Dream Weaver

Going to be looking for a new car for the better half after summer, and want some advice.

Criteria:
1. £6000 ish budget
2. 4 seats
3. 2 doors
4. Fun (ish), but with good MPG
5. Stylish looking (ish)
6. Able to tow a caravan (Swift 4 berth, 14ft) (I know, I know, but we like getting away at weekends )

She is not that arsed about cars, so it doesnt need to be a thoroughbred.

So far I was thinking Megane Coupe, Focus Zetec etc.

Anyone else any ideas?

MarkCSC

Porsche 944.
For that money you could get a really nice tourquey 2.7. RWD is good for towing too. Shouldn't lose much money on it if you want to sell a year or so.

Dream Weaver

Criteria:
7. Cheap running costs and reliability

MarkCSC

should be cheap to run and reliable if you pick a good one.

Old_Fart

But choose the wrong one and you are stuffed! My sisters 1984 944Lux is a lovely car to drive, but the slider for controlling the cabin air broke off(whilst on max-heat) and it's a dashboard-out job to fix it..a £2 job suddenly blooms into multiple-hundreds...damn...the car is almost undriveable in this weather now LOL
Megane sucks, Focus is very good, some Seat Leons look good and are cheap now.
Chuck
(With a 'G' reg Nissan Micra - lovely 2 door coupe!)

what would scooby do

Honda Accord 2 door ?

what would scooby do

Mazda MX 6 ?

what would scooby do

Deffo look at a Leon as above

hail-hail

Wouldn't recommend the MX6, my dad had one. It was as about reliable as a chocolate Alpha Romeo

Could just have been unlucky though.

hail-hail

What about this for 6k



1999 FORD MONDEO 2.5 V6 ST24 5dr [RSAP] Hatchback Medium Steel Blue metallic. 50,000 miles, Air conditioning, Leather seats, ABS, Alloy wheels, CD, Central locking. Recent service, New tyres & Exhaust. MOT till June 2004. Private Plate : T24 ACT . . . . (private) more info

DMC12

What is the M.T.P.L.M. of the caravan? You'll need to make sure that the maximum towing capacity of the car is the same or higher than this weight, and ideally this it should be 80% of the vechicles kerb weight.

Steve.

BOB.T

I know where there's nice Fiesta....

Dream Weaver

Steve, not sure - was told it has a weightof 1400 or something.

Also forgot to mention it needs to be a hatchback type thing, so no saloons.

DMC12

1400kg sounds about right for a 14 foot 4 berth.

A Seat Leon TDI has a maximum braked trailer weight of 1400kg so legally you would be ok. However the kerb weight is only 1297kg so for safe comfortable stable towing you should only be looking at fully laden caravan weight of ~1040kg.

You'd probably be better looking at a Mondeo/Primera sized car and try to put as much luggage in the car rather than the caravan.

I've been looking into towing a lot recently. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Steve.

ando

Why not a Misti FTO GP or GPX?

There's a few knocking about for 5-6k for tiptronic, 198bhp on the GPX should pull the caravan no probs. Good fun to drive, quite quick, good cruiser, reliable, aircon, PAS, electric everything, and I bet she'll love the looks.

Dream Weaver

Ando, hadnt thought of that, will have a look.

Steve, caravan is a 89 Swift Corvette Diamond if that helps. Current owners tow it with a 98 5 door Astra.

May even be 1200 weight actually. Its a main 2 berth, with a single bed to the rear, and hammock thing above.

Dracoro

Corrado VR6?

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Golf GTI?

Duck_Pond

BMW Compact? Not sure how "cheap" they are now though...

SPEN555

How about a Mitsubishi 4x4 with those kingcabs? Diesel for economy and no probs pulling.

Snag, if its a woman driving it she'll probably trash every car in the supermarket carpark and not notice. LOL!

logiclee

Mr Weaver.

I would have thought that age of Swift at 14' would be nearer 1200kg perhaps less.

Also remember that is the maximum weight of the van not its unladen weight. It should tell you maximum weight and unladen weight on the van. If you are experienced at towing then a Focus should be OK. Just remeber to put all your heavy stuff like clothing etc in the car and not in the van and make sure you load the van correctly and check the nose weight. Beware as its very easy to under estimate how much weight you are loading into the van.

Don't be fooled into manufacturers figures. Never tow a van with maximum design weight higher than the cars kebside weight. The 80% guide is good for beginners but 100% is OK if you know what you are doing and load up correctly.

A focus would be my choice but forget the 1.4 and 1.6. The first choice would be a TDCi but its out of your price range. A 2.0litre would be a good choice, they are still dirt cheap on insurance and don't use that much more fuel than a 1.8.

If you tend to load the van full of stuff or haven't done that much towing I would look at a Mondeo sized car.

