Japan Car Auction Finds: VW Touareg 2003 V6

Now that the Volkswagen Group is so close to its goal of world market domination, it’s hard to recall an earlier time when the VW line-up went Polo, Golf, Jetta, Passat. Sure, there were Sciroccos and Beetles adding spice to the range from time to time, but the bead-and-butter sales were these four principals.

Then VW, with one eye on the ballooning US market, decided to make an SUV. The year was 2002 and, at the time, the Touareg seemed like a rather odd addition to this traditionally conservative family. That was 10 years ago, and to celebrate this success, VW has just announced a commemorative Touareg X Edition.

The Touareg didn’t make it to Japan until 2003, but we found this very clean example of one of those first models in the car auctions here. It’s a top-of-the-range V6 model finished in that classic, understated VW silver livery. With a grading of 4.5 and just 77k kilometers on the clock, there’s still a lot of life in this car yet. Another 10 years, perhaps? See what you think: