Mk4 Jetta Wagon to 2nd generation Touareg: is this a ludicrous upgrade?

[werdna]

I just got back from a road trip in my '03 Jetta Wagon, and it continues to be the fact that back seat legroom sucks and reliability concerns have been slowly increasing. (It's a bit over 400k at this point, and for about half the trip I was mildly stressing about a growing bearing whine on the accessory side of the engine.)

Somehow when I started looking at upgrades I ended up on a page about TDI Touaregs, and they're supposed to drive nice and have more room in back. The 2011-2018 generation seems surprisingly cheap, and it would occasionally be handy to have something that can tow 5000 lbs. It also, though, feels like I'd be jumping straight from the bottom end of the VW market to the top end, and maybe there's stuff in the middle that I should look at. (Even the Tiguan seems to have crap for back-seat room, though.)

Anybody got opinions about whether I'm likely to love and/or hate it or what else I should be looking at? I expect I'd keep the Jetta for around-town stuff, because I still loathe the idea of driving a large SUV in cities.

 

[Lightflyer1]

Check out the newer Passats. Lots of leg room in those. Probably a lot cheaper to maintain as well.

 

[bryanmabbott]

I have a 02 Golf TDI and a used 13 Touareg TDI. I put 45k miles on the Touareg so far in 2.5 years of ownership. Touareg has plenty of space for 4 and is very comfortable on road trips. MPG on the freeway is right on the sticker at 29mpg cruising at 70mph; about 660 miles on a tank. I use it to tow a 5k lb boat; the longest I towed was a 5hr trip to Lake Powell up the mountains (6k ft gain) in 100f temp and it did great cruising at 65mph, 14mpg if I remember correctly. It's a great all around vehicle. What surprises me the most is the great handling. It takes the corners just as well as my Golf. The con about the Touareg is that you have to remember this was a $60k vehicle that did not sell well new so it will cost more to maintain and if you don't DIY I imagine it will cost a lot at the dealer. I had my first problem with it last week where I had to recode the tail light module when the battery went flat due to some weird error. I love my Touareg and will keep it for as long as possible.

My friend has the first gen Tiguan and the rear legroom is the same as the MK5 Golf. By the numbers, the new Tiguan has more legroom than my Touareg and overall when I sat in one, it did seem just as cavernous. Not impressed by it's mpg though, 20/27/23 from a 184hp 2.0t. The Atlas is not even competitive in fuel economy, 16/22/19 what a joke. If I did not have to tow more than 3500lbs, I do like (on paper) the new Toyota Highlander Hybrid which gets 35/35/35mpg. Alas, I can't find a new replacement that matches the Touareg in all aspects save the Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel?

 

[werdna]

I have a 02 Golf TDI and a used 13 Touareg TDI.

OK, I guess I'm not the only one on that upgrade path! (Potentially anyway.) Thanks very much for the insights.

FWIW, the Tiguan more than doubles in towing capacity with the Euro-spec hitch. (European regulators and lawyers might also have something to do with it.) It still wouldn't quite do the job for me but it might for some people.

 

[06bluebeetletdi]

I 2nd the Passat. If you are looking for legroom in the back seat, the passat is amazing, plus it is more common than the touareg and the tdi sel premium was around $34k. Love mine! My brother who is 6’2” drove mine and i (I’m 5’9”) sat behind him and had tons of room. My local dealer used to have a tdi passat for their service shuttle.

 

[werdna]

I did look at a couple of Passat wagons, but right about the time I got serious about buying the used car market (at least in the US) went seriously wacky and everything was either trashed or overpriced. (Or both!) Same deal with Touaregs, really, but I was in the right place at the right time last week and a 2013 Touareg is now parked in the driveway. One owner (before I bought it), all service records (and all from the local VW dealer), and near as I can tell from them it's had a fairly trouble-free life.

It's a Sport, because I wanted as little as possible in the way of extra stuff to break, and really my only complaint so far is lack of a factory tow package. (I have already spent more than an hour trying to sort out all of the electrical parts required, and I'm still not sure if there's some weird little CAN pigtail I need upstream of the brake module! Also whether the brake modules 7P0907383F is interchangable with the -B and -G versions! There are so many threads on that other forum with the same questions and few answers.)

Thanks for the help and advice, I think I could spend a week reading the back threads in this forum trying to understand this thing.