New tow car???

[lakelandterrier]

What's your budget, that will define your choice somewhat. I've just gone through the process and gone for the Skoda Kodiak 2l diesel, much cheaper than some of the 4x4 out there.

[lukewhiting]

Originally Posted by lakelandterrier

What's your budget, that will define your choice somewhat. I've just gone through the process and gone for the Skoda Kodiak 2l diesel, much cheaper than some of the 4x4 out there.

Not a huge budget (about up to £5500) definitely don't want to go down the brand new finance route and I'm not massively bothered about mileage either.

Another option I thought of was Chrysler 300c. They have plenty of grunt, self levelling suspension and are pretty dam cheap. Based on a Mercedes E class so should also be a fairly good option

[jambo]

Would be nice if OP's acknowledge input. But heyho!!

[Last Tango]

Originally Posted by lukewhiting

Another option I thought of was Chrysler 300c. They have plenty of grunt, self levelling suspension and are pretty dam cheap. Based on a Mercedes E class so should also be a fairly good option

Ok if the trailers braked....very poor "unbraked trailer" capacity, only 500Kg.

If the mechanics are similar to the Merc ML320 I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Mine's racked up about £6,000 worth of repairs in 10 months and I was looking at a potential £1,600 bill for a repair to the gearbox that "may or may not resolve the problem". Brake backplates, aircon control unit, wheel bearings, CAN bus issues, heater plug control unit, diff-lock control faults, radio problems and air suspension...No,No No.....definitely not the pile of useless sh@t that Mercedes fit. Just one expensive problem after another.
75,000 miles.....never been so glad to see the back of a car in my life.

[lukewhiting]

Originally Posted by Last Tango

Ok if the trailers braked....very poor "unbraked trailer" capacity, only 500Kg.



If the mechanics are similar to the Merc ML320 I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Mine's racked up about £6,000 worth of repairs in 10 months and I was looking at a potential £1,600 bill for a repair to the gearbox that "may or may not resolve the problem". Brake backplates, aircon control unit, wheel bearings, CAN bus issues, heater plug control unit, diff-lock control faults, radio problems and air suspension...No,No No.....definitely not the pile of useless sh@t that Mercedes fit. Just one expensive problem after another.

75,000 miles.....never been so glad to see the back of a car in my life.

Hmm maybe I'll have to do some research, cheers

[spartacus]

Originally Posted by jambo

X5 and others you get the benefit of both manual and auto thru thru the dual box so you can come up the slip in first rest then move to auto. I've never had a problem.

X5 is a good call, but you'd need a contingency fund if you bought one. Brother has 3.0 diesel auto, late E53 model. £500 road tax for starters, eats tyres for breakfast, suspension clunks on anything approaching 100k miles. Absolute HGV to work on too. Changing the air filter I had to use a small step ladder to reach it and yes I was actually in the engine bay trying to lever it out! Best bet is E57 model but not for £5.5k.

[jambo]

Originally Posted by spartacus

X5 is a good call, but you'd need a contingency fund if you bought one. Brother has 3.0 diesel auto, late E53 model. £500 road tax for starters, eats tyres for breakfast, suspension clunks on anything approaching 100k miles. Absolute HGV to work on too. Changing the air filter I had to use a small step ladder to reach it and yes I was actually in the engine bay trying to lever it out! Best bet is E57 model but not for £5.5k.

Points taken but I still like it!!

[lukewhiting]

Yeah the whole idea was to go for something cheaper to run haha

[69cmw]

Originally Posted by Last Tango

If the mechanics are similar to the Merc ML320 I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Mine's racked up about £6,000 worth of repairs in 10 months and I was looking at a potential £1,600 bill for a repair to the gearbox that "may or may not resolve the problem". Brake backplates, aircon control unit, wheel bearings, CAN bus issues, heater plug control unit, diff-lock control faults, radio problems and air suspension...No,No No.....definitely not the pile of useless sh@t that Mercedes fit. Just one expensive problem after another.

75,000 miles.....never been so glad to see the back of a car in my life.

I never spent that much in mine over 6 years [emoji848]

[Nos4r2]

If you're doing that many miles a week and have the space why not just buy something like a diesel Mondeo over like just for running around to work and back?

I keep the Hilux for towing, but as I can do 600 miles on a good week I use something significantly cheaper on fuel and it really doesn't take long to make the cost back. My last one was a 1.3 diesel Corsa which did a genuine 60 mpg, and paid for itself completely in three months in fuel savings.

