Best/worst towcar you've ever owned?

[jondav]

I chose a new Ford C Max 2.0 TDCi back in Feb 07.It was chosen because it seemed a very good combination of a tow car and a solo car for everyday use,ie around 28 mpg towing a Bailey Sancere (1215kg MIRO 1435 MTPLM) and over 40 mpg + solo. It's a real pleasure to drive and ride in and gives me the best economy I could wish for.I have somtimes looked at 4x4's but am always put off by the abysmal mpg figures,high Road Tax,clumsiness,and general road manners brought about mostly by the vehicle lugging it's own weight and bulk around,a lot of it due to the 4wd that most people don't have the slightest bit of use for.In any case a high centre of gravity is a big minus either in a towcar or solo.Could it be they just appear attractive to wannabe Rambos?
The Ford has a powerfull wide torque band motor that pulls the Bailey with ease and confidence,without pitch or sway.
You may notice the combination is a little above the 85% rule.This is because I changed the van about a year ago from one that was below 85%.If I had had any doubts about the present combination I would most likely,but reluctantly,have changed the car.In any event with only two of us travelling light it's probably under 85%.

My advice: Don't buy a towing vehicle just because it has a "Best Tow Car" label (remember the experts change their minds about this almost every year),but check out all it's capabilities,because for most of it's time it won't be towing anything!

 

[Heethers]

When towing in the early eighties, we towed with numerous tow cars, Ford Capri capable towing Lunar Moonlite, Ford Cortina Ghia 2 litre Auto towing the Moonlite and the an Abbey Westminster Good, Marina 1.7 Manual towing Abbey Westminster rubbish,gear box crapped out 3 times and finally Rover SD1 2000 Manual towing Abbey Westminster, excellent.
Now fast forward to 2006 returned to Caravanning, what a difference 20 years has made.
Bought a seconded hand Ace Brightstar 2002, tow car Rover 75 Club SE Auto 2.5 V6 03 excellent tow car but thirsty, also towed the Brightstar with the wife's 2.8 Shogun SWB Manual, everything you need for a tow car, replaced Brightstar with the Ace Firestar, towed with both cars Rover handle it o/k at 93% of towing weight has you can imagine Shogun towed perfectly. Changed Caravan to a Lunar Clubman SE 2010 and tow car for a 3.2 Shogun SWB Auto 07 absolutely fabulous combination.
As you can see we had a break from caravanning of some twenty years, what a difference we found in the capabilities of tow cars from those earlier times, for me the best tow car at the moment is the Mitsubishi Shogun but that’s my opinion, others may differ what l can say cars have in improved tremendously over those twenty years and for the better.
NigelH

 

[PeterC1]

Hi,
306XND to Mercedes C320CDi
1995 to 1998: Peugeot 306XND and 1991 Sprite Alpine....My first outfit at 21 Happy memories....Excellent stability, but without a turbo I needed to keep it's momentum up! As well as the UK, we went to Austria and Switzerland, including towing over the St Gotthard Pass (2nd gear and foot buried to the floor!
1998: Peugeot 406L TD and Sprite Alpine...Used for a couple of weekends. Towed well, but towball was a bit high for the Sprite.
1998: Carlton 2.0i CDX automatic estate and Sterling Europa 450L...Carlton was my brothers car that he let me borrow whilst I was changing jobs. Used this for towing in UK and to Austria....very stable in my experience, but struggled a bit on long hills.
1999 to 2002: Peugeot 306LX TD Estate + Sterling Europa....This car had the power, but was towing at maximum tow limit (1100kgs). Stability affected by car transporters and tankers (held back and waited for a hill before overtaking), tended to get close to overheating when towing up long inclines on european motorways (turned heating up full blast and opened windows to resolve...many a time!) Used for towing in UK and to Austria, Switzerland and French Alps.
2002 - 2005: Volkswagen Passat TDI SE 100hp and Sterling Europa + Elddis Avante 505...Towed very well, very stable, comfortable and plently of power even though it wasn't a 130hp. Used for towing in UK and to Switzerland, Lake Garda Iin Italy and France.
2005 - 2008: Mercedes C270CDi automatic estate and Sterling Europa + Abbey GTS418...Excellent towcar being very stable, comfortable and powerful! Used for towing in UK and to Austria, French Alps, Austria (again) and Switzerland.
2008: Mercedes C320CDi automatic estate and Abbey GTS418...As C270CDi, but even more powerful...seriously quick even when towing, but still very stable. Used for towing in UK and to Southern France and Austria so far. Loves mountain passes)

None of my cars have been bad, just different, but the C320CDi has to be the absolute best...it's absolutely effortless!
Cheers!

