456,000 Miles Later, Rare VW Touareg V10 TDI Is Still Trucking

It looks surprisingly good for enduring half a million miles, though it reportedly had a new engine at 310k.

KhodroCar - Here’s something you don’t see every day, and we’re not just talking about a Volkswagen Touareg with a lot of miles. These burly Porsche Cayenne clones haven’t enjoyed the greatest reputation for reliability and longevity through the years, but aside from this one having done a whopping 456,000 miles (734,000 kilometers), it’s also one of the exceedingly rare 310-horsepower V10 turbodiesel models.

A V10 turbodiesel Touareg? Yes, this was a thing Volkswagen sold from 2002 through 2010 around the world, though tough emission regulations in the United States meant it was only sold here from 2004 through 2008, and in very limited numbers. Ironically, it was replaced by a V6 TDI that would later become part of VW’s Dieselgate scandal. Awkward.

Aside from the struggle to meet emissions, its production was also limited because this was a freaking $70,000 Volkswagen SUV. Mind you, that’s $70,000 in mid-2000s money – right now you can buy a brand new 2018 Porsche Cayenne with 340 horsepower (254 kilowatts) for $65,000. So yeah, it was crazy expensive.

With that in mind, how does a $70,000 Volkswagen diesel SUV fare after 11 years and nearly half a million miles? This particular example from 2006 lives overseas, and judging by the photos in the for-sale ad at Autowereld.nl, it looks pretty darned good. We aren’t given a description of specific details, but Autoblog.nl seems to suggest it’s had a boatload of cash invested into maintenance, with a completely new engine at 500,000 kilometers being part of the work. Extensive maintenance would certainly explain why it looks as good as it does, but 500,000 kilometers (310,000 miles) is a surprisingly low number for a diesel engine to expire at. We can only imagine what that repair bill must’ve been.

The asking price for this rare SUV is said to be €7,800, which is roughly $9,400. By comparison, we found a few V10 TDI Touaregs in the States with prices ranging from $12,000 up to near $30,000, though none of them were even remotely close to the mileage on this well-used model.