alpha2158

Hi All,

I’ve been lurking here for a while and it’s time to break the silence.

I owned a 2004 V8 Touareg and it was a love/hate relationship.
I loved the build quality, the air suspension and the heated steering wheel.
Hated the constant dead batteries.
VW eventually replaced it with a 2006 but I didn’t keep it long because I just didn’t trust its reliability.

I use a wheelchair to get around. I can hobble around to throw my chair in the back and the electric lift gate is high on the list.
So that puts me at 2008 or newer.
I need hand controls to drive, so that makes it a bit of a hassle to change cars.

I’m struggling with my need for speed, reliability, and what I can afford. The afford part is always a pain :^)
The most I can spent is 55k which roughly equates to:

Cayenne S with lower miles.
Cayenne GTS with higher miles.
Cayenne Turbo with higher miles.

Air suspension is a must so that eliminates most of the S’s.
I’m not a big fan of the suede seat inserts in the GTS seats but like them otherwise.
Absolutely love the Turbo.

I see a lot of 2006 and earlier Turbos with very high miles and that is a confidence builder.
The replacement of the plastic water pipes and cardigan shafts on the 2006 and earlier doesn’t scare me much.
I’ve done a lot of reading in the forums and don’t see the reliability problems that plagued the Touaregs.

It looks like I would be going with a 2008 Turbo with ~50k miles.
I would probably drive it to 100k miles and it’s okay if the turbos need service but not the short block.

What do you think of this idea, have I lost my mind?

Is there anything else I need to consider?

I live in Wilsonville Oregon and we used to have a car dealer named “Grand Prix Imports” until the city drove them out.
This really sucks because that would have been a convenient place for service and repairs.

I need to find a good shop in the general area, any suggestions?

Thanks for reading my first, and hopefully not last, post :^)

=Bill

911SLOW

Words like violence break the silence

I took the wrong road

Strangelove that's how my love goes

It's just time to pay the price for not listening to advice

Andy E.

Bill, welcome to the P!G pen! If your experience with a first-year build Touareg was a sour one, you can only imagine what issues Cayenne owners had in the first year.

The GTS is a great vehicle all around but you will definitely need to modify the driver's Alcantara seating surfaces so that you could slide in a lot easier. I'm not sure if a pleather seat cover would work or not but it would definitely be worth trying.

alpha2158

Hi Andy,

I wasn't sure how bad it was for the very early Cayennes but I think I can guess. I still have flashbacks to seemingly never ending series of error messages that the Touareg displayed at startup

When I look at pictures for Cayennes for sale, I look to see if there is an error on the display...

My thing with the GTS seats is mostly preference, I had a similar thing in a SRT8 Magnum. Great butt grip but they always looked messed up.

Divot

Spend $50k and keep the extra 5 for contingencies. Yeah, 'contingencies' has a nice ring to it.

mcbit

The Leather & Alcantara driver's seat in my GTS at 80,000 kms are still in perfect condition not something I could say about the CTTs leather driver's seat at the same mileage.

I prefer the GTS seats in all ways but again down to personal preference.

mcbit

I prefer the word 'inevitability'.

911SLOW

no lyrics
no vid

=no go

Okay Mr. Zappa?

Divot

There is this little ditty about 'Bald-Headed John, King of the Plookers.'

John's got a sausage
Yeh man
John's got a sausage
Yeh man
John's got a sausage that will make you fart
John's got a sausage that will break your heart
Make you fart
And break your heart
Don't bend over if you are smart


I wore out the grooves on this album in college. It features the first appearance of Dale Bozio, who formed Missing Persons with her husband Terry, Zappa's drummer.

Now that my work here is done, I'll go back to OT.

ltc

Clearly a 2007 P!g is the way to go

Andy E.

Yes. I believe that PAG named the 2007 the "Phantom Edition"...

leek

I have an 08 ctt that has just over 80k on it and it has been a very good and reliable car.

alpha2158

@ ltc Good idea, maybe I can get a 1996 Jeep Wrangler to go with it?

I'm in no rush to find a P!G and although my ego says go Turbo, the gts red GTSs are dead sexy. Maybe the suede inserts aren't so bad afterall.

ltc

So you start a thread with the title " I want a pig - bad " ... now you say " I'm in no rush to find a P!g "

In reality, you don't really need nor want a Cayenne ...

alpha2158

Ouch. I do want one bad and I will have one by summer time. Right now I'm in the decision stage and was looking for first hand owner experience.