I am wanting a tow car now that I am sick of doing Brands and also would like to go back to the ring.

I have no more than £4000 to spend, and the car will be used for 95% commuting 60 miles a day. I need decent MPG

Diesel has been advised which I am happy with.

Requirements are:

8 years old or less
Good MPG ---- 35+
Capable to tow a 7 and tools, passenger etc
less than 80,000miles
Fair on insurance, so no 3 litre v6 etc
Easy and cheapish to service
Aircon

Leather would be brill, but understand that would come with a bigger better model etc

Suggestions thus far have been

Modeo (a bit boring and very tankish)
Vectra (too sales reppy and tankish lol)
Volvo S40 (seem a good bet)
Laguna 1.9 diesel (again seem good)
IS200 (shit mpg)
Accord (Shouts retired doctor to me)
Passat (sounds a good bet)
A4 (all have way too many miles)
MG (mate got a zs-180, but not sure i can trust one personally)

All of the above (except the lexus) I would be happy with.

Any other suggestions, experiences etc would be great as I know a lot of you tow

mondeo st tdci - diesel, 155ps, nice looking with leather seats and other stuff...

mucho cheap at the moment as well (although prolly not under £4K)

[Edited on 15/6/09 by paul the 6th]

SKODA OCTAVIA ESTATE

Basically a passat but a lot cheaper!

[Edited on 15/6/09 by omega0684]

<----- Accord CDTi estate - its got a huge boot, and tows well (and I'm not a retired anything, I'm 27!)...

[Edited on 15/6/09 by twybrow]

Diesel Peugoet estate of some form, 7's are not heavy so you do not need a big car, just a light trailer!

Regards Mark

I;ve got a Volvo S60 D5 (go for the V70 for practicality).

Tows very well, nice smooth drive keeps the trailer bounce in check (as opposed to what my father in laws Freelander does, which makes it quite scary!). Load of torque too.

i have got a vauxhall signum elite 1.9cdti 150bhp it pulls like a train and returns 55-60mpg. towing a medium hatch back is around 45mpg

and to top it all off when i got it it had 29k 3 years old full service history and every toy you can think of. electric leather memory seats dual zone climate control, cruse control, auto dim and fold in mirrors, steer round corner xenon lights, fridge, sat nav, multi disc dvd player and the list goes on and on.

and for all that i paid the grand sum of £5500

if you hunt around you can get one with slightly lower spec and more miles for around the 4k mark.

yes its still a vauxhall but its a hell of a lot of car for very little money.

I have a Rover 45 TDi that cost £950 is a 51 plate and does 45~50mpg. Pulls my trailer and MNR no problem.

Dragged a Zook Sammi back from the lakes with no problems either.

Saab 9-5 diesel auto would be an awesome tow car.

I can tell you that for towing an auto is the way forward - no clutch to burn out - very easy, loads of room for tool boxes etc.

A lot of car for the money.

NTDWM

Mazda 6? We have a diesel estate and it pulls like a train even though its only the 2 litre one. oodles of space in the back and cheap to run. Never thought I'd say that but I'll be getting another one when this one dies (which I don't think will happen for years yet).

the saab 95 is just a vectra with a different badge. as long as it has the 1.9cdti engine it will great.

Stay away from the laguna 1.9 diesel. Loads of problems with the turbo going bang and killing the engine.

Expensive bill. About 4k for a new engine.

It was posted a while ago about Vauxhall that had rust problems and in one of the sites, i managed to get a link on VOSA that had all the cars that had major recalls.

Worth looking at.

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/recalls/index.jsp

something worth looking at

http://www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/default.asp

[Edited on 15/6/09 by l0rd]

Hello,

Vauxhall/Opel Zafira 1.9 CDTi 150 hp.

I had a chip on mine that pushed the engined at 180 hp.
consumption : 7 l/100 km ( translate this to mpg because i can not)
Very comfortable, very easy if you have to load something in the car ( flex seats are brilliant).
From 2 to 5 or 7 seats in a few seconds.
i kept it 2 years and drove 170.000 km without any problem.
i just have been to the garage for services every 30.000 km.

I now have a Ford Kuga, but some time i miss the Zafira.

Gerardo

My passat Tdi tows my 7 very well. Its kinda up for sale now but its got 169 on the clock. £1500.

I am after a similar car your after but for 3k max. Im looking at BMW 525 TDS's. 2500 grand buys you alot of car.

Well best car we ever had to date, Focus Tdi, 50+mpg without trailer on back, pulls a 7 with ease.

And yes its for sale, and no you don't want it as the mileage is to high, but you would have £2k spare cash.

Give them a look see.

btw personally when I look at a car the way its been looked after is more important than the odometer.

I've had a Nissan Primera (the 2.2 Turbo Diesel pulls very nicely) and a Ford Focus 1.8 TDCi. Both are easily capable of what you need. The Primera has acres of boot space too.

I've got a mondeo, gets just over 40 mpg with my motorway cruising and swmbo's belting it round town. Not boring with the mp3 cd player pretty damn quick too.

It's on just under 70k now, and we've put 50 of that on ourselves and it's never missed a beat it still feels a year or two old ( 05 plate)

Iirc she doesn't want to part with it for less than 4k (and I don't want to part with it at all for a Zafira!)

Saw an 06 ghia x (ALL the trimmings) for about 6500 yesterday. Would recommend them

Vectra would certainly get my vote, had a 3.2 Gsi on an 04 plate and never had a minutes bother with it. The 1.9 cdti as has been said is a fantastic engine, 150bhp as standard and 200 ish with a tuning box. Lack of image just means more car for your money. Autotrader with towpack

quote:

---

Originally posted by paul the 6th
mondeo st tdci - diesel, 155ps, nice looking with leather seats and other stuff...

mucho cheap at the moment as well (although prolly not under £4K)

[Edited on 15/6/09 by paul the 6th]

---

Im using a Subaru Forester TurboS. Bags of Torque low down/mid, but not too good on the Petrol. (In fact I probably only bought it as I was missing my Impreza).

A friends has an Audi Allroad, which would be the best choice imho. All the Audi Toys, A6 Shape and adjustable suspension in car. Plus a nice 2.5TDi.

do a search for 4motion tdi.

Benefits of 4x4 for towing shouldn't be under estimated... not just for grassy fields etc.

I am selling my a4 110 tdi (160k) and that is great for towing until you run short of traction....

cheers for all the replies

I will start looking into those I have not thought of over the next few days.

I think the Vectra Diesel will eb the end choice, as I dont want anything that isnt going to be slightly unreliable, or I am taking on more car than i need incase it goes wrong. For example, the Laguna DCi 1.9 diesel has sooo much for the money, the engine scares have to be of some real concern for them to be sooo cheap.