains on and they were so loud, it was the dumbest thing on that POS minivan of a car. At least the T-reg is somewhat of a real

[D Griff]

It definitely looks cooler IMO.

[Tar]

Ops, sounds like I bought too much tire. They're pretty sick, but the wife may hate them. We'll see, I would like to keep them if she isn't opposed to it, they can handle snow and shit so maybe I'll grab a summer set next year, she really doesn't drive much anymore, so they will likely hit 5 k every 6 mths

[Tar]

I may sell them if they end up being a nuisance.

[Tar]

They seem quiet around town, stock size 255/55r18s

[max225]

They seem quiet around town, stock size 255/55r18s

They will be for the first 10k easy. Keep us posted

[Tar]

They seem quiet around town, stock size 255/55r18s

They will be for the first 10k easy. Keep us posted

Based on what you are saying here, the wife will probably get over the new/cool factor and make me put regular tires on her truck.

It's getting older (we bought it in 2016) so she will probably only want to keep it for another 3yrs. I don't really want to buy two sets of tires, so I'll need to find something that handles snow but can stay on during summer months.

It would be cool to keep it and turn it into an off-road thing with a set of these and a 3" lift kit. Resale on it is abysmal at best. Also, my first born turns 16 in 4 yrs.. so this would be a pretty dope first car,

Realistically though, if they are too much i'll likely just sell them.

[D Griff]

Hopefully your wife doesn't notice the noise

[SAWCE]

I haven't seen one with the cladding painted vs removed. That could be an interesting look.

Oh, just realized the ones you posed have the cladding removed.. that’s nice that you can do that. Much cleaner look imo.

[max225]

They will be for the first 10k easy. Keep us posted

Based on what you are saying here, the wife will probably get over the new/cool factor and make me put regular tires on her truck.

It's getting older (we bought it in 2016) so she will probably only want to keep it for another 3yrs. I don't really want to buy two sets of tires, so I'll need to find something that handles snow but can stay on during summer months.

It would be cool to keep it and turn it into an off-road thing with a set of these and a 3" lift kit. Resale on it is abysmal at best. Also, my first born turns 16 in 4 yrs.. so this would be a pretty dope first car,

Realistically though, if they are too much i'll likely just sell them.

The car is pretty well insulated so just keep us posted. It’ll likely be just fine for a few years.

Btw does that thing have air suspension?

[Tar]

Based on what you are saying here, the wife will probably get over the new/cool factor and make me put regular tires on her truck.

It's getting older (we bought it in 2016) so she will probably only want to keep it for another 3yrs. I don't really want to buy two sets of tires, so I'll need to find something that handles snow but can stay on during summer months.

It would be cool to keep it and turn it into an off-road thing with a set of these and a 3" lift kit. Resale on it is abysmal at best. Also, my first born turns 16 in 4 yrs.. so this would be a pretty dope first car,

Realistically though, if they are too much i'll likely just sell them.

The car is pretty well insulated so just keep us posted. It’ll likely be just fine for a few years.

Btw does that thing have air suspension?

Will do, no air suspension on that thing.

[max225]

The car is pretty well insulated so just keep us posted. It’ll likely be just fine for a few years.

Btw does that thing have air suspension?

Will do, no air suspension on that thing.

Btw can you post up some deets on your ownership experience ? It’s a 2016 vr6? How many miles? How has it been over time ? Just a water pump ? Or am I crazy

[Tar]

Will do, no air suspension on that thing.

Btw can you post up some deets on your ownership experience ? It’s a 2016 vr6? How many miles? How has it been over time ? Just a water pump ? Or am I crazy

My pleasure... Here's the general gist:

We leased the 16 Touareg 3.6 V6 motor for 4 years. Purchase price was something like (CAD funds cited) $10k on the hood, so a $63?k list price being offered for $53k at the time. It's a mid-level trim package, so it has a pano glass roof, keyless, auto, 4wd, cruise, nav, fake leather, power/heated seats, reverse camera, power tailgate, towing hitch w/harness, LED tailz, xenon headlights W/LED DRL and turn signals, lane keeping, blind spot monitoring, off-road features like crawl mode, steering angle sensors, etc and maybe a few other negligible features.

