I am looking to buy a seven seater car, which can also tow a 5 berth caravan. Having three children 6,5 and 18 months you cant seem to fit the 3 car seast in the back together. Oh i have not bought the caravan yet so i am open to suggestions. The car ideally would be good on fuel for both towing and everyday use and not cost or kill the earth to run .. Looking at spending about £7000 on car and £5000 on caravan it will be my first... thanks for your advice.
seven seat tow car??
- Thread starter Rich_374407221
- Start date
Mel
Moderator
Hi. We tow with the seven seater version of the Hyundai Sante Fe. It does have two proper seats for six and seven not the folding deckchair you get in a mitsubishi outlander. We are very happy with it. It can be two or four wheel drive and we get about 33mpg everyday town driving. It is not in the top band of road tax but it is in the next one down though! We tow a van with an MPTLM of 1560 with no problem. Some people carriers may suit you better but watch out for the towing limits as some are not as high as you might think. There are folks on here who rate the Zafira. We had one before we got a caravan and rather liked it although never used it to tow.
Our van is a double dinette layout so sleeps 5. With little children you may prefer a bunk layout though.
hope this helps
mel
Our van is a double dinette layout so sleeps 5. With little children you may prefer a bunk layout though.
hope this helps
mel
Just today we have been to trade in our Seat Alhambra for an s-max. We should get the new car at the beginning of March and we think we got a fantastic deal. This was our 3rd Alhambra and we have been delighted with all 3. The only reason we didn't get another was because my hubby decided he couldn't possibly buy the same car 4 times, but we would definitely recommend them to anyone.
thank you i will look them up, it seems that between the seat ford and vw are all the same really.
It has to be the Kia Carens, 2.0 CRD .
I have the 7 seat version, and buckets of space for the wife and 4 kids, and 2 miniture schnazers
I have the 7 seat version, and buckets of space for the wife and 4 kids, and 2 miniture schnazers
Agree with Zafiral - we tow our 5 berth Geist AK495 (MTPLM 1390 kgs) with our Zafira 1.9 CDTi 150bhp and it's great. Just had to tax it for the year and it cost
Having had so much trouble with our S-max I was looking at a Kia Carens parked next to me today (08 model) but there's only 2 1/2 seats in the 2nd row. Our previous car was a Sharan which was an excellent towcar with 40 mpg and theres plenty around in your price range but their build quality and reliability is less than average, for us it was lots of little things that went wrong but still better than the S-max. Don't touch an auto Sharan, Galaxy, Alhambra with a barge pole though!!!!
Rich,
Also have a look at the Kia Sedona, seven seats but the earlier version has the three seats at the rear not central.
A little limited on luggage space with all the seats on board but all passenger seats are easy to remove if required. Will pull any van your likly to look at with ease and for its size, 2.9 diesel isn't too bad on economy if your not heavy footed on the pedal. Comfy to drive but turning circle is a bit naff when trying to park in tight spots. I think the Sedona is a bit more frugal on the juice than the Santa Fa and you will probably, at the present, pick a good one up for your
Also have a look at the Kia Sedona, seven seats but the earlier version has the three seats at the rear not central.
A little limited on luggage space with all the seats on board but all passenger seats are easy to remove if required. Will pull any van your likly to look at with ease and for its size, 2.9 diesel isn't too bad on economy if your not heavy footed on the pedal. Comfy to drive but turning circle is a bit naff when trying to park in tight spots. I think the Sedona is a bit more frugal on the juice than the Santa Fa and you will probably, at the present, pick a good one up for your
The old range of Galaxy/sharan/albrahma, are excellent tow vehicles, and for their size are good on mpg, [best of their generation] But if you use all 7 seats like most in your price range the boot space is limited.
Another choice is the peugeot 807 / citroen/fiat, that have the 2.2 litre diesel, slightly worse on mpg, but another excellent value range that would fit the bill,and maybe leave a few more pounds to spent on your caravan choice, than the galaxy range would.
Another choice is the peugeot 807 / citroen/fiat, that have the 2.2 litre diesel, slightly worse on mpg, but another excellent value range that would fit the bill,and maybe leave a few more pounds to spent on your caravan choice, than the galaxy range would.
Just noticed your other question Zafiral so we'll answer here!
Ours is a 56-plate manual 1.9 cdti 150bhp Design - perhaps yours is newer and they've brought the CO2 emissions down even further? Our tax renewal stated 167 g/km.