Cheers
Lee

[Edited by logiclee - 6/18/2003 3:11:46 PM]

Dream Weaver

Thanks Lee, good advice.

Never done any actual towing, but spent my whole childhood in caravans, so have seen how its done, and also what happens when done wrong.

Not getting the van til September ish, so will have to do plenty of reading up before then - any good resources on this sort of thing?

How are Scoobs at towing?

logiclee

Scoobs are very good at towing. Loads of midrange grunt with firm suspension and loads of grip.

Just remember that the classics only have a Kerbside weight of 1225kg which is nearly the same as a 2.0l Focus. Somewhat limits what you put on the back anyway.

Lee

STI-NUTTER

hi
how abouts a R32 gts4 cheap powerful reliable and its the baby godzila

K

ianc

eek!! Please stay within 85% - and those experienced will say the lower you can get that figure the better - you want the car to control the caravan, not vice versa!

(and thats advice \ experience gained through three generations)

frisby

All of the below should fit the criteria with plenty of torgue for towing a caravan. I'm sure they could all be bought for cloe to £6k

1997 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF VR6, 1997, R
reg. 40785 miles, 16 alloys, e/w, Aircon, full leather, heated seats, lowered suspension, sunroof ,all factory fitted, radio casette, CD player, FSH, Tax, MOT. £6,500.


1997 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF 2.8 VR6 3dr Hatchback 97P.Black.ABS, Alloy wheels,A/C CAT 1 AL/IMM.59K FVWSH.2 owners.8 mnths MOT.Re-ad due to timewasters. 59000 miles - £6,200


1999 VW GOLF 1.9 TDi, 1999,
Jazz blue, 5 door, 110 bhp, EW, CL, air con, excellent condition, serviced, alloys, 1 years MOT, very keenly priced. £6,295 . ono.


1999 Volkswagen Golf Turbo, 1999, T
reg. 44000 miles, minor damage repaired, s/rec, imma in & out, a/c, c/c, Recaro int, 5x headrest, 6 CD, sh, tax till Oct, heated seats, winter pack. £6,900 .

DMC12

I've managed to get these figures for a 1989 Swift Corvette Diamond from a friendly local caravan dealer.

MTPLM/MAW - 950kg (Surprisingly light!)
MRO/Unladen - 763kg
Nose Weight - 66kg

You should be ok with most of the cars suggested. There are some usefull guidelines here.

Cheers.

Steve.



[Edited by DMC12 - 6/18/2003 4:43:40 PM]

[Edited by DMC12 - 6/18/2003 4:44:29 PM]

logiclee

IanC,

Probably didn't put across what I mean't correctly.

I have towed caravan's, car transporters, box trailers, horse boxes etc. for over 17 years.

What I'm saying is that if you have a starting point where the maximum laden weight of the trailer is the same as the Kerb weight off the car you should never have the van weighing more than the car. The unladen weight of the van will be a lot less than the kerb weight of the car and if you load the heavy stuff in the car rather than the van you should be well inside 85% trailer to car ratio.

The Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravanning club both recommend 85% MLW / Car kerb weight for beginners and no more than 100% for experienced caravanner. (Or they did up until about 3 years ago when I was last a member). They do not suggest that you tow with the trailer weighing the same as the car but that an experienced caravanner should suitably load the car/trailer to bring back the towing ratio. The problem is its very easy to stick 300kg's of stuff in the van without realising.

Loading the van correctly and checking the nose weight is most important. Also keep a check on the vans tyres.

I did manage to close a dual carraigeway once when I had a blow out on a 3 ton(Max) 4 wheeled trailer full of 50mm granite chippings. Police did weight check me afterwards and the trailer weighed in at 2.6 tonne gross. I was pulling with a LandRover Defender 110 TDi.

Cheers
Lee


[Edited by logiclee - 6/18/2003 7:16:44 PM]

Dream Weaver

Cheers all, went shopping to Trafford centre last night, so I pointed a few motors out on the way with marks out of 10 = bloody women

Golf and Focus seem to be getting 7/8 out of 10, Fiat Coupe 0 out of 10

Budget seems to be £5k now apparently - may try one of the Golfs first off.

Thanks for the figures DMC

ianc

The caravan club still say 85%, and I would still say thats on the high side... We'll agree to differ there

As for loading the car to make it heavier, then you are moving away from the 100% you say is safe anyway, so thats falls back in line with a heavier towcar!

My grandad, then my dad, then me, have all towed vans, and I had a blowout on the van, on the motorway, with the steel cables of the tyre wrapping themselves around the axle, the van slewed to one side but the car didn't budge, that I like!

It was a small two berth van, towed by a 2.2 LWB frontera - I think we'll agree you can't beat a big 4x4 for stability when towing, as long as the distance from centre rear diff to tow hitch is not too far.

We're discussing caravanning on scoobynet - this is scary!

Ian.