Towing Vehicle

[graeme_laslett]

Hi All,

 

Next year, I want to do some sprinting at various locations around England. Driving the Elise loaded with tyres and kit etc is not possible I was wondering what peoples thoughts were on the best vehicle to tow the Elise with.

 

The new car would also have to be used most days for a daily commute of about 20 miles each way, and be easy enough to park in a city centre, but also have enough room for tyres, fuel, tools, tents, kitchen sink.

 

I test drove the new Land Rover Defender and that seemed too extreme, also drove the Freelander 2 which was OK, but wasn't over overly thrilled.

 

Anyone have any thoughts - absolute maximum budget of £30K

 

Thanks

 

G

[Stumason10]

Hi All,

 

Next year, I want to do some sprinting at various locations around England. Driving the Elise loaded with tyres and kit etc is not possible I was wondering what peoples thoughts were on the best vehicle to tow the Elise with.

 

The new car would also have to be used most days for a daily commute of about 20 miles each way, and be easy enough to park in a city centre, but also have enough room for tyres, fuel, tools, tents, kitchen sink.

 

I test drove the new Land Rover Defender and that seemed too extreme, also drove the Freelander 2 which was OK, but wasn't over overly thrilled.

 

Anyone have any thoughts - absolute maximum budget of £30K

 

Thanks

 

G

 

For 30K you could get pretty much anything 2nd hand!

 

Discovery

Range Rover

X5

 

Or a vintage 4x4 and a run about!

 

Stu

[Fiona]

We have a 535d Touring. Does everything you need and then some but, tbh, with that budget you might as well test drive everything going. Elise is an easy car to tow.

[graeme_laslett]

Sorry - Forgot to mention a couple of points

 

The new car will be the daily hack and I'll have to fuel the thing, so that counts out the Disco

It also has to be new, the trusty Citroen qualifies for the £2k scrappage scheme

 

G

[Greg.g]

I wouldnt read too much into that scrapage scheme.

All right, they will knock 2k off the list price, but not alot more. From what i hear, they are far more flexible if you just go in with a wad of cash, or possibly better still if you agree to use their finance (could possibly pay this off pronto to save some cash).

 

If you do look for a nearly new car, you could probably save yourself 10k in depreciation on a 30k car

[Balboa]

I wouldnt read too much into that scrapage scheme.

All right, they will knock 2k off the list price, but not alot more. From what i hear, they are far more flexible if you just go in with a wad of cash, or possibly better still if you agree to use their finance (could possibly pay this off pronto to save some cash).

 

If you do look for a nearly new car, you could probably save yourself 10k in depreciation on a 30k car

 

Agree with Greg comments here just bought a new Leon on VW finance got a much better deal than the 2k scrappage allowance.

 

With regard to towing any decent vehicle with good torque will do the job, more important is good quality well maintained trailer

[Dave, man]

Agree with Greg comments here just bought a new Leon on VW finance got a much better deal than the 2k scrappage allowance.

 

With regard to towing any decent vehicle with good torque will do the job, more important is good quality well maintained trailer

 

Yep, I spent £1500 on a S reg 523 BMW touring. Does the job with a ton of race car on the back no problem and is used by the wife as a daily driver the rest of the time a 80 mile round trip commute.

 

Not saying you should go that far as I'm happy to do the maintenence on mine, but a decent sized reliable estate can be picked up for a lot less than £28k.

[kayj_prod]

Don't forget to think about maximum towing weight for the vehicle. Looking at it from a horse owner point of view it scares me when I see a family estate towing over a ton of horse and trailer! There are bigger questions than merely, will it pull it. At least -unlike my horse at least- your Elise won't be jumping around whilst you're driving along and trying to reverse itself off.

 

I used to have a Disco TD5 and to be honest, towing, its fuel economy was pretty good on a long run on good roads- and that was towing more weight than an Elise on a car trailer. However, it was for a while my only vehicle and at that point any proper 4x4 is going to suffer in comparison with a car. Very good when it came to pulling the same trailer off a wet/muddy field though!

[graeme_laslett]

Don't forget to think about maximum towing weight for the vehicle. Looking at it from a horse owner point of view it scares me when I see a family estate towing over a ton of horse and trailer! There are bigger questions than merely, will it pull it. At least -unlike my horse at least- your Elise won't be jumping around whilst you're driving along and trying to reverse itself off.

 

I used to have a Disco TD5 and to be honest, towing, its fuel economy was pretty good on a long run on good roads- and that was towing more weight than an Elise on a car trailer. However, it was for a while my only vehicle and at that point any proper 4x4 is going to suffer in comparison with a car. Very good when it came to pulling the same trailer off a wet/muddy field though!

 

These are my thoughts exactly.

 

What does a standard Elise weight? 800kg + the trailer, what 200kg? So thats a tonne, add to this a set of wheels / tyres, fuel cans, tool boxes, tents, hair dryer etc. The Skoda Octavia (for example) has a brake towing rate of 1200kg. Am i pushing it?

 

Is something like a RAV4 / Freelander / Audi Q5 going to be a safer, better long term bet than a 5 series / VW made Estate?

 

G

[Dave, man]

I got spot checked by the police with the 5 series. Race car is about 1140kg when fuelled plus the trailer and I had all the tools, spare fuel/parts, camping gear, etc in the tow car and was safely within the legal towing weights of the car, so I don't think you should have much of a problem with a 800kg Elise.

 

I've towed with a Discovery, a mondeo estate and the 5 series and I'd rate them in that order in terms of stability. The ease with which the Mondeo coped surprised me a bit as the 5 series is the heavier car although it still feels comfortable with that weight on the back.

[chorton_1]

A people carrier with all fold-down seats may well make a surprisingly good utility / support vehicle, and provide pretty damn good hospitality in a very wet Mallory paddock too.....

[fentuz]

I guess the question is do you want a 4x4??? If you're not going off road, an Estate will be the most polyvalent car.

Some guys I know used to drive Impreza on track and swapped for ExigeS... wanted a trailer etc...

3 criteria:

Trailer to be less than 750kg,

Trailer + carried vehicle to be lighter than the car

Car + trailer + carried vehicle to be less than 3.5T...

 

They got a citroen C5 as it was cheap, reliable, low maintenance and good to drive as a A to B thinggy...

 

You could check all the german estate or stuff such as ford and vauxhal, may be volvo...