re: My asst is looking at buying a VW Touareg with AWD and V8... Any insight?

Know that the cost of ownership for German cars will be a good bit higher than other brands. Plus routine maintenance around 100k will be $$$ since parts for them are more expensive.

Audi/VW makes some pretty good V8s. They're typically set up different than American ones though - high revving with top end power instead of low revving with low range torque.

EDIT: Rookie mistake. Meant German cars and thought the Touareg was an Audi. But both companies do have the same ownership.