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x10003q

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BZT.

I'll take 605hp for the win, please.

View attachment 19798
Not me, I would rather have the torque, and as an added attraction, the lack of ground clearance is a real pain in the ass. How do I know? My brother-in -law has an RS7. He has already dinged the carbon fiber splitter in the front of his car and he has to back the car into his garage.ogwink This past weekend in VT we drove my Touareg to the mountain all 3 days while his RS7 stayed safely parked backwards in the garage.
 

Philpug

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Not me, I would rather have the torque, and as an added attraction, the lack of ground clearance is a real pain in the ass. How do I know? My brother-in -law has an RS7. He has already dinged the carbon fiber splitter in the front of his car and he has to back the car into his garage.ogwink This past weekend in VT we drove my Touareg to the mountain all 3 days while his RS7 stayed safely parked backwards in the garage.
I have to agree with you, I would take the extra clearance too, its' not like the QS7 will handle like a boat anyway. Give me the torque and better MPG too.
 

Jed Peters

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Maybe not but we understand eurofunction.

If we're bringing those "things" into it (SUV's) then I present to you, the only "proper" SUV made. I mean, why would you have anything else? The rest is just....fake.

3113ae0951a13701f187c67a3c982c2b.jpg
 

Philpug

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I dunno...this is pretty "proper"...
Large%20Image_9046.jpg
 
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TS
Tom K.

Tom K.

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I might have to amend my choice, given the recent announcement of an upcoming SRT Durango.

Apples and oranges, for sure, but the Durango would have more ground clearance AND pull my wife's horse trailer without breaking a sweat.

And its underpinnings date back to a Mercedes SUV of some kind or another, back when Daimler owned Chrysler for a short time.
 

Muleski

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I have a good friend who has an E63, and it is an amazingly big piece of machinery. Wow. It makes some very long drives a lot quicker and more fun. Pretty amazing. Have never driven it in the winter. I bet it would plow through snow pretty well.

His winter/ski vehicle is a Land Cruiser, with four studded Hakka's and a Packasport box sprayed to match it's color. Does the job. An equally great machine.

Not a fan of Range Rovers. The car of choice among young moms in my town. Trip all over them. The local dealer must lease a zillion of them. OK for the royal family.

Part of my problem when traveling to Europe is that I spend the whole time staring at Euro sport wagons that won't make it to the USA for 25 years.

I think our best ski vehicle was a 1995.5 S6 Avant, which had pretty much a full RS setup, includinga six-speed gearbox. We ran studs on the stock rims in the winter. Thing was just amazing. Made a huge mistake selling it for a used C5S6, which was just not the same. It also was just cursed.

My son sent me pics from Cortina of two cars, parked next to each other. One was a Dakar yellow RS6 Avant, which looked like it had been seriously tweaked and tuned. The other was a 540 touring, that looked to possibly be an M5 conversion. Exhaust and brakes were kind of telling. Yeah......the land of the sports wagon!

All above my pay grade these days!
 

Chickenmonkey

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When we go to replace the Yukon down the road, an AWD Sprinter Van could be the next S.S.Pugski II.

mbz-sprinter-4x4-2.jpg


But this thread is about the ultmate ski car, not SUV or van.

My buddie's is supposed to arrive right before the gathering. He is picking us up (lives in Portland) at the Van Airport and driving all of us to Whistler. I am not sure which configuration he went with but he will add some customizations after the initial trip. Raised floor for his snowboards, slings or racks for his surfboards, etc.
 

x10003q

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You two have no sense of eurostyle.
My previous ride was a 2002 Audi S6. Since the only available wagon in this size range is the MB E class, which is ugly and expensive, I moved on to the Touareg. As for your suggestion of the lovely Ranger Rover, I would rather not have a close, personal relationship with the RR service department. The Touareg has been the best all around ski vehicle I have ever owned and that list includes 7 Audis and a couple of pickups.
 

Jed Peters

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My previous ride was a 2002 Audi S6. Since the only available wagon in this size range is the MB E class, which is ugly and expensive, I moved on to the Touareg. As for your suggestion of the lovely Ranger Rover, I would rather not have a close, personal relationship with the RR service department. The Touareg has been the best all around ski vehicle I have ever owned and that list includes 7 Audis and a couple of pickups.

Interesting you bring up the Touareg. Absolutely the worst vehicle I have ever owned. I hated it. Unreliable, horribly expensive services, body roll, wandered all over the road, etc.

