While accelerating onto the highway, a loud, repetitious bang/clunk from the middle underside of the vehicle started, sounding similar to a blown tire. No abnormal operations noted prior to this. Limped the car back to the shop at 15 mph and found the center driveshaft carrier bearing failed. The service tech acted as if this was common and was not surprised. I have a 1981 Mercury with over 305000 miles and never lost a bearing in my driveshaft. Mechanical parts fail. The worst part of this event is voa's reaction that somehow they are not responsible for a poor/weak design. List of other major component failures with no recall that are common to all Touaregs of this generation according to the company's own service tech's: center differential lock motor fail rear diff. Lock motor fail cooling fans do not shut off, drain battery thermostat housing leak radio failure.

- Phoenix, AZ, USA

The vehicle is undrivable / unpredictable when the ambient temperature is below zero (F). This problem was observed for 4 days in Feb. 2004. The car will start, but surges and balks so badly you can't drive it. This condition will continue for over 20 minutes. It will re-occur the next time you try and use the vehicle so long as the temperature is below zero. The safety hazard is that it leaves you stranded wherever this happens. There's nothing the operator can do. VW has tried 3 repairs: (1) change the engine oil to synthetic, (2) & (3) reprogram the engine computer twice to supposedly fix this problem. It's now 2 years later, and we are experiencing below zero weather again, and the exact same problem persists. My dealer is not able to find any information on this problem, and can't get assistance from VW. I will contact vwoa directly and initiate a case. Finally, in researching this problem, I have found many other owners of the V6 engine who report this problem and say it's never been corrected.

- Trevett, ME, USA

: the contact stated that the vehicle stalled completely while driving at 5 mph, and the starter motor would not engage when the key was turned to restart the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to a service dealer where the dealer was unable to determine the problem.

- Plainview, NY, USA

VW Touareg engine problems in the winter. I will send the info as VW dealer repair info and engine problems was recorded on tape/dvd.

- Troy, MI, USA

I brought a Volkswagen Touareg. This vehicle has a lot problems with the brake and engine. So I filed a lemon request. Last month, VW asked me to drop this vehicle to VW dealer to investigate the brake problem. On March 23, the VW expert test drove my Touareg and had an accident because the brakes failed. There is a police report. The rear wiper made a clicking noise. Updated 05/04/06. The check engine light illuminated. The dealer replaced the engine control module. The transmission control module was updated. Updated 06/01/06.

- Troy, MI, USA

2004 Volkswagen Touareg loss power own 3 occasions at 780 miles. Windshield wipers did not work in the intermittent mode, tire pressuring monitoring system malfunctioned. ** answer required*** the tire pressuring monitoring system was giving a false reading as if there was a problem with the tires.

- Cincinnati, OH, USA

2004 Touareg V6 engine has been a torment, with 40 different problems! but two of the problems could be considered safety concerns! eradicate braking with lurching and acceleration hesitation both of which set up an unpredictable driving style! both of these problems are magnified when attempting a left turn. The driver can not depend on a assured performance at critical times. A driver must have confidence that his or her vehicle will perform with assurance at all times !

- Akron, OH, USA

When pulling out into traffic from a stop vehicle intermitently hesitates for a few seconds. It seems as though the engine is not responding to the electronic throttle or the transmission is slipping. This is a dangerous problem when pulling inot traffic from a side street or making aleft turn into oncoming traffic. I was almost rea-ended the other day. I also feel that if I make a left turn into ongoing traffic with a normal margin of safety, the vehicle could hestitate and I could be hit head-on or broadsided. It is a dangerous problem. I have returned the vehicle to the dealer twice. The first time they said they loaded in new ECU firmware and new tcu firmware. It didn't fix the problem. I returned the vehicle to the same dealer and they indicated that the volkswagon factory engineers are working on a new firmware release and should have it out the first part of December 2004. They said they would call me to install the new firmware when available.

- Scottsdale, AZ, USA

While driving at highway speeds vehicle stalled, forcing the consumer to pull off the road. Consumer took the vehicle to the dealership to be inspected, and mechanic could not duplicate the problem.

- Roswell, GA, USA

My vehicle has an electronic throttle control which is extremely sensitive and from a standing start, does not respond to small incremental input on the accelarator pedal. Instead, once the pedal is depressed enough, the throttle responds and the vehicle lunges forward. This type of throttle response is dangerous, in that in a parking lot, or when parallel parking, or when in stop-and-go traffic during rush hour, it's virtually impossible to get the vehicle to move forward slowly (under 10 mph). Sooner or later, the action of the throttle will cause a driver to either hit another vehicle or perhaps a pedestrian. I have contacted VW of America and filed a complaint with them as well. They did not indicate if they are working on resolving this problem or not. My selling dealer was aware of similar complaints from toureg owners, but also has not received a service bulletin or recall from VW as to how to correct the problem. I would assume, since it's an electronic throttle, that the program embedded within some computer chip within the ECU will need to be replaced with one having a modified program to better control the throttle response curve.

- Las Vegas, NV, USA