Which tow vehicle for every day use?

blued

I'm looking to buy something suitable for towing and launching a boat (approx 1200kg) that would also be comfortable for every day use.

It has to do at least 30mpg on short journeys, cost around £200 per year to tax and be comfortable on short and long journeys. One of the places I launch the boat has loose shingle and low water so something higher than a normal car and with 4x4 (preferably part time) is required.

I have a budget of up to about £6k and high mile diesels are fine by me so long as they've been serviced.

So far I've been looking at the Honda CRV 2.2 i-CTDi 2005/2006 models. It ticks all the boxes and comes well specced.

The Toyota Rav4 diesel looks underpowered, at 114bhp and < 200 lb/ft. I've also considered the Nissan X-Trail 2005 model but have read about reliability problems with turbo chargers, ECU's and injectors.

Is there anything else I should consider? Does anyone have first hand experience of the CRV or X-Trail?

Lum

Subaru Legacy / Outback?

blued

I'm not sure they'd have enough clearance for reversing into the loch. The SWB Pajero I used to have had water level with the bottom of the drivers door at times. Even with the extra length I'd be worried about the Subaru drowning!

andrew-the-cat

How about a Land Rover discovery. You can get leather seats, cruise control etc, and they are designed for towing. Sensible choice getting something with four wheel drive. A friend of mine does a lot of diving and used to use a Peugeot 406 estate to tow his dive boat (a large RIB). While it had adequate power to tow it and launch the boat, retrieving it would be a hassle on certain slipways due to front wheel drive and low traction, most of the time he ended up getting rescued by 4WD drivers

Edit:

also consider Audi Allroad.

Chorlie

Volvo XC70, the most comfortable car you could imagine and you'll easy get over 30mpg from the older 163bhp D5 engine.

blued

Can you really get 30mpg round the town in a discovery? Do they not suffer from corrosion as well?

I considered the Allroad but 21mpg and suspension is expensive if it fails.

I'll check out the Volvo.

Cheers .

Lum

Might be worth going fishing at this problematic slipway and observing or talking to other people launching boats and the vehicles they use?

Comedy option:

Hintza

blued wrote: »

Is there anything else I should consider? Does anyone have first hand experience of the CRV or X-Trail?

Both are pretty sound I think the X-Trail has a slightly dated look. The extended family have had 3 CRV's everyone has been happy with them.

Get some decent 80:20 tyres on them though.

Beware of the taigate door on the RAV 4 if you put it back on the list, it doesn't fully open which might or might not be an issue.

marlot

blued wrote: »

So far I've been looking at the Honda CRV 2.2 i-CTDi 2005/2006 models. It ticks all the boxes and comes well specced.

I'd be looking at this and the X-trail if you want to get the 30mpg target. The CR-V is the best of the two.

vaio

Lum wrote: »

Subaru Legacy / Outback?

Yep, or look at the four wheel drive A4/A6 Audi.

As for clearance for reversing into the water, we used to have a rib and fitted a mini wheel & hub just behind the hitch. This made it easy to wheel about so we used to launch by wheeling the trailer into the sea and recover the same way but using rope between the car & trailer to avoid dipping the audi in the sea.

Suppose it depends on the weight of your boat

sunshinetours

CRV's are decent cars. Wife had one of slightly older vintage for many yearas and never gave any problems. Fuel consumption was poor but that was the 2.0 petrol auto. The diesel should sort that issue.
I would guess noseweight isn't such an issue for boats but do check out what max nose weight is for the CRV as tehy used to be quite low at around 50kg

I would also fit whatever you get with snow flake marked all season tyres for some extra traction at slipways and potentially in the winter