[lukewhiting]

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

If you're doing that many miles a week and have the space why not just buy something like a diesel Mondeo over like just for running around to work and back?

I keep the Hilux for towing, but as I can do 600 miles on a good week I use something significantly cheaper on fuel and it really doesn't take long to make the cost back. My last one was a 1.3 diesel Corsa which did a genuine 60 mpg, and paid for itself completely in three months in fuel savings.

I was half thinking about that. Buying a car literally for just dragging the boat around and then an everyday car to put the miles on.

Had a look into the insurance and only being 23 it's fairly expensive.

But like you say it'd pay for it's self eventually

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by lukewhiting

I was half thinking about that. Buying a car literally for just dragging the boat around and then an everyday car to put the miles on.

Had a look into the insurance and only being 23 it's fairly expensive.

But like you say it'd pay for it's self eventually

Admittedly the insurance on the Corsa was cheap, but when you think

1) Doing high mileage means the value of whatever you drive daily plummets.
2) Doing high mileage in bigger cars means correspondingly higher servicing/consumables costs.
3) A £1000 car that you cane for a couple of years is still a £500 car after you put 40,000+ miles on it, and a £500 car that lasts 2 years won't even depreciate noticeably.
It starts to make sense very quickly. I expect you already have, but if not try talking to an insurance company about a multicar discount as well.As the guy at Churchill said to me,you can ony drive one car at a time.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

.....As the guy at Churchill said to me,you can ony drive one car at a time.

Try telling that to Admiral[emoji57]

[HDAV]

Depends if you can cope doing major miles daily in a cheap car/van and then keep a tidy gas guzzler for towing low mileage weekend runs?

But even a well kept low mileage big bus will potentially have big bills... but at least you can wait to save up for bill while running the small car.....

Peugeot diesels were always a good choice for cheap motoring

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by HDAV

Depends if you can cope doing major miles daily in a cheap car/van and then keep a tidy gas guzzler for towing low mileage weekend runs?

But even a well kept low mileage big bus will potentially have big bills... but at least you can wait to save up for bill while running the small car.....

Peugeot diesels were always a good choice for cheap motoring

I used to swear by the Peugeot 2.0 HDI engine as bullet proof & economical. My last van had 3 EGR valves in 30000miles, the first one at 1500[emoji15]. I got rid before the warranty ran out.

[HDAV]

EGR blank kits? Tow quite well too by all accounts.

[spartacus]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

I used to swear by the Peugeot 2.0 HDI engine as bullet proof & economical. My last van had 3 EGR valves in 30000miles, the first one at 1500[emoji15]. I got rid before the warranty ran out.

10 plate Skoda Fabia 1.6 diesel with 65k miles and EGR valve was blocked forcing engine into limp mode. My old style Audi 1.9 TDI and 2.5 V6 engines achieved 175k and 165k miles respectively with no issues. Did clean the air inlet manifolds which were gunked up and eventually blanked off EGR valve after that. One thing you can do (and only after a de-coke) is run Forte diesel conditioner straight into fuel filter. It's like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. Smokes like a F-type frigate for a start but clears. Great for injectors.

[Andy JC]

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

If you're doing that many miles a week and have the space why not just buy something like a diesel Mondeo over like just for running around to work and back?

I keep the Hilux for towing, but as I can do 600 miles on a good week I use something significantly cheaper on fuel and it really doesn't take long to make the cost back. My last one was a 1.3 diesel Corsa which did a genuine 60 mpg, and paid for itself completely in three months in fuel savings.

My thoughts exactly Nos. I have an 06 Astra I've converted to LPG, getting equivalent of 80mpg. Doing 800 work miles a month means I make a tidy profit on the fuel claims and don't pile miles on my main car, which would massively depreciat it.

[lukewhiting]

So it's sorted... someone at work has a decent disco 1 he'll sell me for £500! Insurance is cheap on them as well.

So I'll grab that, ship off the kia and get a economic but nice everyday car for the miles.

Thanks for helping me brainstorm!

[A1an]

Originally Posted by lukewhiting

So it's sorted... someone at work has a decent disco 1 he'll sell me for £500! Insurance is cheap on them as well.

So I'll grab that, ship off the kia and get a economic but nice everyday car for the miles.

Thanks for helping me brainstorm!

A decent Disco? [emoji23][emoji23]

You should get yourself an agent Luke, you're hilarious!!