Hello, i've started a venture with a friend and need a towing car (the escort van he has struggled with a primera). I have a low mileage civic 04 plate civic that will be part ex'd. I have no cash to add to the deal and ideally would like some cash back from the deal. I have an lpg kit to fit so it could be a petrol model. It must do the following things; tow pretty much anything, reliable, economical to run (cheap parts etc, i can do repairs myself), it must be big enough to carry me, wife, son and two dogs (jack russell and a staff), and it has to be able to take funny shaped parts in the boot so a saloon is out of the mix.

I've been looking at the volvo v70's, subaru foresters, and the old jeep cheeroke. The wife likes the discoverys, and the 93-99 era range rovers.

Has anyone had any experience with any of the above, or can suggest anything else.

rangy with LPG should fit the bill nicely...

Oh and around thirty mpg or equivalent on lpg is needed.

I have always liked the range rovers, but aren't they a little under powered for the size?

Why not just buy an old Merc estate? You wouldn;t need to trade anything in as they are cheap as chips for what they are, and they make a very good towing car.

A nice big petrol engine will be highly undesirable so you could get a very well looked after one, for not much money - fit the LPG system and your laughing!

I have a v50 2.0 diesel at the mo, drives nice, pretty quick (for a deisel), grunty engine for towing but the boot is a bit small for an estate.

[Edited on 10/3/09 by Dangle_kt]

I like the merc idea, but i can only have one car, due to space, insurance and cost issues. I live on a terraced street without a garage so space is tight, and i couldn't justify the cost of running two cars when i'm the only one in the household who Drives.

I know new shape large engined 5 series BMW's go for a lot less than people think. Might be worth having a rummage at what you could get?

I'm looking at a bmw 5 series estate when I chop in my audi a4 tdi.
530d, nice motor 0-60 in 8ish, 38mpg saw a couple under 4k.
Or the older 5 series pre 96, still a lovely motor, pic up a petrol one for peanuts.
Not sure how big the boot is on jeeps?

1999 BMW 5 SERIES 523i SE 5dr Touring
Price:
£1,950ono 105kmiles, full leather 2.5lt, with tow bar.
I'm tempted (search autotrader)





[Edited on 10/3/09 by mikeb]

How about an older Mondeo estate.
Reliable, easy to work on. Cheap as chips. The V6 petrol should tow nice. I'm sure there are some oil burner options as well.

Failing that, I'd look at the Merc option already mentioned.

940 turbo , well engineered , reliable , easy to maintain , they can run on E85 aswell .

the newer volvos really need a good dealer backup , you cant just replace parts on em simply

Vauxhall Omega V6

Practically free and would pull your house down.

Ideal

Cheers

Chris

now i hadn't thought about an omega, a v6 estate would be great, g've considered the 5 series, but i discounted it for some reason but can't remember why, found a great looking e320 diesel estate 2000. But they want 6k for it and it needs new front discs and pads. Not sure about the mondeos

I'd have an old volvo, but the missus wouldn't. Its hot to be something i won't get nagged at every time she is in it. Saab 9000 maybe

have you considdered the weight of what you are looking to tow and the kerb weight and max tow capacity?

comparison site for various towing cars (excuse referance to caravans!!)

Go with the old Jeep Cherokee1993-2001, loads of torque, reliable 5000 lb tow capacity, I am on my second one (98), 220,000km our (93) went to 330,000km before wife got upset with holes in rocker panels. Tows my 20 foot inboard boat, and what ever I can put on my 4000 lb gross trailer. There is a reasonable amount of room in the rear especially with the back seat down. I picked up my Locost chassis, all the suspension pieces, the 4 wings and nose cone on my way home from a 3 week holiday in Florida. It all went inside except the chassis which was on the roof rack. Still room for wife and I inside. We carried the parts some 1000 miles like this.

I have a November 05 Cherokee 2.8CRD Limited. It can do well over 37mpg on a run and still gets 30mpg pulling a trailer and round town. I was wanting £6500 (Parkers suggest £7700!) but I'd be interested in your Civic depending on where you see the price. The Cherokee even has a boot liner and dog gaurd (although the only journey the dog did was her last one to the vet...)

The Cherokee has a fairly small boot but it's big with the rear seats folded. But as far as 4x4/tow cars go, it's small and easy to park. My other car is a 2005 Range Rover but we use the Cherokee more as we can afford to put fuel ijn it!! It already has an expensive towbar.

Subaru Outback - tons of room - and I know it's hard to believe but they're easy to work on (they are designed by engineers for engineers) - I averaged 10.5 km to the litre in my 2.5 automatic and a carefully driven 3.0 should give you close to 30mpg and would tow anything - and it handles well.

I had a Scooby Outback (and a Forrester) and they were rubbish. Slow, used tons of fuel (never got over 25ish) and the spares were very expensive. I very rarely advise against anything (if I can't say good things, I say nowt!) but the Scooby experience was all bad for me!

quote:

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Originally posted by owelly
I had a Scooby Outback (and a Forrester) and they were rubbish. Slow, used tons of fuel (never got over 25ish) and the spares were very expensive. I very rarely advise against anything (if I can't say good things, I say nowt!) but the Scooby experience was all bad for me!

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To the folks who had the foresters, did the turbo versions make a big difference. The 4.0ltr cherokee has always been a soft spot for me. Thats jibberish but you know what i mean. And re the towing weight. We will be using an A Frame and towing various cars, so weight could be between an original mini or a transit van

So you'll need to keep an eye on the "Total train weight" of the vehicle. If you intend pulling something heavy, you'll need a heavy car!
Don't forget, A-frames are for short distance recovery only and the towed vehicle must be totally road legal!!

Id get a V70 with the 2.4 D5 engine. great for space and normal driving, towing performance is good too

A SWB Transit has a GVW of 2400kg. The LWB is 3500kg so you're very restricted to what you can pull onee with. You can rule out the Scoobies and Volvos!! You need to be looking at a 4x4.
The GVW of a Primera is 1800kg so that also puts you into 4x4 territory!

Ford Scorpio Estate!

So the out of tax, sorn'd primera we pulled on an A Frame with a 55bhp escort van might not have been strictly legal

My 1998 V6 2.5 petrol Omega estate with a genuine 52K on the clock pulled my trailer and car to sva. A round trip of 85miles and 24 MPG ( reset the trip before I left as I was only expecting 15MPG or less.
Ye canny beat a canny scotsman.

my dad has been looking at disco's for the last few weeks as a second car, but decided against it. they have a lot of issues.

he just bought a 2000 Merc ML320 auto fully spec'd, two owners 42k miles for £4500. a lot of car for the money and there are plenty of em out there. being pre 2001 its only ~£185 to tax too.

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=108264

ETDWM - the best tow car I've ever had!

If you don;t fancy my car, go for a sprinter van in 2.2cdi format. 311 cdi - great for towing too!

Renault Grand Espace

Van like boot with seats out, if you're very (yes very, like 60 on the motorway) you'll get 52mpg, though 35 mpg short journey/cold starts.

Towing according to Renault site

Gross train 4150kg
Gross Vehicle 2537kg
Kerb 1757kg
Max payload 555kg
Max unbraked trailer 750kg

ATB

Simon

The diesel jeep i would probably have to add some cash to, so thats out. But thanks for the offer. The bmw would be ideal if it was an estate, i need something i can sling an engine into if need be. But it does look a belter. I love the espace but the missus detests them. And the ml merc might be an option if at the right price

Found a low mileage chevy blazer on lpg. Looks the part for what i need. Anyone had any experience with them?