Are You Brave Enough For This £6000 VW Touareg V10 TDI?
As much as we liked the look of the new Touareg R when it was revealed earlier this week, VW has given earlier versions of its uber SUV the R treatment.
The R50 used a V10 TDI engine, which wasn’t even the most ridiculous powertrain option for the first-gen Touareg (that honour goes to the especially silly 6.0-litre W12 version). The cheapest R50 found for sale it £15,000, but for a more tempting alternative, non-R V10s can be picked up for as little as £5000.
These aren’t all that far away in terms of poke, with the 5.0-litre engine producing 309bhp and a mammoth 550lb ft of torque. It may be a diesel engine, but economical it ain’t - its sheer size means it’s good for just 23mpg on the combined cycle while chugging out an average of 300g/km of CO2.
The amount of space the V10 takes up in the engine bay is - as with the W12 Touareg and Audi’s V12 TDI Q7 - problematic when stuff goes wrong. A worrying amount of jobs require the whole damn thing to be pulled out. The injectors are also hilariously expensive to replace, although there is at least now the option of remanufactured parts to soften the blow. Slightly.
If all that doesn’t put you off, you might like the look of this one. It’s done 117,000 miles and is up for £5995. It’s being sold via the kind of advert we love, with no less than 55 nice and clear photos showing the car inside and out from all angles.
It’s just been serviced (which won’t have been cheap), and its 20-inch wheels are wearing some relatively fresh-looking Hankook tyres. Good news, as the bill for eventually replacing the boots will be stomach-churning.
It has a full service history with 12 stamps in the book, five of which were at a main dealer. It’s almost certainly had a lot of money spent on it, and the next owner will more than likely have to splash the cash to keep the Touareg V10 in fine fettle.
Are you brave enough?
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
There was a Touareg V10 that was dumped in front of my house and ended up gathering dust for a month. Turned out the vehicle was in need of some electronics and gearbox replacement. And because there is no service for such a vehicle in my country (India) as it was imported, the service costs were off the charts. Alas the owner then sold it off… which at least for me, the nuisance of it partially blocking the road in front of my house was over.
Really does beg the question, who is this silly vehicle even aimed at?
Scotty Kilmer be like…
Pull the engine out and throw it into an MX-5
broken springs and exploded dampers is what you’ll get, immediately :)
Im not too sure they are really expensive to run also if i would want a V10 Tdi id go for a phaeton because its cheaper (seen one for 3000 euros)
kinda fell in love with touareg R50 but…. the fear of servicing that engine still scares me
Omg I owned one of these. It was excellent for towing. Pulled nicely as well. But the reliability and fuel consumption was even worse then you would think.
Yes.
Really Nice Car!!!
I’d be, if it didn’t have taxes this high.