Santa Fe as a tow car

[AlanADS]

David

Jo-Anne tows her Wyoming with a Santa Fe and sings its praises so I am sure yours will be fine. The auto box should make for relaxed driving, especially in slow moving traffic.

I am sure you will let us know what it tows like following you picking the new van up this coming week. Hope all goes well.

Alan

 

[Oldsalt49]

Hi Alan S,

Well I picked up my new caravan today and experienced my first tow for 8 years and of course with the Santa Fe. I was very impressed with the performance, but was not able to assess it properly due to exceptionally high and gusty winds (not from me I would add). On a sheltered section of the M20 I was able to cruise along at 60mph without drama, very stable indeed. I am still resisting pushing the Santa Fe as it only has just over 1000 miles on the clock. I found I had to use the tiptronic to select lower gears at time, not wanting to use kick-down. Overall I am happy with my choice of towcar and now can't wait to get away to give the outfit its true maiden voyage. Traditionally we have always used the CC Daleacres site to test out our new vans. We also managed to cross the Dartford bridge without hitting a major traffic jam, must have been my lucky day?

 

[AlanADS]

Hi David

Good to hear that all went well with picking the van up. Once the new Santa Fe loosens up a bit the drive with the van on the back should get even better. Whenever I've had an auto box I have always changed manually instead of using kick-down - I feel it is better to anticipate as it keeps your overall speed and momentum up.

I doubt if we will now get away with the van until next year unless we use it at Christmas so it will be a while before we can assess the Freelander's towing performance properly, unless we get a new van ..... and we will be going out on Sunday if the weather is fine to have a look at some Coachman vans !!!

Regards

Alan

 

[Duncan123]

Hi i tow a Crusader Sirocco with our diesel cdx manual.

Great car pulls brilliantly never had any problems 26-28MPG.

Its our second new shape Santa Fe and gets 34-38mpg solo.

Duncan

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

duncan, i hope you dont mind me asking what % are you towing at. im asking cos when we was changing the van we looked at the weights of the supersirocco and didnt buy it cos the % would be to high?.

thanks

jo

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

Hi David

Good to hear that all went well with picking the van up. Once the new Santa Fe loosens up a bit the drive with the van on the back should get even better. Whenever I've had an auto box I have always changed manually instead of using kick-down - I feel it is better to anticipate as it keeps your overall speed and momentum up.

I doubt if we will now get away with the van until next year unless we use it at Christmas so it will be a while before we can assess the Freelander's towing performance properly, unless we get a new van ..... and we will be going out on Sunday if the weather is fine to have a look at some Coachman vans !!!

Regards

Alan

alan, we was never told not to tow until after 1000. so im sure we towed before. anyway you will find going up steepish hills that you will need to push it over to manual mode its not a problem it gets up them better.

what colour and model did you get?.

jo

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

just realised itd david and duncan with the santa fes's and alan with the freelander. having a blonde moment ( im dark brown really )

jo

 

[James3]

Hi Alan S,

Well I picked up my new caravan today and experienced my first tow for 8 years and of course with the Santa Fe. I was very impressed with the performance, but was not able to assess it properly due to exceptionally high and gusty winds (not from me I would add). On a sheltered section of the M20 I was able to cruise along at 60mph without drama, very stable indeed. I am still resisting pushing the Santa Fe as it only has just over 1000 miles on the clock. I found I had to use the tiptronic to select lower gears at time, not wanting to use kick-down. Overall I am happy with my choice of towcar and now can't wait to get away to give the outfit its true maiden voyage. Traditionally we have always used the CC Daleacres site to test out our new vans. We also managed to cross the Dartford bridge without hitting a major traffic jam, must have been my lucky day?

I will very interested to hear how you get on when you go on your first trip when the van is loaded. There are quite a few of us who have vans (especially Swift Challengers) which are fairly heavey so I await with interest as my short list is either the Santa fe or the new Sorento.

 

[Duncan123]

Hi Jo

if you take the vans mtplm its about 96% but theres only me my partner and my little girl so weve not got very much at all in van.

I intend to stick the van on a weigh-bridge ono of these weekends but with a miro of 1615kg i dont think were over 1750kg which drops me to 90%.

The van always handles very well and sits stable at 60mph.

Ive been towing caravans for 8 years and driving LGV c+e for 15 and always take it nice and steady.

Duncan

 

[Martin24]

Hi Jo

if you take the vans mtplm its about 96% but theres only me my partner and my little girl so weve not got very much at all in van.

I intend to stick the van on a weigh-bridge ono of these weekends but with a miro of 1615kg i dont think were over 1750kg which drops me to 90%.

The van always handles very well and sits stable at 60mph.

Ive been towing caravans for 8 years and driving LGV c+e for 15 and always take it nice and steady.

Duncan

Replaced our TD5 with a shogun and now have a rexton which tows our coachman beautifully. I have heard a few gripes about the santa fe on the rally field and indeed the sorento. The rexton uses pretty bullet proof if not the most modern mercedes engine and tiptronic gearbox. Space aboard is better than both the santa fe and sorento, still lets face it all 3 will be more reliable and cheaper to run than anything in the tata, sorry Land rover stable

 

[Pat_374304630]

Hi Allen S,

In answer to your question, I tow with an 05 plate 2ltr crtd manual. I tow a Coachman Amara 520/4. Solo I get 34.5 miles to the gallon, towing I get 32.4 miles to the gallon. I have nothing but praise for this car.

 

[AlanADS]

Hi Pat

Those towing figures are certainly impressive. I have now gone down the route of buying a Freelander 2 - Land Rovers have always been one of my favourites and I have in the past owned three at the same time (2 Discos and a Defender 90) plus our Hyundai. I doubt if I will get anything like those figures but what the heck - dear Gordon Brown needs our money !

To answer Jo-Anne

Our Freelander 2 is a manual in XS Spec with the addition of the Style Pack and is a bright metallic blue. Went for a long solo drive this Sunday to look at a new Coachman Caravan and I am impressed - it is, and I hate to say this, much better than our late Series 2 Disco. It drives like a car has very good ride quality and I think even better than our Hyundai (although we are not comparing the same car here). Anyway Jo, we treated ourselves to a new Caravan ready for hopeful retirement early next year ! It wasn't one of those we shortlisted and went to look at but it was one that both me and my wife immediately hit on and said 'that's the one' and that is certainly a first for us to agree on something !! But all this is another story.

Regards

Alan

 

[vauxhall2]

we use a hyundai santa f'e from new,its just 5 years old.3 ltr V6 auto.it is a fabulous tow car.the petrol is 21 mpg when towing.used the 5 year warranty three times and got first class service.blistering paint on the wheels and they replaced all 4FOC.only complaint is the service cost required to maintain the warranty is very high.i will have to go elsewhere for the service in the future.

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

what caravan did you get mate?.

jo

 

[AlanADS]

Jo

We bought a Coachman Pastiche 560/4 dealer special, this brings this up to the VIP standard complete with ATC. It is one of the largest single axle fixed bed, end bathrooms you can get - only trouble is that there is a longish waiting list for one. It is a bit of a departure from our previous Baileys - if only Bailey had not played around with the Pegasus instead of updating the Senator !

Regards

Alan