@Sierrajim was in it the last time I drove it skiing and stuffed it into a snow bank. I got a BMW 5 wagon literally that day.
 

x10003q

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Interesting you bring up the Touareg. Absolutely the worst vehicle I have ever owned. I hated it. Unreliable, horribly expensive services, body roll, wandered all over the road, etc.

@Sierrajim was in it the last time I drove it skiing and stuffed it into a snow bank. I got a BMW 5 wagon literally that day.

What year? I have a 2014 and it has been excellent. It tracks on the highway like a train, very little body roll on the 2 laners and with the low revving TDI it is quiet, giving me 30mpg while keeping my speed between 70-80. The passenger space and legroom in the rear seat is huge. It has only had regular maint plus the Ad Blue nonsense that was covered under warranty. My sister-in-law had a 2010 Touareg and it was a load of electrical gremlins and she got rid of it after 2 years.
 

Jed Peters

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What year? I have a 2014 and it has been excellent. It tracks on the highway like a train, very little body roll on the 2 laners and with the low revving TDI it is quiet, giving me 30mpg while keeping my speed between 70-80. The passenger space and legroom in the rear seat is huge. It has only had regular maint plus the Ad Blue nonsense that was covered under warranty. My sister-in-law had a 2010 Touareg and it was a load of electrical gremlins and she got rid of it after 2 years.

It was a 2009, V8.

Enjoy your 9k check from VAG and your "fix".
 

Muleski

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Two of our "best" were also the "worst". One was a 2008 Toureag. The V10 diesel, which was pretty exciting in terms of the 550 ft/lbs of torque. Other than that, much like Jed's experience. It was not a great driver, much as I wanted it to be. The newer ones seem lightyears better. Very glad to have an extended warranty, and it frankly helped when we sold it as when you pulled up the VGA service records on line, they were scary. Owned it for about a year and half, and we went back to our go-to, a Land Cruiser. Polar opposite in reliability.

The other nightmare that we loved was a 2003 W8 Passat wagon. When it was at it's best, it was tremendous. Perfect size for me. Great driver, and awesome in the snow. A real sleeper, it had a lot of guts. And, I would not be surprised if it set the high bar for VW warranty repairs. I had a 100K warranty on it. The engine came out of the car three times, and was replaced once. Two transmissions, I think four clutches. More significant electrical issues that I can recall. And on warranty, the answer was to just replace! During the last six months that we owned it, I just wanted to get it sorted out to get rid of it. One of my close friends was the dealer, and he set me up in a GTI as a loaner. For 16K miles! When it ran......it was great. Interstingly, despite all of the problems over 80K miles, I never was stranded and never had to haveit towed.

Thank goodness for small favors. That car flipped my reliability switch, go the next car was a CPO Subie Legacy GT wagon.

Having the W8 and a problematic S6 at the same time was not a great time. Thank goodness we had a Landcruiser as well.
 

Jed Peters

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Having driven back and forth to Tahoe in @Rich Peters Rover (full sized) I'm convinced it's the greatest SUV ever built. Yes, over GL's, X5, Q7, Cayennes, blah blah. We even have a friend with the new Bentley, and he wishes he had back his LWB Autobiography RR.

Now, when you pull in the Sienna AWD in a higher end config, or a Mercedes Sprinter 4wd set up for touring, that's a diff story.

Now, regarding wagons, there is no argument that the new E wagon is the best wagon one can buy in the USA. Of course...I'd love a 5 wagon in the us, or an a6 wagon...but we are not so lucky here.

(Jed--Proud owner of a minivan and station wagon)
 

Sierrajim

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Interesting you bring up the Touareg. Absolutely the worst vehicle I have ever owned. I hated it. Unreliable, horribly expensive services, body roll, wandered all over the road, etc.

@Sierrajim was in it the last time I drove it skiing and stuffed it into a snow bank. I got a BMW 5 wagon literally that day.

I remember that trip like it was yesterday. Seems like when you wanted it to turn it didn't (bank stuffage) then when you didn't want it to turn (trying to go straight) it was all over the place. I said "yikes" to myself quite a few times that day.
 

Philpug

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I remember that trip like it was yesterday. Seems like when you wanted it to turn it didn't (bank stuffage) then when you didn't want it to turn (trying to go straight) it was all over the place. I said "yikes" to myself quite a few times that day.
Sounds like a bad tune. :eek:
 

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