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Need help choosing a tow car, Please

G

Gazbut

🤔
Hi all,
I'm about to buy my first tow car prior to buying a caravan (tha'ts why i'm on here :cheer: )
Totally confused though!!!
The tow car will be for her indoors to commute in; 2 miles each way: and will pull the caravan whenever required; company car for me.
I've narrowed the choice down to Honda CRV, Nissan X Trail or Kia Sportage; all of which will handle our intended caravan. Bailey Madrid hopefully.
My worry is the dreaded DPF's on these diesel cars; reading reviews the good lady's annual mileage could kill a car like this 🤢
Have any of you guys got any advice for me? any experiences would be greatly received.
Many thanks
Gazbut
 
Without looking to deep into the spec, which we will need, If your company car could be a Hybrid I would go for a Nissan, x trail. .
 
It seems your two prime needs are a bit of a strange brew. I agree the daily commute is the main concern. In particular the very short journey will not allow a normal combustion engine to get up to full working temperature. Operating at less than optimal temperatures results in poorer combustion and greater rates of wear on moving parts. On diesels this will put an extra load on dpf and certainly can lead to premature and expensive failures.

Petrol engines will also struggle to reach normal operating temperatures
on such a short commute and will see greater wear.

Consequently I concur with Hutch's reply above, a plug in hybrid might be a plausible solution, using electric range for the commute, but having the fossile fuel for the longer and more power hungry towing duties.

Sadly there have been some negative reports about the economy of some hybrids when towing, but it might still make sense, but you would have to look at the balance of milage you do solo and towing, to see if can manage the costs.

The hybrid EV market is advancing in lesps and strides, and I am confident that before long a practical EV tow car will be available.
 
We had a similar problem selecting a tow car, I do very little mileage, so we bought a car in the main only used for towing, a Kia Sorento which tows the caravan a dream, and was a cheap second hand car. And I use a Honda Jazz also quite old and petrol so no problem with DPF.

However after doing this my wife bought a car for her, a Jaguar XE which in theory would also tow the caravan, however not sure it would tow it up our new house 1 in 5 drive.
 
Gazbut said:
🤔
Hi all,
I'm about to buy my first tow car prior to buying a caravan (tha'ts why i'm on here :cheer: )
Totally confused though!!!
The tow car will be for her indoors to commute in; 2 miles each way: and will pull the caravan whenever required; company car for me.
I've narrowed the choice down to Honda CRV, Nissan X Trail or Kia Sportage; all of which will handle our intended caravan. Bailey Madrid hopefully.
My worry is the dreaded DPF's on these diesel cars; reading reviews the good lady's annual mileage could kill a car like this 🤢
Have any of you guys got any advice for me? any experiences would be greatly received.
Many thanks
Gazbut
Click to expand...

Hi Gazbut ,
Nice choice off veichles but id go Xtrail or Sportage , like the Prof says it's not going to do it any good if she just using it for 2 miles to work and back , get a bike for her !! 😛
We had problems with previous car with a DPF that was before we got a caravan but once we got the van and started towing with it , it was fine , it never happened again after that .
 
Have a look at a Kia Sorento. They not only have loads of space to put everything, but have a 7 year Warranty too.
We have a fairly heavy caravan and it pulls it like a dream. A vehicle made for caravanners, in our opinion!
 
I have the T31 Nissan Xtrail, which is a very good Tow Car in my opinion. I think some of the early ones (and Qashqais) had DPF issues, but I have never had a problem in the three years I have had mine.
 
To the OP: the thing that most newcomers overlook is the driving licence. If you passed your test after 1/1/97 you will only have B on your licence which permits you to drive and tow up to a train weight of 3500Kg - and note that is plated weight, not actual. If your outfit comes to more than 3500Kg you will need to take an extra test to get upgraded to B+E.
If you passed your test before that date then you already have it through so-called Grandparent Rights.
 
Your wife’s driving needs are totally incompatible with a diesel fitted with DPF. They arent great for a petrol either as the distance likely to be covered isn’t sufficient to warm the engine and oils to operating temperature. My Skoda can take 7 miles for coolant temperature to come up but on a cold day the engine oil will still be at 75deg c as opposed to 95deg c the normal non towing oil temperature.

You need to rethink the situation because dpf problems are costly to rectify and generally don’t fall under warranty on a second hand car.
 
Thank you for all of your replies.

I cannot change the company car as suggested so it needs to be a commuter for the good lady and a towing vehicle also.

It's the dpf that has had me worried.

From research igoing for petrol just doesn't seem a viable option.

So from your experiences just how often do I need to give a diesel a blast to look after the dpf? Weekly, fortnightly?

