# New 2012 Routan SE



## Phil37 (Jul 5, 2015)

Last week I purchased a 2012 Routan SE for my growing family. The 2017 Golf Sportwagen served our family of 4 very well for the past 3 years, however with another baby on the way in December, I figured that we could use something a tad bigger. We checked out both the 3 row Tiguan and the Atlas. With another year to go on the Golf Sportwagen payments, we've decided to just get something used until that is at least paid off. Then we came across a reasonably priced 2012 Routan SE. 

Only had it for 5 days / 100 miles so far now but initial thoughts are. 

1) The Routan is really big. It has more interior space than an Atlas! The cargo space is awesome. I discovered the 2nd row under floor storage and that alone holds almost what my Golf Sportwagen can hold. OK slight exaggeration but it can hold all of our beach stuff under there. 

2) Gas mileage is OK, not great. Fine considering what this is, a 4600 lb people & stuff hauler. Mixed driving is spot on with the claimed 20 mpg perhaps even a tad more. My display is showing 20.8 mpg but that has been almost only city so far. Who knows what I could get on a long highway family trip? My guess 27-28 mpg. 

3) It's really well equipped. Leather seats, Nav, power tail gate, power sliding door and 2 screen entertainment system. 

4) It's powerful. Mine has the 3.6 VVT 283 hp / 260 ft/lbs and 6 speed auto. It's really easy to accidentally spin the tires, even on dry pavement. I think at the drag strip, this minivan could beat my station wagon. 

Overall we're pretty happy with our purchase. I'm sure it will serve our growing family well. I didn't realize just how rare the VW Routan was. Friends and Coworkers alike said things like "I didn't know VW made a minivan" and " wow, I never seen a VW minivan" . Now I'm curious about the actual production numbers. I'll have to look for those some time.


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## CDJackson (Feb 28, 2013)

I think you'll be happy with it. We have the same year/model and I don't seem to have had many of the issues that folks with the earlier model years have experienced. We're at almost 90,000 miles and the only repair of any significance we have had to perform is replacing the front rotors/pads at ~65,000 miles (which is about on par with a lot of other vehicles I've owned). We're still on the original rotors and pads on the rear brakes. The driver's seat "leather" also cracked, but we got it replaced under the CPO warranty before it ran out. I really like the 3.6 Pentastar engine. Smooth, powerful, and it doesn't burn a drop of oil between changes. Fuel economy could be better--we only manage 16-17 mpg around town; 23-24 on the highway. But gas where I live is pretty cheap. I'm hoping to get many more years of use out of it.


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