2003 Volkswagen Touran Carat from France - Comments

I have a 1.9TDI S and have been very impressed with it. It’s a very good drive and very practical for a larger family. One irritation with this base spec model is that it doesn’t have any speakers in the rear seats, which is annoying at motorway speeds for rear passengers. It’s a £70 extra and seems a bit mean not to fit from standard. I too have experienced the smoke and diesel smells from the auxiliary heater and it has just come back from the dealer who checked it under warranty. They couldn’t find fault and said it may be because the fuel level was low….not convinced by that one!! However I filled the tank and it still smokes! The dealer has suggested switching on the Econ button, but as yet I haven’t tried to see if it works. It does however, seem worse on cold days. It’ll probably be going back. Yes, front tyre wear does seem excessive.

An excellent resource for Touran owners is www.clubtouran.net.

I have a 2.0 TDI 2 year old with 72000miles on it now, only issues have been diesel smoke from front drivers wheel which dealer repaired on 2 attempt, now on its 3rd turbo, first 1 stopped working, second very noisy all the time. The only issue I have is that as it's a seven seater you don't get a spare wheel, l I have now been recovered home twice on the back of a truck due to punctures, the sealer supplied has failed on both occasions, I would purchase another, but most likely the 5 seater as the spare wheel issue is a big problem when covering such high milages.

An issue that will affect resale is the interior trim, you just need to look at it and it marks, the panels are very plasticy and mark far too easy for my liking, other trim parts have a sort of rubberised layer on them, this wears of with time leaving the trim look badly worn, door handles centre console swithes and centre top glovebox all have this problem.

I own (in the Netherlands) a 2004 Touran 1.6Fsi Tiptronic 6-speed. Besides the interior plastics which mark too easily and electronic problems it's a great handling MPV, safe to drive and very roomy. The Tiptronic is great and in our flat country the 1.6Fsi is powerful enough, but the 2.0L is advisable when money is not a big issue.

Test drived the new 1.4Tsi (double turbo) and the torgue is impressive!

Conclusion after 50.000km : not up to VW standards concerning plastic interior parts and electronics, otherwise buy!!!

I can confirm excessive front tyre wear on inside wall only so it is zero thread but 4mm on the majority of the tyre after 13k miles (1.9TDI).

Not convinced about response from VW support line, they said I must be using too many roundabouts??? .Yet I also have a Golf 2001 with 1,9D engine a tyres last for 40k miles.

About time VW came clean on cause for this.

(It appears from other threads /websites this may be caused by a 'geometry' set up problem which requires work at VW dealer . Apparentley cannot be fixed by high street tyre fitters using just tracking tools/adjustements).

I have an 05 vw touran and so far have had a radiator fan run constantly which local vw garage repaired (resistors in fan unit replaced).Now in the 2nd year have 2nd problem, the esp light come on and took back to local dealer to be told that it was the ABS computer which they would have to order 7 to 10 days. Went back 10 days later as not heard from dealer to be told 10 ABS computers was on back order and they had several tourans in with same problem. Still waiting at mo to get it fixed. Tyre wear is norm throughout, but only done 13,000 in 2 and half years.

Garry from cambridgeshire england.

Has anyone had any problems with juddering in low gears? I have just had to spend out £900 on having the gearbox, dual flywheel and slave cylinder (which have to be supplied by the same manufacturer) replaced. This is because when the car was put together they were not sourced from the same supplier and hence the dual flywheel causes the other two items to fail. I have tried (without any success) to contact the managing director of Volkswagen, who won't even do me the courtesy of replying to my letters, to ask why these weren't replaced under warranty when I pointed out the juddering, but I had to pay out £900 to have them fixed after the warranty ran out.

I bought my Touran 1.9 TDi at a year and a half old from a local VW dealer with 16.5K on the clock. I noticed the juddering in low gears early on, and within the first year had the dual mass flywheel, clutch and gearbox replaced under warranty when the flywheel finally broke. They also had the geometry fully checked out. Front tyres were replaced at about 30K, rears at 43K, and fronts again now at 60K. Wear at the front was entirely at the edges, indicating the pressure the garage set them to (the recommended one) was too low. Adding a few PSI improved grip and handling and evened the wear out. Those rear seat belts annoy the heck out of me with their incessant rattle. Just got the ECU remapped and it goes like STINK!

Have 2003 Touran Tdi, bought 2004 as demonstrator with 14,000 miles. Happy with car. Now with 27,000 miles on the clock, ABS light has come on. VW dealer quotes £400 for replacement of whole unit. Friend of mine had his ABS unit gone at 7,000 m.

Since than found out that these units have gone prematurely on a number of cars. Apparently only the electronic unit fails. As it can be detached, at considerably less cost it can be reconditioned, but has to be reset by VW.