Is It Worth Buying a CHEAP, OLD VW Touareg?

The Touareg WAS one of the worst VWs when launched. Expensive to buy, common VW electrical issues, And tons of other common VW issues. Now you can buy a cheap Touareg and make it an off road monster. I bought this cheap VW touareg and here are all the common VW Touareg issues mine has. Some of the Touareg issues we will fix, other not so much LOL
Thanks to @Deutscheautoparts for some of that sweet off-road footage.

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Disclimer:
The content of this video is available for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for the professional advice of a mechanic who has personally inspected your vehicle, nor does it create a relationship of any kind between the Humble Mechanic and you. Every situation may be different, and the Humble Mechanic does not make any warranties, whether express or implied, as to the accuracy, fitness, or applicability of the information or automotive parts portrayed in this video to any project and makes no guarantee of results. The Humble Mechanic and any sponsors of this video will not be liable for any damages related to personal injury, property damage or loss of any kind that may result from the use or reliance on this video and/or any automotive parts represented in this video. You are using the information and automotive parts portrayed in this video solely at your own risk.

[HumbleMechanic]

Im not sure how many more Touareg videos I will do. LOL lot depends on the reaction from this one. The last T-reg video flopped HARD HAAHHA

[shminghong]

YES TO TOUAREG CONTENT!!! these have such a special place in my heart

[JasbirSingh-zjfg]

I've had a 04 Touareg (V8) for 5 years now, and I knew little about cars let alone Touaregs back then. Today I have enough knowledge and understanding to post advice here, lol. So here's what I think-
1) Mechanically, 1st Gen Touaregs are respectably well built suvs. My 04 had some issues, but that is to be expected for the first year of any car. 2006's have plenty of those issues resolved. (Note: T's built in 2004-2006 are called *T1* Touaregs and those built in 2007-2009 are *T2*, but they're both considered 1st generation. 2010 and onwards are 2nd Generation.)

2) The engine in the T1's is a Multi Port Fuel Injection engine, which means that it doesn't suffer from carbon-buildup-on-valves issue the way engines with Direct injection do. IMO it is a very well made/designed engine. As long as you change the oil every 5000 miles and do timing-chain/water-pump service every 80, 000 miles, it will last a long time. The one failure point on these engines that my mechanics don't want to mess with, is the seized actuator arms on the intake (discussed in the video).

3) The transmission, transfer case, differentials, etc, also are high quality. They perform very well, and with regular service they don't fail. Altogether, the drivetrain is great and tough enough to not only take it off-roading, but also tow 7700 lbs (which is a lot for a vehicle of this physical dimensions).

4) I wish I could say these nice things about 1st Gen's interior. The interior is so bad that you'll be better off just taking it to an auto-interior shop and have them rebuild the entire interior from floor to ceiling.

5) As for electrical issues, if you encounter those, take your Touareg to a VW technician. If he cannot fix those, he shouldn't be calling himself a VW technician. But before you do that, make sure to check the battery. *The Touareg's electrical system is quite sensitive to a weak battery, way more than other cars are. You have to almost obsess over making sure that the battery stays fully charged at all times.* Also, even a high quality battery would need to be replaced every four years. If the electrical issues happen despite you having a good battery, only then take it to the technician.

So should you buy a 1st Gen Touareg? Before I answer that, realize that even a 2009 model is 14 years old today, so there will be plenty of issues to resolve. IMO you should get a V10 Touareg only if A) you tow 4000+ lbs on a regular basis, *and* B) your auto-repair skills are on par with professional mechanics. If you do not meet both these criteria, do NOT get a V10.

If you live in the midwest plains and you don't tow much, a V6 Touareg is sufficient. I live in the Chicago suburbs and I knew within a year that having this suv was overkill. Why does one need low-range transfer case in the plains? The only reason I've kept this suv is because I like the ride.

If however you live in hilly areas, or if you tow (but you're not an auto-mechanic) then you should get a V8 Touareg. The car has some features built in that automatically provide extra power when needed, and that makes towing or driving on inclines/declines a pleasure.

[gti]

This should definitely be turned into an off-road build

[jonytube]

"just because you paid 3 grand it doesn't mean that you're fixing and maintaining a 3000$ car" words to live by!

[PrivateUsername]

My .02 is for a "channel build" aka Pull all the suspension, hit the entire underside with a pneumatic needle gun to get the worst of the rust off, fix the bits and bobs that you pulled, hit the whole underside with some rust remover and then with some bed liner spray....and start the off-road conversion.

