I have a 2014 Touareg TDI. Bought at 95k and currently has 110k. I do have a Malone tune on mine that boosts the HP to a little over 300 and the torque to 490. I also run a slightly larger than stock AT tire. That improves the ride quality over crappy roads significantly. I have also purchased all of the parts and the tune to delete the DPF, EGR, and DEF systems. I have not installed them and probably won't unless the system becomes an overly expensive problem.
The good.
Mine is a TDI with the 3.0L Turbo Diesel. I freaking love this engine. It routinely returns 19-21 mpg in traffic and 24-26 on the interstate if you keep your speeds reasonable. If you baby it on the back roads you can get 30 but I never drive that slow. The car is comfortable, rides well, handles well, and is all-around a good car. Without the tune, it's surprisingly quick, with the tune, it's very quick. 490 lbft of torque will spin all 4 tires on concrete and damn near give you whiplash to boot. Being able to set the cruise control through the mountains and hills and never have it downshift or hunt for a gear is pure pleasure.
It will tow 7700 pounds with zero effort. It will pull my boat, my loaded car trailer, and everything else I have needed to tow since I bought it. It will run with traffic while doing it. It's nice to have that capability without the penalty of driving a truck on a daily basis.
The bad.
It's a diesel and it leaks a little oil. I'm fairly certain all diesels leak a little. It is the blackest crap you have ever seen come out of an engine. It will permanently stain your driveway. It holds 8.1 quarts of oil so oil changes are going to be more expensive.
Parts are not like parts for a more common car. They are fairly expensive. They are also frequently not in stock locally and your FLAPS will bend you over a barrel on pricing. Plan to buy parts online. I have replaced an alternator, (FLAPS, $800; RA, $300) and a HVAC blower motor, (VW and FLAPS, $800; FPC Euro, $200). If you have a spare car and can wait for parts it's not a huge deal but if you have to have it fixed to go to work the next day, plan to pay through the nose for parts.
I will say, the repairs I have done were fairly easy even though the engine bay is absolutely full of engine.
It developed a coolant leak at about 103k. Something under the intake. The only things down there are the EGR cooler and the oil cooler. I decided to take it to a local indy shop that specializes in German cars. They tracked it down to the oil cooler gasket. I had them replace all the soft parts under the intake while they had it off. Total spend was right at $1500, which I thought was fairly reasonable.
I have also gotten an occasional CEL for the temp sensor on the DEF system. It has popped up 3 times. It is a known problem due to a poor design where the connector for the sensor gets DEF fluid in it that causes loss of connection. It only seems to show up when temps are below freezing, which almost never happens around here so I'll continue to ignore it.
VW's Navigation system is a complete joke. I'm still using my Garmin stuck to my dash.
The conclusion. Would I buy another one? If I could get the diesel, absolutely. A gas version? Nope. Without the diesel, it's just another blah SUV in a world full of blah SUVs. I'm halfheartedly looking for a TDI in the previous generation as they came with a low-range transfer case. If I buy one of those I'll probably sell my XJ.