Gone to over to the dark side.

[sapphireblack]

Though not at the expense of my E71

I have a lovely holiday home in Greece and wanted to upgrade the 178k miles Subaru used over there to something more fitting. I searched long and hard for an E53 but many pre VED price increase spec cars are pretty doggy now or have been to Mars and back.

So i widened the search and as they have always had some appeal, enter VWs Touareg, bigger (it seems) than an E70/71, caverous in the back seat area and with a small van capacity behind that. I can haul copious stuff now and relax in a quite refind space. TBH, i know precious little about it so far. I do know it's not going to win any traffic light grand prix, but it has better looking built in navigation than my E71, electric everything and is very comfortable. It's due for delivery on Friday, and is scheduled for some professional and personal TLC thereafter.

It's quite an imposing lump of metal and will be great for dodgy Greek Island roads and i confess i'm quite excited by it. V5 states is Grey but its greeny blue to my eyes. I'd like to sort some nicer wheels but thats proved to be tricky on earlier 2.5 diesels which ironically have a BMW compatible PCD of 120 but offsets of 55+. I'd hoped to make use of one of the surplus BMW sets i have but sadly I can't, offsets are wildly off The factory 17" set are probably better suited if I'm honest but could do with a refurb.

Anyway I thought I'd share an image or two. It's from 2003 with 95k on it and aside from some hedgerow scratches is unmarked. A pro machine polish will sort that though.

Screenshot_20200105-170851.jpg (129.41 KiB) Viewed 2535 times

Screenshot_20200105-164213.jpg (167.43 KiB) Viewed 2535 times

[Horizon]

keep us informed as to how it performs. Good to see you trying other Manufacurers.
I've run VW vans for years, probably done several 100k miles without a breakdown.
Deffo a better bet than an E83 X3 you considered previously.
Good luck, ( just wondering why you don't buy a local Greek car. ?)

[sapphireblack]

keep us informed as to how it performs. Good to see you trying other Manufacurers.
I've run VW vans for years, probably done several 100k miles without a breakdown.
Deffo a better bet than an E83 X3 you considered previously.
Good luck, ( just wondering why you don't buy a local Greek car. ?)

Local cars are dire and expensive. If they're good they're stupidly expensive. Theres no sorn equivalent in Greece and road tax is expensive. When you only need tax for six months in twelve its not an attractive proposition.

Besides, i'm a snob and a Toyota Yaris doesn't cut it for me

[marti]

Looks good to me

[Leslie]

Tidy big bus you got a 5.0 v10 diesel in these must have been a beast

[sapphireblack]

The V10 was tempting but the more sedate 2.5 was the obvious choice. I'll know more after an imminant weekends use

[sapphireblack]

Oh well, I wasn't on the dark side very long.

Car delivered on Friday but immediate issues with rear lights, and a dashboard flag that when 'decoded' meant that the self levelling headlights had a problem.

Car goes back to the dealer tomorrow and my search will start again.