 

[Rory]

Francis_374353316,

It's funny how some cars are complete dogs to drive solo but hitch them up to a caravan and they suddenly becomes real gems. The Mondeo is definitely an exception to that rule, being both a great solo drive and an excellent tug. I'm not sure which shape Mondeo you have (not that it matters - they are all powerful, stable etc), because we have the latest here on our fleet and it is rarely stationary, we love it!

Rory

 

[Rory]

Easyvanner,

A totally understand what you mean about the Disco 4's ride being wallowy, but I think that is why it has so many fans. Personally, like you, I prefer a stiffer ride for a better solo drive, but having driven the Discovery 4, for the purposes of long distance cruising on road with or without a caravan little comes close. BUT...I'd tow with an Elise if I could, don't get me wrong, each to their own and all that!

I'd also agree with you on the compact 4x4 thing, the BMW X3, like the X5, is great fun in the corners.

Rory

 

[Steve L]

I've owned a variety of cars over 33 years of driving.
Morris Minor van Renault 11 1.7 Gtx
Austin 1100 Renault 21 Savanna
Vauxhall viva HC Renault 5 x 5
Morris Marina 1.8 estate 1967 Daimler 420
Renault 18 estate 1967 Jaguar 420
Renault 25 Monaco 1998 Renault Laguna estate
Renault espace x2 Rover 75 connessure SE tourer Diesel
Diahatsu f70 commercial X2 Ford transit Mk1 pick up V4
VW LT35 truck Ford Transit Mk 2 pick up 2 litre petrol
Renault 25 txi Renault 25 gts x3

The worst by far was the VW LT35, it was a gutless 6 Cyl Diesel that crawled uphills in bottom gear all the time. Closely followed by the Austin 1100.

Best tow car has to be the Laguna which never failed to suprise me in performance, economy or reliability. Then the Renault 18 which despite it's 1647cc engine towed a 14ft cavileer caravan with a 10ft boat on the roof rack and the road trailer on top of that up the heads of the valley road from Abergavenny to Swansea neumerous times.

The Diahatsu did us proud, it towed 3500Kgs of trailer 90% of it's life with 500Kgs in the back of the Dia as well.

Now I've graduated to a Rover 75 Cdti Connesseur tourer which is quite impressive already.

Even though I got to drive Lous, jaguar and Aston Martin's fines performance cars as part of my day job, I admired my Renault 5's for their road holding and performance, the 1100cc engine took a right thrashing and never let me down doig 14K miles a year commuting between Leominster and Worcester sometimes doing the 28 mile comute in under 30 mins. A great car for destressing in after a hard day in the office.

 

[Rory]

RogerB,

We recently did a feature on towing with cabriolets in the magazine and I think its a great way to solve the old problem, something that will pull the van safely while remaining a bit of fun the rest of the time (80% of its usgae!)

Your A4 is a lovely thing to look at, refined, quick with respectable mpg, what more do you need? While in France on our reader rally last month I spotted a mercedes SL being used as a towcar which made me smile.

 

[Rory]

colin bridgend,

I was waiting for someone to utter those almost criminal words, Austin Montego. As a general rule, my dad keeps his cars for 3/4 years, but the moment he got that grandfather clock home, the combination of his family's unhappy faces and a staggeringly unsafe drive sent it packing in just under two months. Practical is was. Good it wasn't.

But it goes to show that Austin could do it if they tried, my grandad had a Maestro, what a motor!

 

[Rory]

Nigel207,

A great point! If we did drive the same cars thing would be dreadfully dull! The old range rover V8 could quite easily have pulled your house to anywhere in Europe, not just your caravan!

We've had a few other Ford Granadas on here, I've haven't had the pleasure of driving one but I've always been intrigued. (I'm afriad I was born 10 years after your second granada was manufactured)

As I said in an earlier post, the new range rovers and discos are not exactly mazda mx5's, but their suspension system are far more advanced than other 4x4 on the road. Coming back your point though, you will never please everyone!

 

[Rory]

jondav,

The C-max is another car we had on the fleet quite recently, and another car that didn't spend much time in the car park, eveyone loved it. That 2.0 diesel engine is very capable as you say, the same, albiet revised slightly, as the engine in our fleet mondeo.

If you are happy with your C-max, and as you say it does everything you could want it to do very well, then stick with it. This thread is definitely all about personal taste and personal needs, and at the end of the day, it's important to enjoy that holiday with the van!

 

[Rory]

Heethers,

I know I've been bleeting on about personal taste, but the Mitsubishi Shogun is the pinnacle of it for me.

I had one to review a few weeks back, and thought it was a great cruiser, well worth a look if you haven't the money to spend on a discovery/range rover etc.

But, a photographer driving it for a shoot returned it to our car park practically in tears at how woeful he found the whole experience, both solo and hitched up. Exlpain that haha...

