VW Touareg Mk3 (2018 on) - Standard Coil Springs

Absolutely. Availability and budget may well dictate here!

 ... and budget may well dictate here!

OP is looking at 19 or 20 plate cars .... that's quite a budget 😉

Just realised .. you are the OP 🙄

Bonkers isn't it, for that much money you'd think it would be easy to find something with air suspension. In fact I've just started browsing Q7s. There are plenty of reasonably low mile 2018 models, TDI 50 s-line with air suspension and within budget..

I'd sooner a toerag and so would the Mrs. They're a bit more our style. I guess they just haven't sold in the same numbers as the Audi for there to be as many used examples in the desired spec.

I have found some very good offers on the v6 TSI toerags. I can only assume they're struggling to shift them due to the fuel consumption? But one dealer was literally trying to throw one at me. Have to say, I'm quite tempted. We only drive around 8k miles a year (both commuting on the train) so the poor fuel consumption doesn't really bother me. And it's a cracking engine with lots of low down grunt.

Whatever the weather (unless something jumps up at me) we've decided to put this on hold until after the lockdown. I want to drive a Q7 and the TSI toerag, which is obviously not possible at the moment..

enjoy!!

Hi,

We have a 2018 (3rd Gen) VW Touareg RLine Tech with standard steel springs.  We have a 2020 Twin Axel Elddis 860 with a measured nose weight of 100kg.  The caravan is correctly loaded and our axel weight is within spec.  I have the answer that you are need and unfortunately it is not pretty! I found out the hard way that this Touareg is completely incapable of delivering upon VW’s towing capability promise.  We put two suitcases in the boot (trunk) and put the caravan on the back and the back of the car squats so badly the following happens:

The clearance between the tyre & wheel arch drops to 4cm at the back front lifts to 15cm.

The caravan nose drops so the front of the van only clears the ground by 18-20cm

The front steering becomes so light it gives very little confidence or feedback.

The icing on the cake is the failure of the Radar mounted behind the huge VW badge on the front grill of the vehicle.  Because the nose of the car is pointing in the air, the automatic levelling radar moves out of range and shuts down the Cruise Control, Accident Avoidance System, Pedestrian Impact Avoidance, Lane Departure etc and causes a huge stream of error messages to appear on the screen in the car every time you start it.  Unfortunately you would expect these codes to disappear after you remove the caravan!  Unfortunately not,  you need to book it into the VW dealer and get them to remove the codes because any normal aftermarket code reader will not clear the codes and they have to be done by the dealer!  I have the very latest VCDS (VAG COM) diagnostics hardware and it still does clear the codes!!

So in an attempt to overcome this, I bought suspension spring packers and do not put more than half a tank of fuel in the car.  Unfortunately it makes absolutely no difference and within 20-50 miles it fails!

Our warranty runs out on the car next month and I’m not going to start paying extortionate dealer fees and having to wait 3 weeks in order for the dealer to clear the huge string of fault codes we get from towing.  I am so disappointed with this car (we also had a MK2 Touareg for five years) that I am buying a BMW X5 which has air suspension as standard.

I spoke to my local VW Dealer, they don’t care.

That's a real shame you've had issues. Sounds like you have an awful local VW dealer. Have you tried escalating to VW UK?

As you can see I bought a gen3 Touareg with air suspension about 7 months ago. I've towed several times with it. First fully loaded trip last week to a CL in Battle and it's a fantastic tow car.
I load our Lunar so it sat with it's max nose weight of 100kg also. Had an awning kids bikes and a whole bunch of other guff in the boot along with 90 litres of diesel in the tank. The car sat perfectly level and towed like a dream. No error codes and in fact I've grown to like using ACC and used it for the majority of the time I was towing. I'd feel quite short changed it that stopped working.

Hope you get on better with an X5!

Deepblue - it sounds to me as is something is seriously wrong with your car.  OK - so mine has raised and stiffened suspension, but I doubt it makes THAT much difference.  I usually aim for a nose weight of about 95kg and the suspension hardly compresses at all with the van on the back, boot full of large, heavy awning, Weber BBQ, EHU cable, dog in cage, few cases of wine and all the other junk I take with us.

I've driven the Gen3 R-line on coil springs. It's a much stiffer spring than the SE or SEL. As firm if not firmer than my air suspension on Sport setting. I'm seriously surprised you're seeing that much compression.

As richardandros say's, it sounds like yours has a serious problem

I currently tow with a Range Rover Sport and previously Discoveries with air suspension which as others have said is a definite advantage. One thing not mentioned but which I find really helpful is the ability to lower and raise the height of the tow vehicle (from a button in the boot). It makes unhitching and hitching up really effortless. Especially hitching up with no more lifting the caravan onto the ball which at 100kg gets physical (even on the jockey winder when it is carrying the full load).