After coming from Oban to Bolton this weekend just gone in our ageing non turbo Laguna and hardly able to use 5th gear coming back and having to thrash the poor thing all the way home, we feel a new towcar is now needed. Don't want to go for a 4x4, because its a commuter car 1st then a towcar, and we don't have any kids to drop off at school!!!!! We are considering the following, if you own one of these or can think of another car, comments would be helpful. Xantia, late model one with the HDI engine or possible C5, Xsara estate 110bhp HDI, Stilo/ Marea JTD models, Peugeot 406 2.1 T/D or 110bhp HDI. Thought about Mondeos, driven 1.8 T/D, thought the engine was a bit of a rough dog, while the early dci models have a dubious reputation, later ones are sorted I believe. Caravan weighs 875kgs M/T, 1100kgs loaded.
Just a final thought is going petrol an option, given that petrol cars seem to be catching up on diesels in the fuel consumtion stakes.
Most Citroens make good towcars, C5 therefore should not be a problem, have you considered a Picasso HDI or even a Berlingo, loads about and cheap too. Max tow weight is 1300kg with a kerb weight the same, mine tows 1100kg no probs
I have a Peugeot 406 GTX 2.0 HDI saloon and currently pull an Elddis Avante 534. The car copes fine and has plenty of power. In fact if it was only me and OH then there would be no problem, but when I add the kids in the back (14 and 9) then the back suspension has been suffering somewhat and so I have just got an old Ford Maverick to do the towing with, but kept the 406 for every day use.
you wont go far wrong with a Xantia, and if you can get an hdi all the better. dirt cheap to buy , easy to find a good un for under a grand ,and as long as the suspension set up works fine you shouldnt have too many problems. no more sagging back end with the van on, self levelling. just avoid the petrols and the 1.9 D non turbo, sloooooow.
dont rite off a 4x4 we have a pajero they are not that expensive to run,oil and filter change £17.50 ,30+ mpg.and a huge level of equipment as standard.Ours is a 2.5 td and pay £170 comp insurance with full ncb.
------------- a bad day caravaning is better than a good day at work
I don't know what your budget is, but there are plenty of mondeo TDI Mk3 on the market for about £5000 make sure you get a 130hp version.
On the other hand I use a T reg 2 litre mondeo estate coupled to a crown regent Max Weight 1350. this tows really well and you can pick a good one up for about two grand. As a day to day runabout I can easily get 35 -37 to the gallon. I've had mine three years and the only thing thats gone wrong is an ignition unit at £50.
Parts for the ford are much cheaper than french or jap cars and servicing is reasonable too.
Check out your weights on www.parkers.co.uk in the technical data section. We didn't want a Mondeo either and, after doing a lot of sums, we bought a 406 2 ltr DTi saloon. According to the handbook it weighs 1300 kg. The caravan we're getting is about the same weight as yours. They reckon the mpg is around 51 and, according to the computer, I've been averaging about 47.8 or something just going back and forth to work, which I think it quite respectable.
We like Citroens and looked at the Xsara saloon but they're not as heavy as you would think and we didn't really want an estate, although I don't think they're that much heavier. I think the Xantia is OK for weight I've heard they can be unreliable.
Definitely go for turbo diesel though - we had a Xsara 1.9 non-turbo when we towed a folding camper and it was dreadful.
Quote: Originally posted by grant.lyon on 08/5/2006
Hi
I don't know what your budget is, but there are plenty of mondeo TDI Mk3 on the market for about £5000 make sure you get a 130hp version.
On the other hand I use a T reg 2 litre mondeo estate coupled to a crown regent Max Weight 1350. this tows really well and you can pick a good one up for about two grand. As a day to day runabout I can easily get 35 -37 to the gallon. I've had mine three years and the only thing thats gone wrong is an ignition unit at £50.
Parts for the ford are much cheaper than french or jap cars and servicing is reasonable too.
All the best in your search
Happy Vanning
Grant.
beware of any tdci 130 mondeo.prone to fuel injection faults.cutout regularly rough running poor mpg.my mate works for ford garage and says to avoid tdci before 2005 year due to loads of problems.best bet is the di 2litre from 01 to 03 less to go wrong as its direct inj and not common rail and almost as quick with 115bhp on tap and as economical as the newer ones.get a passat at that money
I have a mondeo tdci 130 (2002) it tows great on the road zooms up hills no problem , but when on site on wet grass its not so great , no problem if you use hard standings
got to say i have noticed it cut out when going too slow in a gear (1st ,2nd ) so could be the injection problem mentioned above
has towed my 1050 kg caravan all over the country without breakdown so i am happy with it
The vectras with the bigger diesel engines are good tow cars because they are quite heavy. The boots on the hatch backs are cavernous for chucking all that junk into.
You should be able to get a 2.0DTi or 2.2DTi quite cheaply by now. I had a 2.2DTi Vectra which was good for towing up to 1,500Kg if you are willing to go up to 100% - but even at 85% you will still be able to tug 1275Kg - which is more than enough for your van.
I had a Vectra and they make good towers indeed. Big engine jap 4X4's are very cheap indeed and will tow anything. We've got a Terrano II now and it tows like the vans not there.
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Topic: Cheap tow cars, I really need one