We serviced it at the dealership throught it's entire lifespan, skipping bundled service packages and custom picking only the fluid changes that I wanted them to replace. I replaced plugs, cabin air filters, etc., myself using OEM parts, with a bit of scrutiny around their "recommended" intervals.

When the lease matured, buyout was only $25k, and Nicole only put 55k miles on it. There really wasn't anything even close to its value in 2020, so we bought it out. Since then, she's probably put another 20k miles on it, and she works from home exclusively, so it only gets driven for general run around tasks, and a few road trips when we're not taking the Camry.

The brake rotors and pads finally rusted and wore out, so we did the whole pad/rotor/brake fluid replacement for $1200 at the dealership, which has them covered under warranty for 2 yrs.

Driver side heated seat also shit the bed, dealer replaced it for $400 all in.

Water pump also went around the same time as the brakes, so we gave them the car, and surprisingly it was a $600 job through the dealership, so we paid them and have that covered.

I should probably change the battery soon.

No other issues came up, and I feel like the main maintenance items and consumables have been addressed for a while.

Zero sign of rust.

Zero wear on the seats, and only a couple of plastic trim pieces need replacement. Namely one vent kind of came apart, but I have the piece and with the right pair of needle nose, I may be able to lock it back together. There are two or three plastic covers that mount to the door card and cover bulbs that light the floor when the door is open which also kind of came apart.

I feel like this generation of Touareg is very well built, and kind of utilize quality components shared with Audi/Porsche, so there is an overall sensation of durability. It's average/kinda slow, but we feed it 87 octane gas, so that probably leaves 10% on the table, but it's not really the kind of car we rev up or anything, and it keeps up nicely in traffic.

We towed a 22' trailer to Grand Bend full of furniture last year, and I didn't even notice the load back there. The truck is epic when it comes to towing shit. I believe they are rated for 8300 lbs without back checking.

Definitely not the horror story you'd expect if you've owned the previous gen Touareg. My only gripe is the archaic head unit, and VWs software which requires OBD access to reser service AND inspection reminders. It's always a nightmare, and caused me to sever ties with my local dealer. The work mentioned above all goes to the next closest VW dealership about 25 min away, where they throw me a 10% discount for everything, and clear the inspection reminder for me even if I do my own work sometimes.

I didn't proof read, and this was typed on an android phone, so forgive any typos and bad grammar.

[Tar]

Sorry, the heating element in the seat went, the power stuff still works. Getting that pad out requires it to be removed, and taken apart. It's a lot of labor for a fairly cheap part.

[max225]

That’s great and overall it sounds like a 5/7 experience with reasonable dealer pricing too! What more can one ask for ?

Did you have to do a trans service and a transfer case (if it has one)?

My stepmoms Q5 was also nearly flawless until 100k and then all kinds of random shit started happening … yours should be a bit more stout sans turbro.

[Tar]

It's great when dealers charge fairly, I don't mind spending a little extra for the expertise.

I've asked numerous times, trans fluid is lifetime, apparently. I don't remember what the deets are on the transfer case, but I'll look into the service history tomorrow.

Thanks, I'm totally happy with how things are progressing with the ownership experience. Hopefully no gremlins show up. *knock wood*, things have been good.

[CaleDeRoo]

I haven't seen one with the cladding painted vs removed. That could be an interesting look.

Oh, just realized the ones you posed have the cladding removed.. that’s nice that you can do that. Much cleaner look imo.

It's just stuck on the fenders. The bumpers and side skirts however would need to be replaced completely or painted. It's one of those things where you have to fully commit to either or.