As mentioned before, our van has an MTPLM of 1390 kgs and we travel with 2 adults and 3 kids with all the paraphernalia that they entail and we get around 27 mpg when towing which we're quite happy with.
As mentioned already, boot space is limited when using all 7 seats but we usually use 6 at the most so half of the large boot is still useable. Our particular version is the Design and we've got three 12v sockets (one in each row) which is very useful as the kids can have their DVD player on and we can plug the cool box in en route without lots of extension cables.
We did get stuck getting onto a very muddy, sloping grass pitch last year but we unhitched and managed to get on with the motor mover. We mainly use CC sites and prefer hardstandings anyway so the lack of 4-wheel drive isn't usually a problem.
Cheers, Claire & Rob
Ours is a 56-plate manual 1.9 cdti 150bhp Design - perhaps yours is newer and they've brought the CO2 emissions down even further? Our tax renewal stated 167 g/km.
As mentioned before, our van has an MTPLM of 1390 kgs and we travel with 2 adults and 3 kids with all the paraphernalia that they entail and we get around 27 mpg when towing which we're quite happy with.
As mentioned already, boot space is limited when using all 7 seats but we usually use 6 at the most so half of the large boot is still useable. Our particular version is the Design and we've got three 12v sockets (one in each row) which is very useful as the kids can have their DVD player on and we can plug the cool box in en route without lots of extension cables.
We did get stuck getting onto a very muddy, sloping grass pitch last year but we unhitched and managed to get on with the motor mover. We mainly use CC sites and prefer hardstandings anyway so the lack of 4-wheel drive isn't usually a problem.
Cheers, Claire & Rob
We pick up our s-max tomorrow. I've read mixed reports about them on here so hope it will be as reliable as our Alhambra was
Claire & Rob
I didn't quite get your economy with ours, but our van is 7'6" wide, 1480kg MTPLM and Baileys don't appear to have as sloping a front as other vans, more interior space and perhaps the payback is the economy. Even with gentle (for me) driving I only got 24-25mpg on my last trip through Essex (perhaps my gentle is more spirited than others!!).
It'll be even worse for the long holidays as there will also be 3 bikes on the roof!! However, the Zafira gives similar economy to our previous Civic 2.2 CTDi with a 1250kg Ranger on the back so it is not all bad news.
I didn't quite get your economy with ours, but our van is 7'6" wide, 1480kg MTPLM and Baileys don't appear to have as sloping a front as other vans, more interior space and perhaps the payback is the economy. Even with gentle (for me) driving I only got 24-25mpg on my last trip through Essex (perhaps my gentle is more spirited than others!!).
It'll be even worse for the long holidays as there will also be 3 bikes on the roof!! However, the Zafira gives similar economy to our previous Civic 2.2 CTDi with a 1250kg Ranger on the back so it is not all bad news.
Thanks for all your advice, I have taken onboard everything you have all said and will make my mind up somehow.. Thanks once again..
hi
would certainly recommend the vw sharan will tow any single axle van on the market and get 30 plus to the gallon and 50 plus solo.we had one for six year and done over 120 thousand miles and never had a spanner near engine other than servicing .changed it for a sedonna as we changed the van to a twin axle as sedonna is only people carrier than can tow twin axle legally
colin
I have read this topic with interest but would like some help. We want to buy a caravan (new to caravanning) but have a Vauxhall Zafira Design, 1.8, Automatic and have been told by a caravan dealer that we would be severely limited due to towing weight issues. We ideally wanted a Bailey Ranger 5 berth (2 children) but have been told this is a no-no. What caravan options do we have or are we going to have to change the car as well to something heavier? Didn't really want to have this expense as well....
Hi Jo,
We are new to caravanning as well. We had our lovely new caravan chosen then found out that our car would have difficulty in towing it.
We got the caravan then had to get a 4x4 to tow it.
I would say do your homework, go around all the caravan showrooms, see what suits.
I think you will have to go around car showrooms too!
We have a Swift Charisma 565 and tow it with a Honda CRV 2.2cdti
It has been great so far.
Hope this helps, I found all the weights/tow cars etc very difficult and some dealers tell you different things.
Susan
I have just purchased a new van and our freelander would not pull it so I exchanged it for an 06 Kia Sedona 2.9 automatic for under
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