Tow Car Puzzle
Finding the right tow car seems to be becoming more difficult by the day. Our current car will soon need to be replaced but our requirement list is not easily fulfilled. It is as follows.
1. Comfortable seats. That immediately excludes several marques which we find as comfortable as sitting on a park bench.
2. Four wheel drive and high ground clearance which is essential on account of where we live.
3. Automatic transmission.
4. A practical load carrying capacity.
5. Reasonable fuel economy.
6. No longer than 4600 mm.
7. Kerb weight to exceed our current car which is 1602.
8. Not too stratospherically expensive.
We favour the idea of returning to petrol power but, thus far, I cannot find any petrol offering which fits the above. The one possibility is the Subaru Forester XT (petrol) but the mpg makes it costly to run and the emissions are excessive. All my research points to the Subaru Forester diesel as being the only possibility as it is just heavy enough. The alternative of a Discovery Sport - heavier which is good - costs considerably more than the Subaru. In fact we have not tried the Discovery for comfort and appreciate that it too may offer all the comfort of a park bench.
Other suggestions will be gratefully considered.
Comments
-
Just get a real Discovery.
1 -
I would have said a Jeep Cherokee but at 4.70m it's just over your length specification. It does however fit everything else.
0 -
Suggest you test drive the new Tiguan or Tucson diesels
0 -
Yes, I agree you need to drive a car in order to discover that it is comfortable. The problem I find is that many car seats are very hard and better suited to those of us who weigh more than nine stone which is not a category into which I fit.
What constitutes expensive to me is £33k and over.
0 -
Does it have to be new, we just picked up a two year old one and it was a good £10k less than new with only 5,000 miles on it.
As for Tiguan and Tucson - we used to have the latter and it's nose weight wasn't enough for our van and we had terrible trouble and ended up changing to a Sorento as it has a high towball limit - one of the reasons we chose the Jeep. The newer ones aren't heavy enough either.
We had also looked at the Subaru but none in our area at the time.
0 -
Tiguan, Tucson as mentioned, then Mazda CX-5 mines 1703kg auto AWD with 175ps 310 pound feet torque.
Kuga, CRV, Possibly the Xtrail is short enough with the 177ps engine.
I don't think the op is looking hard enough. Go for the top of the range for the extra weight, the Tucson drives well has over 180ps has auto AWD, and a full sized alloy wheel in the car I tested, still bought another CX-5 though.
Problem I have is finding a car that goes into my 2.1M wide garage door. I keep thinking I should replace the two singles with one double door, but some how I don't think it would look as good, so devalue the property.
0 -
How about a top spec Hyundai Tucson for under 30K ? Look at the Hyundai Affinity Scheme. Some good buys. Just bought a top of the range Santa Fe Premium SE auto for 32K with free Tow Bar. The Tucson can be had in petrol or diesel and has a 100kg noseweight.
0 -
Hi Q, as MM says it is a very personal thing.
We have just got our second Q5 and part from being 29mm too long it may be one to consider. Regarding seats I do almost 2000 miles a month so would consider seats OK and price wise they are a good secondhand buy and you could get new for £33k from a broker such as CARWOW.
0 -
Having had trouble with a Tucson previously, I would be very wary of the increased noseweight/lighter kerbweight - this is an interesting read
http://www.practicalcaravan.com/blog/39505-how-heavy-is-the-hyundai-tucson
0 -
I test drove a Santa Fe its a much bigger car and feels it on the road, after driving an Xtrail for 8 years I couldn't get out of the car quick enough
I'm not with you ..... do you mean that the Sante Fe was that good you no longer wanted your Xtrail? Or it was that crap you could get out of the Sante Fe fast enough? ..... serious question. .. 
0 -
I agree that the Xtrail is a good car, in fact I went to the garage and took a test drive and was initially impressed. I was interested in an automatic and when I drove the auto I didn't think it was so good. To cap it all, the salesman informed me that it couldn't tow my van legally and also that the nose weight limit on Xtrails was only 75Kg, so that was the end of that.
0 -
I haven't bothered to test drive the T32 my last Xtrail was the one I was referring too, a T31.
Nissan ignored the thousands of caravaners by bringing out a pathetic 128bhp engine, so towers have shown little interest in the car.
Now a 177ps engine is available but with only 280 pound feet of torque, which is ok but still behind the competition, my cx-5 manages 310 pound feet, lots more 295 and others more.
Nissan have also always down rated the nose weight and towing capacity of their auto, while a manual can take 100kg NW and pull 2000kg or more, the auto is only 75kg nose weight limit and for the new model 1650kg, older models are less, 1350kg from memory.
My wife has told me that she only wants an auto from hence forth, she finds it now easy to drive than a manual, especially for hill starts. I don't mind it either as my cx-5 is easy to use in manual override when I want too.
I understand the Xtrail is also a CVT auto with 8 artificial steps to make it feel more like a conventional auto, but with the advantages of a CVT, like step less acceleration.
0 -
Thank you for all your replies on this. Yesterday we finally made our choice and placed the order on the X-Trail. We are getting the 2 litre diesel 4X4 automatic (CVT). The kerb weight is 1725 and nose weight 75 both of which are fine for us. The tow limit is 1650 which allows a good margin for us. Yes, other cars have better capacities but there are so many factors to consider. First, we love the comfort of the X-Trail, second we like the technology, third we like the auto and 4X4, fourth it has the carrying capacity we need.
We wanted to take advantage of the CC 15% discount offer with £1500 deposit contribution and free tow bar. It was not as simple as we thought as the offer closes 0n 31/3 but there are are only 2 of the 2 litre ones in the UK at present and no more available until July. We were fortunate that our local dealer had one of them, the other is 200 miles away. Both are black which would not have been our choice but that is a minor point. The great thing for us is that we will have the more powerful and heavy car when we collect the new van in four weeks time.
0 -
Totally agree about Nissan ignoring caravanners - they had a good place in the market and blew it tbh
0 -
I'm sure you will love the Xtrail.
Having had two over 9 years I can say they are good to drive, you just have to respect the limits.
In fact my last T31 Xtrail was 100% reliable, and had the Renault engine.
I also got over £8K off my 2009 T31 through the employee's scheme.
The auto would have been no good to tow my Valencia now sold, due to the heavy nose weight, I could get it to 80kg at a struggle but it involved a LOT of back loading.
And my next caravan will have a MTPLM of 1700kg, so over the towing capacity.
0 -
Our new van is a shade below 1300 kg so will be ok. We have never had a car that can take more than 75 kg nose weight so are used to careful loading. We don't know what the Coachman will be like for nose weight. The worst van we had for that was a Bailey Orion. Even without a front gas locker it was almost impossible to get below about 85 kg. Looking forward to the X-Trai tomorrow week but it will be sad to say farewell to the Qashqai; what a great car and it has towed like a train.
0