 

[jondav]

Thanks for the reply Rory.There's nothing more true than the end of your last paragraph.
Thinking about it, I can see one very good point about 4x4's......that is,with the ever increasing weight of caravans and car manufacturers trying to get weights down,we may all have to consider one if we want to carry on with the pastime.
Does anyone know if the new hybrid cars have any towing capabilities? What is the future for caravaning with hybrids and small lightweight hydrogen/electric powered vehicles just around the corner? This is the way that car manufacture appears to be going,so what are caravan makers doing about it? Now I am definitely off the subject!

 

[Zafiral]

jondav, I feel your point is very valid and still slightly on topic.
For the very reason you state, when we changed our caravan in March, even though we had a 1800kg+ 4x4 we in the end did not get a twin axle as just becasuse our current car can tow 2000kg, when average CO2 output has to be below 130g/km (or whatever the EU insists on), finding a car to tow over 1500kg could be an issue. Neither the Toyota Auris or Prius hybrids are homogulated for towing, although the Lexus RX450H has 2000kg towing ability.
Rory - wanting to tow a caravan with an Elise reminds me of the begining of the infamous Top Gear caravan holiday when James is talking about the towcar with a camera shot of a white Elise before the camera pans to the Kia......

 

[NigelHutson]

Rory,
It's just as well then that our "fun car" is an MX-5! (Going out for a play shortly

)
Have you driven a Discovery 4? They are a world away from the 3 (which is the one I have at the moment).
As for the Ford Granada, the two that I had were the MkII (three box shape). When we had both the MkII and the MkIII's at work, the MkII beat the pants off the MkIII's in corners, but the III's were quicker in a straight line, despite both initially having 2.8i V6 engines (later 2.9). Halcyon days!
Nigel.

 

[Dustydog]

Rory,
It's just as well then that our "fun car" is an MX-5! (Going out for a play shortly

)
Have you driven a Discovery 4? They are a world away from the 3 (which is the one I have at the moment).
As for the Ford Granada, the two that I had were the MkII (three box shape). When we had both the MkII and the MkIII's at work, the MkII beat the pants off the MkIII's in corners, but the III's were quicker in a straight line, despite both initially having 2.8i V6 engines (later 2.9). Halcyon days!
Nigel.

Nigel
Our MX-5 has been with us for over a decade and still handles like a dream. Soooo close to the ground.

She gets her new Bilsteins this week then the MOT.

 

[NigelHutson]

Hi Dusty,
Whilst we haven't had ours that long, we've had it seven years (from new) and I'm very reluctant to part with it, unless it's for a newer one.
Great aren't they?
Nigel.

 

[airsiggy]

Peugeot 305 GTX - 2000cc close ratio gearbox, twin choke carbs, very good but rusty
Vauxhall Astra 1700cc turbo diesel, good tower but the temp used to climb
Puegeot 406 2100cc turbo diesel, excellent and economical but no good on grass
Freelander td4, ok towing to Spain, etc but too cold in the winter, too warm in the summer and no boot space to talk of (everything worked on it as well)
Nissan Xtrail (2004) 2.2 turbo diesel, does everything you could want with ease, solo or towing

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi Rory
its really funny that colin bridgend mentioned the maestro, because hand on heart the best solo/towcar I had was a maxi 1750 bought new in 1973 I towed a 18ft bessacar with it from john o groats to lands end (not on the same trip) before the days when anyone bothered about weights. it was really stable having a wheel at each corner "you know what I mean

" with no overhang at the back, the low gear ratio and 5 speed box made towing a pleasure. unforunatly the floor fell out at 6years old but hey it was british.
the worsed car I tried to tow with was the transam now the brakes and steering were not the best solo but with a van on the back very interesting in a masochistic sort of way it did not help being left hand drive either.

colin

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Dusty,
Whilst we haven't had ours that long, we've had it seven years (from new) and I'm very reluctant to part with it, unless it's for a newer one.
Great aren't they?
Nigel.

Hi Nigel
Ours is a 1.8 Mk 1 in metallic BRG with leather and a/con. I've just had the wheels fully refurbished.

Handling is predictable and very stable but in the wet and snow it's best tucked up in a warm garage .
I doubt we'll sell it. It owes us nothing and costs next to nothing in servicing.

