Marv

Just what are you towing at 170 mph?

bdronsick

Trailer packed with 7,700lbs of OEM headlights that won LeMans

What else??

NYoutftr

I understand the pros and cons of auction reserve, but I am an overly cautious person and will put a reserve on it, modest, but a reserve nonetheless.

Does it state on an auction when the reserve has been met?

BAT just got back with me, the person there said the time and day of the week that an auction concludes doesn't seem to matter.

I am in ecommerce, and time and day of the week matter in my sales. So I am still not sure about start/end time.

Car just got back from detailer last night, now on to photos.

Really getting a little weird about selling it, driving it back from detailer, hitting button on door opener and slipping it into the garage it has been in for 8 years, felt weird

Marv

Now we know why those damn headlights are so expensive!

bdronsick

Auction close day/time doesn't matter at all to BaT, they deal in volume now

To you it can mean $20K

bdronsick

Gotta keep 'em movin', preferably off road

Haters gonna hate

theprf

I borrowed a friend's diesel Touareg a few times to tow various cars. Also with 7700 lbs tow capacity as it's the same engine and chassis. It towed my '96 Passat on a heavy Uhaul trailer like it wasn't even there.
Unfortunately he sold the Touareg, so no borrowing anymore.

GC996

Have you thought about writing a thread on the car documenting all that you did over the past 8 years? Many of us would love to hear its complete story and I bet there is someone out there looking for a well maintained 996 that would appreciate it as well.

I know, it's not easy to write its story or i would have done it for my car already, but it may be beneficial to differentiate.

bdronsick

Yes the Audi Q7, VW Touareg, and Cayenne all shared both the same (German made) diesel powerplant; and the legendary Aisan 8-speed transmission sourced from Toyota Landcruiser (in Japan).

Porsche made some minor changes to the motor and transmission ECU's making Cayenne slightly quicker (of course), but essentially the same

But where the Porsche went off the charts was on build quality and interior fit/finish:

Cayenne doors "ping" like a 964, and the interior is on par with Bentley

IE Cayenne is made in Germany, whereas the Q7/Touareg in Slovakia

Sam-Son

Impressive

TheChunkNorris

The Cayenne's shifting logic is a couple key strokes away for Touaregs. You're right on the interior, the Touareg has a very very simple no frills but beautiful interior. Here's mine, she's getting a Eurowise 3" lift when I get home.

bdronsick

IMHO the Touareg interior is indeed much more "German" than the Cayenne, which lately seems to have been designed and built by Rolls Royce. Only explanation is that Porsche's upper crust of executives have all driven Cayennes exclusively for decades, thus Cayenne has now evolved into it's current stratospheric exclusivity solely for the pleasure of Porsche's own (myriad) billionaires (and sold in droves to Beverly Hills plastic surgeons & TicTok celebrities as an afterthought), FWIW I do vastly prefer the spartan, austere, yet nonetheless eminently elegant VW; yours is magnificent!

IE if I could have found a Diesel facelift Touareg in Silver (on the East coast) I would have. These cars are stupid rare

bdronsick

Diesel Touareg has the exact same "Ford pickup" tow rating as Cayenne. They are both torque monsters. And both drive like carved from solid granite. Automotive icons

TheChunkNorris

You're spot on regarding the interior. I had a Tiguan with some engine work... made 405whp and 412tq! Started dating my currently girlfriend and realized that fitting a stroller and stuff in the Tiguan wasn't going to cut it for as much as we head to Disney. First time driving the Touareg was memorable, just feels like a locomotive but does have some pep now that she has a Malone Stage 2. The DPF system is coming off here in about 10k miles because the Dieselgate warranty expires. It's a shame we don't get the T4 in the US and the only other option is the Audi. Fun fact though, you can still get a Turbo Diesel V6 in a Land Rover... been eye balling those for a while. Silver is extremely hard to find in the facelift model, I've never actually seen one.

bdronsick

FWIW I believe the Cayenne/Touareg platform is eminently more durable & capable off-road than the newer Rovers, which all seem a bit “delicate” to me

Cayenne/Touareg is a TANK for the autobahn and virtually all regions beyond, nothing else like it: period

And I too plan on tossing the entire DPF/DEF systems into my Indy’s dumpster at some point

Let us know how that goes