Tow Car Recommendations

Mildly_Miffed

born_again said:

Many 4WD are not as people expect, full time 4WD, they are just 2WD with other wheels kicking in as slip is picked up by sensors.
Which need the wheels rotating at service time, or you can end up with issues due to different rolling radius on front causing rears to kick in when not needed.

4WD simply means four driven wheels.
4x4 simply means four wheels, of which four have drive.
AWD simply means all wheels are driven.

A difference in tyre diameter of less than 1% is not going to cause problems on something with either electronic or viscous centre diff. You might as well say that differences in tyre wear are going to cause ABS or ESP or Traction Control problems - it's probably more likely, and even that will take much greater differences.

scaredofdebt

Thanks everyone, I am still at the thinking stage (probably buying early next year) so it's all good info,

A friend of a friend is in a similar position and is looking at the Hyundai Santa Fe, bit of a curve ball but any comments on those?

scaredofdebt

sheslookinhot said:

At that age the Honda is likely to be the most reliable, if you get a good one with FSH. As said above, the Škoda superb would be a good choice.

Why did you rule out the Volvo V70 ?

I've not ruled out the V70 but to be fair it's not come up before, I will have a look at that as an option thanks.

scaredofdebt

Mildly_Miffed said:

scaredofdebt said:

Hi, would appreciate any advice please.

I am getting a caravan in the next few months (first time owner) and will need a tow car.  It's going to be 4 berth so likely weight is around 1,500 kgs.

I'd like some advice around tow cars.

I've done some research and have a short list of the following:

VW Touareg
Honda CRV
Ford Mondeo
VW Passatt

That's a right ol' mixed bag of cars. Is the shortlist based on anything other than "for sale very locally"?

Two FWD larger saloon/hatch
One medium FWD/poss 4wd crossover
One big 4x4

I think I'd start by deciding what I actually wanted from the car, so long as it's capable of towing sufficient. You're likely to be much closer to max towing weight than is comfortable on all of those bar the Tuareg, I'd suggest. If you're looking at manual boxes in those, then hill starts could prove very hard work on the clutch.

If you're trying to get a caravan moving on wet grass, then you'll be VERY thankful for four driven wheels on the towcar.

It's based on me searching the internet for "good tow cars"

It's going to be a second car when not used for towing so not really used all that much.

FlorayG

If it won't get much use outside of caravan days then get petrol. Diesel cars hate being stood about or used for school runs of a couple of miles. I don't have very much necessary mileage which means I take my diesel out for a run for the hell of it most weekends to keep it healthy. This essentially negates the extra MPG you get out of most diesel cars because you're using more fuel anyway

MattMattMattUK

When you talk about this being a second car, what is the first car?

I am thinking that it might be potentially changing the first car and having a small petrol run-around as the second car. Eg. a three year old Tesla Model Y can tow 1,600Kg, is going to be very cheap to operate and can be had for around £25k at three years old (although there are only a few on the market at the moment due to only just hitting the three year threshold), so that as a first car capable of towing and a Ka or Corsa as a second run-around when needed.  

scaredofdebt

MattMattMattUK said:

When you talk about this being a second car, what is the first car?

I am thinking that it might be potentially changing the first car and having a small petrol run-around as the second car. Eg. a three year old Tesla Model Y can tow 1,600Kg, is going to be very cheap to operate and can be had for around £25k at three years old (although there are only a few on the market at the moment due to only just hitting the three year threshold), so that as a first car capable of towing and a Ka or Corsa as a second run-around when needed.  

Long term this is the plan so we may well end up using the tow car as the main car, it's a bit complicated!

So we are at that age when the kids are starting to leaving home, currently we have an MG5 EV as our main car but that's on a lease which finishes in 2 years, so the main car until then.

After that we will probably get something like a Mini cabriolet as a fun/weekend car (we do need two cars from time to time) so the tow car, if we keep it would become the main car or we might just get something else on a lease or buy another "main" car.

We live in a rural location so nothing is within about 6 miles of us, even the school run is ~12 miles round trip and buses are hopeless around here and taxis won't even turn up.