hi folks, i<ve just pumped 80pounds of diesel(15 gallons) into my 2008 kia sedonna which igot nearly 430/450 miles from the previous time i refueled so thats 28/29 miles per gallon( me thinks) , we only mainly use this car for caravanning we also have a small town car , i would like to just have 1 car that does 40/45 miles per gallon and can tow owe bailey burgundy @ 14400kg owe budget15/20k...thanks...hasbo
more economical car
- Thread starter hasbo
- Start date
Hello hasbo u wont go far wrong with a mondeo estsate tdci , this mag has had 2 on test i think and they recomend them .i have a older 53 plate and thats great the newer models are even better . good luck tj
If you are getting that sort of mileage towing a caravan you are doing very well,when considering the size,comfort and stability plus reliability,of the Sedona.I doubt very much you would have the versatility and load space in a mondeo.
Have a look at the S max, Galaxy, Alhambra, or Sharans. They have reasonable/good mpg around round, good mpg on a solo run, (40+ mpg), and have the weight to tow your van @ around 26-30 mpg depending on conditions.
Jim.
Jim.
Don't forget the Santa Fe its a reliable car and in a recent CC magazine reader survey got very good scores for reliability. Fuel cost is relatively small part of overall motoring costs although when you see the bill at the pumps it does hurt. Depreciation is by far the biggest cost which would then add to your 'cost-to-change'. I think the Mondeo estate would be a fine car and its towing credentials are proven. Also if you have a diesel with DPF the Ford/Citroen engines are sommewhat less trouble with filter issues than those that use the direct fuel burn aproach. Good luck in your hunt.
thanks for the quick replies, we get 28/29 solo, owe caravan is 1400kg not 14400kg as you probably guessed , their is only 2 of us 3 kids 19/21/22 not really interested in the caravan so would like hatchback/estate type car....hasbo
When towing with our 2.0L mondeo auto estate diesel consumption is around 28 - 30 mpg and that is with 2 up and a load of gear. The MTPLM of caravan is 1000kgs. Our auto box is giving us loads of trouble although the car is only 3 months old otherwise a great towing car plus comfort.
try to modify your driving style. Dont accelerate hard ( thats where your mpg really nose dives), let the car build up speed at its won rate. Make more careful use of the gears, . Dont keep on "driving" to traffic lights and traffic ques, ease off the accelerator and cruise up to the junction /lights etc It all helps.
try the tucson smaller than santfe but still well up to your van we had one for 3 years and got a larger van but keept carand have no plans to change.
hasbo said:
As you use the Sedona mainly for towing, I don't think you will save enough with a new car to overcome the depreciation hit.
Our towing economy with a 1825kg 4x4 towing a 1480kg caravan is hardly any worse than when we towed a 1250kg caravan with a Honda Civic cdti so I personally would keep the big heavy towcar as it will be much less stressed while towing.
hi, we do use the sedonna for the odd trip to the local retail stores 15minutes each way but more so to give the car a run , if i was to use it purly only for caravanning & leave it on the drive ,what sort of damage to the car if only used 4/6/8 weeks , would i have to start the car every so often to bring it to life, move it so the brakes didn't stick , roll the wheels half a turn so no flat spots .etc , etc ...hasbo
Ive got a 06 plate Honda CRV which does 40+ MPG solo.
Towing limit of 1500kg.
Huge boot.
Comfortable to drive.
Maybe another to consider?
Towing limit of 1500kg.
Huge boot.
Comfortable to drive.
Maybe another to consider?
Hasbo
I tow Bailey Ranger GT60 520/4 with a 2009 spec peugeot 407 sw hdi, does 28/30 towing and well over 50 solo, great car on long run, comfortable, smooth and not too bulky, but still heavy enough for yor van, best of all a 6 month old model will fall into your price bracket so maybe one to consider.
I tow Bailey Ranger GT60 520/4 with a 2009 spec peugeot 407 sw hdi, does 28/30 towing and well over 50 solo, great car on long run, comfortable, smooth and not too bulky, but still heavy enough for yor van, best of all a 6 month old model will fall into your price bracket so maybe one to consider.
