Buying Touran - Advice needed

[aussie]

Hi all,

We have just bought a Touran 1.9 TDi S 105 BHP which we hope will pull our caravan with no problems.

Now I have a few questions which I think that some of you guys could help with: -

The Touran is a 55 Reg and doesn't play MP3 Does anyone know the best system to put in to play MP3 or recommend a variety of Cd Players for the Touran that can play MP3?

It also has a DVD player in the roof and I think it was fitted from new. Does anyone know if it plays backed up DVDs.

Has anyone had experience in towing a caravan with a Touran and is there anything that we need to look out for? Our caravan is an Avondale Dart 510-5 mtplm 1256.

I look forward to the replies and advice.

Aussie

[golfmark5]

yes mate ditch the caravan buy a tent makes life a lot more easy.

[boomboomer]

I have an 06 touran which won't play MP3 cd's either, although the Sharan CD player of the same age will. I use a PDA for satnav and also playing MP3's, with a radio transmitter plugged into the earpiece and the touran radio tuned to the transmitter frequency - these cost about £20 to buy and is much cheaper than replacing the CD player.

I tow a 1300kg caravan with my touran, it also has the 105bhp engine, and it tows much better then the alhambra 110 I used to own, probably due to the lower weight of the touran but also due to the age of the alhambra. I regularly overtake 4x4's towing uphill due the high tourque of this engine.

The touran can carry about 700kg while also towing upto 1500kg, so your van should be fine but check the weight plate inside the front passenger door for the maximum train weight (total car+van+luggage) - mines around 3700.

There's no specific guide for the touran (apart from don't get a towbar from VW) only the general advice to always load the car, not the caravan, and keep the noseweight at the maximum allowed for the car/caravan - which ever is the lower. I find the mudflaps ground a lot while towing but they're only a few inches from the ground, even when the car's empty.

[boomboomer]

yes mate ditch the caravan buy a tent makes life a lot more easy.

Having watched about fifty campers literaly blown off the campsite in North Devon last Sunday it didn't look easy from where I was sat - inside my caravan with central heating, double glazing and beer in the fridge.

[aussie]

Boomboomer,

Thanks for the reply.

You say that you use your PDA for playing MP3s. I have a Navman 570 which i use as a SatNav. I take you store your MP3s on the PDA? How does this setup work when using the SatNav?

Cheers.

Aussie

[boomboomer]

I take you store your MP3s on the PDA? How does this setup work when using the SatNav?

I'm not sure about the Navman but the Dell Axim I use runs WM5 which can multitask so Pocketmusic runs in the background, playing from a 2Gb CF card, with TomTom running at the front having it's maps on a 1Gb SD card. Both work fine at the same time - just turn the satnav noises off and listen to hours of audio books or CDs

[aussie]

anyone know where you can get another set of Rosen Headphones and Remote?

The Touran we are getting already has DVD player installed but the previous owners say that they only got one set of headphones and no remote

Cheers

Aussie

[snowballpals]

Hi, Aussie.
I tow a 1430 KG caravan with my Touran 1.9TDI SE (new Feb 2005) Just done a 300 mile tow; onboard computer showed average 37.2 mpg at end of journey.
The towbar assembly was dealer-fitted, and is a Brink unit with detachable ball.

My caravan came with an ALKO hitch, which would foul the car boody when the van was at an acute angle to the car. I overcame this by having a Winterhoff hitch fitted instead.

This is a point worth watching if intending to tow.