Advice please!

[Andrea_374395685]

Hi there,

We currently have an Abi Monza, which when fully loaded weighs no more than 1 ton. We tow it with a vauxhall astra 1.4 petrol... yes you may laugh, but it even outsmarts 4x4's towing twin axles on Birlip Hill, Oxfordshire!!

We are looking to upgrade the car this year, and the van in the next year or two, to a 2 berth, will obviously weigh bit more than our current van. Does anyone have any suggestions for suitable tow car?

many thanks

Andrea

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Andrea,

Its a bit of a difficult question to answer, as the key will be the weight of the caravan you choose, or the towing capacity and weight of the car you choose.

Until you know one or the other, specific advice just cannot be given.

 

[Steve L]

I won't laugh Andrea, honest!

I started towing with a Moris minor van, but my most over worked underestimated car was a 1984, 1647cc Renault 18 estate we had for towing a 1978 Cavaleer 14ft van. I used to put a 10ft dinghy on the roof rack, then the road trailer (made of aluminium)on top of the dinghy and the hook the van up.

The poor old girl used to plod over the Heads of the valley road from Hereford to Swansea and on to the Gower. We used to have to stopp halfway up the drag out of Abergavenny to let her cool down, but that car never missed a beat for 186'000 miles we had her. I led me on to own 17 other Renaults. i actually had my first occassion to tow my 200'000 mile Laguna last thursday when the petrol pump packed up. That has been the first time since 1984 that a Renault has let me down.

Quite coincidentally we are now looking for a Rover 75 Diesel estate. The main reason being thta we need more tow capacity and ta 1600 Kgs the Rover will cope well with our 1436Kg van. Also they have BMW running gear which is one of the most reliable and fuel efficient diesel's around. I wouldn't ordinarily go diesel but one has to get the best bang for one's buck today with the extortinate cost of fuel.

When you have got a clear idea of what type of van you want, we could then offer better advice on the forum about tow cars and some first hand accounts of ownership. I asked here a few topics back about the 75 estate and got a wealth of knowledge.

Atb Steve L.

 

[Mikey_74]

I tow with a rover 75 diesel estate (tourer as we like to call them lol) and I have to say it's the most under stated car out there, I had mine remapped for a little more power when towing and it pulls like a steam train, it's superb and on my last outing with the van on the back my fuel computer was showing 29.3mpg!!! not bad at all, they're superb cars although I don't think I'd risk a petrol 75, and just for the record my car has nearly 213k miles on it