I wasn't implying not using the car for no other use but towing, but from the sound of it the solo driving is of a low enough level that the fuels cost is minimal in the grand scheme of things.hasbo said:
I don't use our 4x4 for my 62 mile daily commute anymore owing to the cost of running it, I have bought a 4.5 yr old Clio dCi for that role and save the 4x4 for weekend and long runs. I can get 65mpg out of the Clio if I try hard.
I wouldn't personally leave a car for more than a couple of weeks between use.
Hi we tow with a Sedona (2.9 TS) and love it but must admit earlier last year did start to feel the squeeze a little.
Although we try and cut down on local driving we are sometimes unable to cut back as much as we'd like due to family obligations.
So after a lot of humming and arrrring, looking at various cars, we bought a second hand Fiat 1.3 diesel Panda with 80,000 miles on the clock for running round.
Mimimum investment for an experiment, brilliant, take the Sedona out now and then just to keep it rolling nicely.
We reckon it's saving us around £100-£120 a month, honestly, and it costs £30 a year tax.
In fact we 've said if we spend on another motor it'll be to upgrade the Panda as the Sedona' only 29,000 on the clcok and is a great tow car.
Yes I know we're still paying for the Sedona to stand but still feel better every week when we put twenty quid in, we're getting 50+ to the gallon locally, on a run you question the fuel gauges sanity.
Best regards
Although we try and cut down on local driving we are sometimes unable to cut back as much as we'd like due to family obligations.
So after a lot of humming and arrrring, looking at various cars, we bought a second hand Fiat 1.3 diesel Panda with 80,000 miles on the clock for running round.
Mimimum investment for an experiment, brilliant, take the Sedona out now and then just to keep it rolling nicely.
We reckon it's saving us around £100-£120 a month, honestly, and it costs £30 a year tax.
In fact we 've said if we spend on another motor it'll be to upgrade the Panda as the Sedona' only 29,000 on the clcok and is a great tow car.
Yes I know we're still paying for the Sedona to stand but still feel better every week when we put twenty quid in, we're getting 50+ to the gallon locally, on a run you question the fuel gauges sanity.
Best regards
Forgot to say Fiat Panda diesel is pretty rare ( our way anyway) at lower prices but we reckon if we had tried to swap the Sedona in for a more economical tow car we'd have payed a lot more than we payed for the Fiat.
Best regards
Best regards
Hello Hasbo,
If you only used the Sedona for holidays, then if they only fell within six months of the year you might be able to consider putting it onto SORN for the other six months and reduce your tax burden, You might also be able to reduce the insurance on it for the same period.
If you only used the Sedona for holidays, then if they only fell within six months of the year you might be able to consider putting it onto SORN for the other six months and reduce your tax burden, You might also be able to reduce the insurance on it for the same period.
Sedo
That is exactly what we have done by buying a 3rd car for me to use as a commuter car. As we are doing over 10000 miles in each of our cars we are not paying over the odds to get the cars serviced, the Clio is £30 road tax and the extra insurance using Admiral multicar is less than £200 so the extra outgoings (above buying the car) & I was paying £80 a week in fuel in the Peugeot so I am quids in as the Renault does over 60 mpg.
That is exactly what we have done by buying a 3rd car for me to use as a commuter car. As we are doing over 10000 miles in each of our cars we are not paying over the odds to get the cars serviced, the Clio is £30 road tax and the extra insurance using Admiral multicar is less than £200 so the extra outgoings (above buying the car) & I was paying £80 a week in fuel in the Peugeot so I am quids in as the Renault does over 60 mpg.
