Club Touareg

[vinderliker]

Can't seem to get on the Club Touareg forum!
I have a heap of questions for you Touareg gurus.
How hard is to set up a Touareg to do some real off road driving?
Are their plenty of after market add ons via the 4wd shops like ARB?
What options would or would not order from the factory?

James

[armdlo]

Hi Vinder

You better get ready for the onslaught of replys with such a question, I could give you lots of advice but lets wait and see what else in, look up Bobz57,s threads he also lives in that ivory tower called Canberra, (only joking Bob). Best of luck ,amazing vehicle though
Armdlo

[Moonan]

www.clubtouareg.com and look up the Oz - NZ section for the local stuff.
There is a terrible shortage of accessories for the big T, aftermarket sees it as too small a market.. so get out there and buy more Touaregs!!
However, there are a few dedicated souls who want to harden the already awesome prowess of the Touareg with some accessories - again browse the clubtouareg pages. Also VWWatercooled is beginning to build up a fair history of good Qs and As.

happy hunting,

[dmm_au]

The only accessory your likely to get from ARB is a roof rack and portable air compressor. You won't find a roo bar or snorkel.

I've ordered a TD v6, but can't comment on 'real' 4wding yet. It does have plenty of power and torque. Tyres are a little scarce for the 17" rims and worse for the larger rims.

I reckon the Factory fitted, full sized, spare tyre is the option that everyone will agree you'd want off road.

Other than that we didn't need many options as it has quite a lot.
We did get black piano insets instead of that strange wood pattern.

We didn't get a sunroof, which is a shame, but then the Touareg has quite a small sunroof, so I hope it won't be missed.

We didn't get the air suspension, as it is expensive, and a pretty spectacular point of failure. That said I can see it would increase the off road capability of the vehicle, so perhaps you'd consider it.

[barefoot]

We didn't get the air suspension, as it is expensive, and a pretty spectacular point of failure. That said I can see it would increase the off road capability of the vehicle, so perhaps you'd consider it.

I'm also surprised at the 'reliability issue with air suspension given it's supposedly unbreakable on discos and of course it just went and went on old citroens...
Cheers

[dmm_au]

I'm also surprised at the 'reliability issue with air suspension given it's supposedly unbreakable on discos and of course it just went and went on old citroens...
Cheers

No personal experience, although I do recall that one of the first Australian reviews of the Discovery 3 (LR3), that I read, said that the air suspension failed on the test car.

I was quite interested in buying a Discovery 2 a few years back, and joined a yahoo mailing list. From memory a few owners organised a weekend drive, and one poor guy had to drive back on the 'stops' after his air suspension failed on a dirt track somewhere in Victoria.

A friend had a 1990 model range rover, which had been modified to remove the air suspension, and he told me it was a common modification for RR drivers wanting to go further into remote areas.

I think it may also be worth considering that air suspension in a road car, is less likely to have a log, or rock, press up underneath and damage an important air line. In a 4wd you might well have to cope with that.

Personally, I would have still been prepared to try it, but
a) Could justify the additional dollars on a rarely used/needed feature
b) Wouldn't have got any sympathy at home if it did fail

David

[T Rex]

Like David, I have ordered a V6 TDI (on the boat now) but with air suspension. We asked a lot of questions and did a lot of research before deciding on the air as Land Rover products did (and still do) show up as having problems with air suspension. However, the same rersearch on Cayenne and Touareg produced no instance of complete failure so we felt more confident in ordering it. Probably better designed and made.

We wanted the air suspension to keep the car level when towing a heavy car trailer and for the awesome clearance for off road travel. Also better road handling on sport setting.

T Rex