My Touareg went back to VWFS last week after 2 years and 28k miles.
It's been a monumental car in so many ways, and I'm really going to miss it. 'Only' a 6cyl 3l diesel, but plenty quick enough, with effortless grunt at anything below 120mph... it even sounded quite nice from the inside. It also handled decently for what it is as long as you're always aware of the weight and managed weight transfers with sensitivity (gentle initial steering inputs!).
But what made it was it's comfort and refinement. Amazing ride quality (even on 21" wheels and low profile tyres), quiet at very high speeds, perfect driving position, super comfy seats, fabulous climate system, top notch sound system... they all came together when covering big distances.
After retiring end of June, I relocated to Southern Spain in August. Loaded the car to the roof, put my cats in their travel cage on the back seat, picked my father up from my local train station and set off. Weybridge to Marbella. 1,443 miles. 22.5 hours. Ambient temperatures in the 40*c's at times. It was faultless... ignoring the sub 25mpg, but even that could have been better if I wasn't doing 95 through France and 100-120 through Spain.
It was equally as good coming back last week... 650 miles to Santander in under 8 hours, including a horrible 20 miles in a blizzard, with snow and ice over the mountains. And I couldn't think of many cars I'd have looked forward to getting in to at Portsmouth at 10.30pm, to drive another 2.5 hours after 30 hours on a very rough ferry crossing.
What a car.
But not cool in any way, and a V10 wouldn't have changed that
