We've known from past surveys that the Volkswagen Touareg has had far more problems than the average model does. The 2004 Touareg had about five times as many drive-system and power-equipment problems; four times as many electrical woes; three times as many audio-, climate-, and fuel-system symptoms; and twice as many difficulties with the body hardware and brakes as the average four-year-old model. In fact, the 2004 Touareg had a worse-than-average problem rate in 12 of the 17 major trouble areas we track.

Now, as part of our latest Annual Car Reliability Survey, we can pinpoint the trouble spots in the Touareg and some 300 other vehicles.

Subscribers of Consumer Reports and ConsumerReports.org who responded to the online versions of our survey could describe in detail their automotive problems over the preceding year with vehicles up to 10 years old. The respondents could check off, within 17 major trouble spots, an additional 5 to 12 subcategories for each. In all, respondents reported on nearly 100 problem areas on 960,000 vehicles.

Thanks to them, we now know that over the course of a year a significant percentage of Touareg owners reported problems with nine components. The Touareg was plagued by premature brake wear and problems with the tire-pressure monitoring system, keyless-entry system, check-engine light, and CD player, among others.

By comparison, the thousands of responses we had for the 2004 Toyota Highlander, a similar vehicle, tell us that problems were far fewer (see the table below).

We intend to use our more-detailed reliability information to paint an even more complete picture of the models that we cover.

% OF OWNERS WHO HAD THESE PROBLEMS IN A YEAR
RELIABLE	1%	Tire-pressure monitoring system	19%	UNRELIABLE
2004 Toyota Highlander	0	Keyless-entry system	10	2004 Volkswagen Touareg
	1	Premature brake wear	10
	1	Check-engine light	8
	1	CD player	6
	0	Rear hatch	6
	0	Navigation system	5
	2	Squeaks and rattles	5
	0	Driveshaft and axle	4