Another vehicle that has caught my eye is the mitsubishi outlander? Any thoughts?
Thanks again
Gazbut
 
It happened twice on our old car on the Toyota , we lost all power and it went into limp mode so I took it down a country lane and redlined it in gears 1 and 2 ( started to run out off road) and the amount of crap that come out the back was unbelievable , that's because it was just driven around the town like what your wife will do and a few miles to work and back like my wife but since getting the caravan it never happened again since then as the amount of rev's that go on when towing a caravan keep it ok so if you were going to pull a caravan with the car you will probably find that it will be ok , we've been towing with our current car for the last nearly 3 year and not a problem .

https://www.hypermiler.co.uk/dpf-diesel-particulate-filter/our-top-five-tips-on-keeping-your-dpf-clean
 
Gazbut said:
Thank you for all of your replies.

I cannot change the company car as suggested so it needs to be a commuter for the good lady and a towing vehicle also.

It's the dpf that has had me worried.

From research igoing for petrol just doesn't seem a viable option.

So from your experiences just how often do I need to give a diesel a blast to look after the dpf? Weekly, fortnightly?

Another vehicle that has caught my eye is the mitsubishi outlander? Any thoughts?
Thanks again
Gazbut
Click to expand...
In regards of how often a diesel with DPF needs a "blast" depends on which car you might choose, and how it's driven. I can only give my experience with a VW Passat 170 SEL DSG DPF from 2006 with a BMR
PD engine which automatically starts a regeneration cycle about every 200 miles of local 30 to 40 mph driving. Whilst it doesn't put up a warning light, I notice a raised tick over speed, and the auto box changes at raised rpm points, and when on constant throttle you can feel the engine has momentary small surges of power, not enough to cause any driving hazard but you know it's doing something.

On three occasions now the car has been unsuccessful to clear it's self using the automatic regeneration cycles, and it has gone on to second stage which does throw up the DPF warning light. On one occasion I was able to clear it by doing a longer than usual 2250rpm run, but two times I could not get to do a high speed run, and eventually the car switched to limp home mode with engine fault lights (no turbo boost,and other services like cruise control disabled) and it meant a trip to the garage. They can tell the ECU to do a super high temperature regeneration, so high that there is a danger of a fire unless the vehicle is moving at at least 45 during the regeneration.

So you can see it can be quite a nuisance, and unless you easy have access to high speed roads, it could become quite expensive with visits to the garage. I'd also begins to wonder about the value of any better mpg that deisel's offer, I suspect I'm using most if not all the savings of normal driving doing regeneration recoveries!

The Outlander PHEV could be the answer for you. Your wife would easily manage on the battery drive for daily commute (EV range about 30 miles) and the hybrid function would provide for towing. But the max towed weight is only 1500kg, so is that enough for you?
Also the engine in the PHEV is not as freugle as you might hope.

It's the very small commuting distance that's the big problem for any internal combustion engine.
 
Thank you,
Thankfully we live in the North West next to the M6 & M61 so a fast road is no problem.
We are looking at a bailey unicorn Madrid mtplm 1473kg.
This weight does seem to rule out most petrol cars. I'm looking to spend £16k on the car.
Again I really value recommendations and real world experience
Regards
Gazbut
 
Hi Gasbut. For that sort of cash you can get a Kia Sorento. I traded in one last year which was sold for 16k. It was a 13 plate KX3 auto with 46k miles. Still had q8 months manufacturers warranty. Brilliant tow car. When looking do not have a KX1 as it doesn’t have self levelling suspension.
 
Gazbut said:
We are looking at a bailey unicorn Madrid mtplm 1473kg.
This weight does seem to rule out most petrol cars.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but I'd have to disagree.

Ditch your preconceived ideas about which fuels and indeed the desire for a 4x4 . The vast majority of caravanner's manage perfectly well with normal saloon type with only 2wd.

There are several larger cars with petrol engines which would cope perfectly adequately with that van. 30 years ago most caravans were pulled by petrol engines cars and in most cases far less powerful than those of today. Petrol may need to be driven slightly differently, more gear changes to maintain speeds.

But again with such short commute, the wear on the engine is not going to be good.
 
I agree that there is no need for a 4x4 unless you are considering rallying when it would certainly help. We have had caravans for around 35 years and never been stuck although we did once use the motor mover to get us off a very wet grass pitch. I think the car would have managed but at a cost to the grass.
A motor mover for the Bailey is probably just as good and makes getting on a pitch a lot easier.

As for the choice of car that is to do only 2 mile trips during the day, I would get a diesel only if you are prepared to give it a decent blast down the motorway on a regular basis. A petrol engine will work better although it might suffer a bit given the low mileage. At 2 miles I would look at other options like a bus if that is practical.
 
At 2 miles a day even a petrol will suffer from its inability to warm the engine especially in winter. Different makes respond differently but some can be quite sensitive to the oil emulsifying or catalyst deterioration. So even a petrol would need to be given a good run periodically. How often this should be is down to you but some while back Honest John reckoned 50 miles non stop once a week.
A Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV might meet your needs. Check them out. PC did a review which you can find via Search. There was a forum thread within last six months where a member bought one and was very pleased with it. As it met his daily needs and was reasonable when towing.
 
It seems a PHEV would be almost ideal to meet your commuting and towing needs as well as being a good tax move and very low weekly running costs
 
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