[probowie]

Have a 2007 V10 Diesel.. 250+K drive every day!! Love it. It has a bunch of achievement lights on the dash so I know it's well seasoned. Great video.

[agustinalicea]

I've had mine going on 12 years. Its been reliable and not much has gone wrong other than your average maintenance stuff. I LOVE MY TREG!!! Going to be keeping an eye out for videos on this project. Especially for that JXB center support. Best wishes to you with the Touareg! I know you'll have some fun with it.

[kevingrall]

Keep up the Touareg content! Both this one and the 2015 TDI! The Touareg market is huge and we all would love to see more content about all things Touareg.

Also you should definitely lift this one 👍🏻

[tz]

I had a 2006 with the V6 and it was built like a tank. Great off road SUV for your purpose. It was hard on gas, tires and breaks.

[dustysidepanel]

i picked up a 3.2 liter touareg for 1000 bucks. one owner fully maintained 137k miles no rust. i love it. minor cosmetics lift gate doesnt stay up and headliner sag but its been a great car handles phenomenally. had to replace the mass a/f and a set of toyo tires im only about 2k into and ive put over 10k miles on it. great deal. i missed my 2008 rabbit that was totaled so i had to have the treg. one thing im not liking is the whine that i think is coming from the front diff bearings. it goes up with speed and not engine rpm

[uranusneptun]

OMG I can't believe that this is an old crusty oldskool car. I remember when they were new and expensive status symbols. Time flies by...

[myphonelist]

I would like to see you address the rust with dry ice cleaning. This would make for an awesome video.

[chiil]

Bought a 2006 3.2 VR6 Touareg 5 years ago... for $1000. Runs like a champ after refreshing the front suspension, replacing the thermostat & housing, crossover pipe and fixing various electrical gremlins.

[SteveBassen]

Love it; bought an almost identical spec back in 2019, having been a long time German car enthusiast and figuring it'd be as easy to maintain as my B6 Audi. Then realized the base engineering of the platform was 90% Porsche and way more compilated. I will say that the more often it was driven, the more reliable it was. Leaving it sit would bring out the gremlins. The JXB carrier is great. Suspension overhaul after 140k of PA salt was a nightmare. Cat pipe flex sections are trash and the cheap ebay replacements are worthless (Magnaflow fits great but are $1400/set). Sunroof drains... ugh. Someone should come up with a sunroof delete panel kit for them. When it's working, man what a great platform. Smooth as glass at 90mph on the highway (and cranking out 13mpg at 3000 rpms), handles great on backroads, way more than any 5000lbs SUV has any right to.

[ULGarage]

Australian VW dealers offered a genuine inline plug to solve this issue. Worked well on both my old Touaregs.

[brandonfriesen]

Oh Charles I really hope you create a series on this, I adore my Touareg and a couple of my friends have some too. I know my way around them fairly well, but I can always learn more. I really hope you make more videos on it, either repairing, offroad building, etc. TFL's Tough T series was a complete success for them and seriously grew their audience. People are interested in these things, they are a gem of an SUV. They look like every other mall crawler, but they are just overbuilt to an insane degree where they can compete with a half ton pickup for towing, a buttoned down sedan for highway bombing, and a jeep for offroading. Awareness of that is spreading, and I think you could accelerate it even more. Here's hoping we get to see more!

[JoshsJettas]

The LED load resistors work good for the trailer light issue, need 3 in total (left signal, right signal and running light), I’ve got all my trailers wired up with them. The T1/7L is quite a shock coming from mk4’s, especially paired with the v10.

[nelsonbaracat]

I hope this one gets more views!! i have an 04 V8 similar to this one. I LOVE taking it offroad! Mine is called "Murph" (short for murphys law, cause everything that could break in that car, broke, LOL; from chain tensioners to valve body to kessy draining the battery. it currently has 226, 000 miles! so they can go forever once things get figured out!. Oh and if you still want to use the factory amp, there are 3 wires (ground, left and right) that would need to connect to the front and back of the speakers in the after market harness. Looking forward to learning more tricks from you!

[kwrxdr.]

To fix the trailer lights I installed an enclosed box on my trailer out of an outdoor electrical box and installed regular light bulb sockets with bulbs in line as resistors and now it works perfectly as designed.