 

[RayS]

Towcars from 1966:
Cortina GT Mk 1 / sprite alpine - very overgeared - oce came back to London from Scotland and never got into 4th gear.
Landrover 110 2.6 petrol - complete overkill for the alpine, never got better than 15 mpg towing or not.
Volvo 122 - superb - ran for 110,000 miles with one set of tyres, one bak pipe and a set of wiper blades.
Volvo 144 - Alpine now changed for Eccles Topaz - wonderful car just like the 122 except you had to check the track and toe-in rather often.
Vauxhall cavalier 1.6 Mk 1 - better than it sounds but all my employer would let me have - Topaz now changed for Viking Fibreline 2
Cortina 2.6 V6 / Viking - plenty of grunt but same small tank as smaller engine models so towing range laughably low.
Bit of a gap for some years.
Discovery 200 tdi/Swift Corniche aprt from turbo lag and poor build quality - Marina parts bin stuff - beautiful driving position and view.
Merc. ML 270 tdi auto - Coachman Pastiche 520/4 and present Burstner S500 - great tow car except steeromg veru much overgeared (built for American market) and thirsty even when not towing. kept for 9 years, though.
Currently Merc. E220 cdi auto /Burstner. More power and torque than the ML and wonderful mpg when not towing. Goes round corners like a sports car. But, sitting down low and getting increasingly difficult to get into and out of - my fault, not the car's
Mercedes ML 270

 

[NigelHutson]

Hey Ray,

If you think it's bad getting into an E Class, you should try an MX-5! Every time I try to get out of it, I think "I'm getting too old for this", but then I drive it again and I think I'd rather be stuck in that (and I mean stuck!) than one of those OAP scooter things!

Oh and Dusty,

Ours is only the 1.6 Mk 2.5 (in BRG too), but what it lacks in acceleration it more than makes up for in "chuckability" as you well know. I'm tempted by the new 2 litre version I must say, but like yours, ours owes us nothing but to us is worth a fortune in smiles.

Nigel.

 

[craigstaiano]

Golf 2L Diesel (07 plate) towing carvan with MTPLM of 1260KG.

First time on the motorway i nearly s*** myself as i was doing nearly 70 without even trying. I soon slowed down of course.

But my god its a good tow car. Taking the new Mazda 6 for its first tow next weekend. I am curious to know how it compares

 

[NigelDonnelly]

Golf 2L Diesel (07 plate) towing carvan with MTPLM of 1260KG.

First time on the motorway i nearly s*** myself as i was doing nearly 70 without even trying. I soon slowed down of course.

But my god its a good tow car. Taking the new Mazda 6 for its first tow next weekend. I am curious to know how it compares

Interesting this. Strong diesel engines do make it very easy to sail past the legal limit with the van in tow. Last two generation Golfs have been excellent towcars. Engine noise is higher than in a Focus but it's true to say that a good car, generally makes a good towcar and the Golf is both.

My dad swore to me that his 1983 Sierra 2.3D was his best towcar, despite replacing it with a 1982 Range Rover 4dr. Big diesel torque and no wallow I suppose, although the big V8 in the Range Rover did manage to tow our van back from France despite only running on six cylinders. Tough old girl! Volvo 740 was gutless but completely serene, much like my current 850.
In terms of the new stuff which I've used while on the mag, i relly think it's hard to seperate the best towcar from the best outfit. The Kia Ce'ed was a cracker with the lightweight Deseo behind it, but it's hard to claim it is a 'great towcar' The 2004/54 Kia Sorento we ran on the mag was unflappable, although the steering was a bit soggy. 2006 Nissan Pathfinder was tough, but gruff. 07 Shogun was terribly thirsty but immune to the effect of the caravan on the back. 08 Subaru Legacy diesel was far better solo than towing, where the back end sagged badly and the gearing was oddly spaced.
Best car I've towed with personally was, without doubt, the Discovery 4 at this year's Towcar Awards. Not as fast as the Range Rover Sport or Audi Q7, nearly twice the price of the impressive Hyundai Santa Fe and a huge lump to drive around every day. But it was the best all-round car I have ever towed with. When that lottery win comes, that's what I'll be driving home...

 

[mickk]

I first towed in 1974 with a Simca 1100cc van towing a Sprite alpine, then same car but towing a 1964 Cheltenham Puka 4, not to bad towing bit slow
change car to a Peugeot 504 auto + Puka 4 lot better, changed car again to a mk 3 2lt Cortina not bad, changed car again back to a 504 manual, still good tow car, changed Van to a Robin 4berth & car to a 3.5lt Rover SDI brillant tow car , changed to a 2.8 Granada super fast towing but very thirsty lucky to get 15mpg, changed again to a later 2.8 granada better on fuel but crap towing, got rid of caravan 1996,
went back to vanning in 2006 when we bought a Bailey series 5 Moselle towed by a Renualt Senic 2lt, up to date now with a New Coachman 560 towing with a Xtrail 2.2 sve, soon to be replaced by a 2010 Hyundai Santa fe Premium 7seat, hope this will be better than any before.

 

[RayS]

Know what you mean, during my long ago mid life crisis thought I would like a Caterham 7 having had a Lotus 6 many many years ago (not for towing obviously). went to a kit car show, got in one and it took three strong men to lift me out. Oouch !