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Tow can help please ! 

We have a budget of around £5000-ish for a new tow car.  At the minute, our caravan is a lightweight one at just 950 unladen and our Audi A4 can tow it fine, but we will be changing the caravan in the next year to eighteen months so want a tow car that keeps our options fairly open for a new van. 

 I'd like to keep the high driving position of my current car (Grand Picasso) so don't particularly want a mondeo/passat/octavia, and I think the best two options would be an S-Max or a Honda CRV, as they seem more economical to run on a day to day basis than a lot of the other options? Would welcome advice, please, on which would be the better of the two..

The S max is a fantastic car, but i dont think youll get a decent one with 5k, What about the HRV ???

bessie  

Thanks Bessie - I'd seen some high mileage S-MAXs on Autotrader that were below that price and figured with a diesel it shouldn't really matter that it's been round the clock?  Not sure about the HRV but I did quite like the FRV.

Is there an average weight for a caravan? I figured that we'd need something that would pull a caravan around 1350, but having started to look again at vans I'm wondering if that's on the low side of average ...

The Smax comes in at 1750 kgs that will tow up to 1500kg at 85% if you stick at that weight as a max you should be ok, try and get the 2 ltr smax not the 1.8 as its a bit under powered. I know the engines are good for plenty of miles i just wouldnt want to part with 5k for a car that had 120th miles on it

Bessie

I agree grampian the S max is a brilliant car but it is substantially dearer than the mondeo, and if your like me the extra seats are a bonus as they are rarely needed.  I was looking for a 7 seater for my wife and really wanted to get a s max after having one for 4 years but i just couldnt part with the money....ended up buying a brand new zafira in the end (no good for towing bought as second car)

Bessie    

I think you're right - the S-MAX is probably the best bet (the CRV is definitely out if you want 7 seats).

You could consider the old Ford Galaxy/Seat Alhambra/VW Sharan - not as technically good as the S-MAX but you'll get something newer for the money.

Also, you might be able to get a post-2006 (new shape) Hyundai Santa Fe for that (not sure, you'd have to check) - better quality IMO (but I am biased :-) ). Worse fuel economy than an S-MAX probably but up-side is higher towing limit and thus more caravan options.