The Craziest Car You Have Never Heard Of....

I was working on my car the other night (something that I do quite often, by the way) and suddenly it hit me…maybe there are like 2 or 3 other people out there who want to hear my ramblings about cars?

Since I could hold my own head up, I have always had an interest in anything with a motor. Stuff that can move you from point A to point B is just plain cool.

Like many others, I grew up watching and reading from the main players in the car business: Top Gear, Jalopnik, Doug Demuro, you name it. I always dreamed about owning these crazy cars that I thought I would never be able to afford.

For a while, one car has always stood out to me, the Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI. If you do not know this car, then you are part of the 99% that have never heard of it. It almost sounds fake. I had never heard of it either until 2007, when I literally watched a Touareg V10 tow a Boeing 747 on Fifth Gear. Yes, you heard that right.

In the early 2000s, VW decided to make a 5,825 pound, 5.0 Liter, Twin-Turbo Diesel V10 powered offroad SUV with locking differentials, air suspension, and enough electronics and control modules to confuse Steve Wozniak.

Why did they do this? Honestly because their chairman at the time, Ferdinand Pi?ch, thought it was cool. That’s about it.

Surely this car would be a huge hit, right? Not exactly. It was only sold for four model years in North America (2004, and 2006-08) and was made in very limited production. It didn’t sell great for several reasons:

1. It started at $67,750 IN 2006!!!! This narrowed buyers down to a very specific group, as not many were willing to pay that kind of money for a VW.
2. It was directly competing with other brands owned by VW, namely the Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7, with which it shares a platform.
3. This car is INSANELY complex. Most prospective buyers probably did not want to own one of these when the warranty expired.
4. Why the hell does anyone need a V10 Diesel SUV??

Most logical people would just fantasize about this car and get excited when they saw one on the road? Not I!

In November 2022, I became the proud owner of one of these beasts. ?

Am I stupid? Am I insane? Do I like to get hurt? Is the car really that cool? The answer is, truly, a combination of all four.

The V10 Touareg is by far the most fun car I have ever driven. Imagine a 6,000-pound lead ball with unlimited power that can off-road better than almost anything, tow 7,716 pounds, and push 140mph top end speed.

The stock model produces 310 horsepower and a truly stupid (in a good way) 553 lb-ft of torque. It seems impossible to make this car run out of power.

So, is it reliable? Not exactly, but not as bad as the talking heads make it out to be. You can google this car, and the first thing you will see is an article talking about how much of a nightmare it is. That isn’t exactly true.

Have I had to fix things? Of course. It is a 17-year-old, extremely complicated high mileage German SUV. Expecting it to be as reliable as a Toyota 4runner is like going into a Costco expecting to spend less than $100.

Does it make me happy? 100%. I enjoy every minute spent in this car.

More to come…