Message Forums

Quote: Originally posted by jeff juke on 16/1/2012

---

I personaly think any 1.6 would be under powered for towing a van,it maybe fine on the flat but i think you would be up and down the box on hills.

---

All these new small diesels don't have the flat torque curve of the bigger engine, so even if it has a similar max torque it will be higher up the rev band before torque is available.

From road tests What Car says the 1.6 diesel is fine in a Mondeo yet upsize to a S Max & the engine struggles even if the max speed & 0-60 acceleration look competitive you have to stir the gearshift more than you would normally.

From a similar point if you look at the torque curves of the 2.0 TDCi Mondeo on superchips the factory curves then it is interesting that (from memory) the 140ps model has 100bhp at 2000 rpm yet the 163 has 75bhp at the same revs. On occasions the higher tuned engines drive more like petrols.

we had the same worry when we recently got our new car, a Peugeot 3008 1.6, we asked the salesman all the relevant questions regarding torque, BHP, MPG etc and he said that the current 1.6 diesels are the same as the old 2.0 diesels (which our old car was).  We got the car and towed for the first time at New Year with our 2 berth that weighs 1100KG and it towed it just like our previous car had done, even had it in 6th gear on the dual carriageway.  It has the same torque as our old 4x4.  At the moment we're very happy with it as I remember towing with a 1.8 petrol and that was dire.

Wife has a Focus econetic as a company car and once in gets going it flies and the mpg is excellent but at low revs there is nothing,bit annoying with all the hills we have and you find yourself driving faster to keep in the power.

Its not type approved for towing but i don't think i would want to anyway.

I don't know about any of the other eco cars but the Focus is also very low to the ground and no spare wheel.

I tow with a Touran 1.9 TDI, at nearly the maximum permissible 1,500kg for the car.  I find the car good for towing but, although the 1.6 TDI claims to have the same power output as the 1.9, I would need convincing that towing performance would be the same.

Bertie.