Good thinking there Prof, the only issue is if you need the car it is very annoying to have it sitting there, but not able to be used unless the insurance & tax is sorted. Currently my Renault is awaiting a fix so I am having to use the 4x4 to get to work, if the Peugeut was sorn'd then I would be stuck. Also we get cheaper car insurance on all three of our cr by dropping the courtesy car option as we have an extra car we can use.Prof John L said:
HI
I also tow a caravan with an mtplm of 1400kg and I use a 2004 Ford Mondeo tdci. This car can tow the van with no problems and has plenty of power when towing the van I usually get about 30-36mpg which is quite good considering the weight of the van and the fact that there is usually four of us. On solo drives you can get anything between 45 and 60 mpg which is excellent althougth as always this depends on how fast you drive and the type of road you are on but I would definetly recommend one of these cars as it has been one of the best cars I have owned.
Hope this helps you!
I also tow a caravan with an mtplm of 1400kg and I use a 2004 Ford Mondeo tdci. This car can tow the van with no problems and has plenty of power when towing the van I usually get about 30-36mpg which is quite good considering the weight of the van and the fact that there is usually four of us. On solo drives you can get anything between 45 and 60 mpg which is excellent althougth as always this depends on how fast you drive and the type of road you are on but I would definetly recommend one of these cars as it has been one of the best cars I have owned.
Hope this helps you!
I changed my Renault Laguna estate petrol for a Rover 75 connessure cdti Se tourer in August last year for exactly the same reason, as even then petrol was stupidly expensive and I was getting less and less MPG. The car had done 209'000 miles.
My Rover returns 53Mpg even on the back road route from Droitwich to Tenbury Wells and to Leominster at an average 38Mph, due to the twisty roads. Towing, I get high 30's nearly 40 Mpg. Car solo with a Thule roof box on, I get 47Mpg. Round town 40Mpg is easy to get. Best average at 70 Mpg on the motorway got upto 58Mpg.
The Rover is a much under rated and maligned car. It has buid quality akin to Jaguar as it was aimed at that level of descerning ownership. But it also comes with the Eco friendly BMW 2 litre diesel engine that has a 300'000 mile life expectancey before major surgery. Saying that though, I have just changed the slave cylinder on the clutch which is a gearbox out job, because some penny pincher didn't replace it when they did a clutch change. It took me 12 days of 3-4 hours work at a time. This was because I had to teach my son how to do it as I can't do heavy car work at present due to a compressed disc in my back. Normally it would be about a week's work for a competent DIY mechanic.
All in all a very impressive car. Spares are readily available as the OEM parts manufacturers have to commit to a ten year spares back up any way. So you have until 2016 before even the oddest of parts go out of stock. I did hear a rumble that new front wings are rare, but you do have secondhand options there as the petrol models were far less reliable and made their way to the scarpyard early.
My Rover returns 53Mpg even on the back road route from Droitwich to Tenbury Wells and to Leominster at an average 38Mph, due to the twisty roads. Towing, I get high 30's nearly 40 Mpg. Car solo with a Thule roof box on, I get 47Mpg. Round town 40Mpg is easy to get. Best average at 70 Mpg on the motorway got upto 58Mpg.
The Rover is a much under rated and maligned car. It has buid quality akin to Jaguar as it was aimed at that level of descerning ownership. But it also comes with the Eco friendly BMW 2 litre diesel engine that has a 300'000 mile life expectancey before major surgery. Saying that though, I have just changed the slave cylinder on the clutch which is a gearbox out job, because some penny pincher didn't replace it when they did a clutch change. It took me 12 days of 3-4 hours work at a time. This was because I had to teach my son how to do it as I can't do heavy car work at present due to a compressed disc in my back. Normally it would be about a week's work for a competent DIY mechanic.
All in all a very impressive car. Spares are readily available as the OEM parts manufacturers have to commit to a ten year spares back up any way. So you have until 2016 before even the oddest of parts go out of stock. I did hear a rumble that new front wings are rare, but you do have secondhand options there as the petrol models were far less reliable and made their way to the scarpyard early.
TRENDING THREADS
-
-
-
-
-
-
Another newbie needing towing weight advice sorry!
- Started by birty
- Replies: 68
-
Facebook
Twitter