I have a 04 Rover75/MGzt+, 2litre diesel BMW engine, its done 65,000 miles, 55miles to the gallon/30-35 towing the van.If you can pick one of these up for a good price I would say look it over. I am in the same boat as you, I love this car & would buy a new one if they still made them, its wider than the Mondeo & roomier, the Skoda superb is similar, I dont really want a 4x4 but skoda do a estate version, for the time being stick to what you know best?
OK, folks thanks for all the advice. So far son has placed a spanner in the works re 4x4s says to costly for ( love the boy looks after us) just got back from shopping trip and had test run in a Ford Focus Estate Giha 1.8 TDI looks clean and good 100,000 miles on clock price right in my view. But son says might not be powerful enough and to light for the van compass omeag. Looking at the book seems fine to me, but what do I know??? I think it will do, am I right.
The older Ford 1.8 diesel is ok provided cambelt has been changed, probably more trouble free than newer Ford diesels & cheaper to repair. If your caravan weighs a tonne & no more I'd go for that.
I have now been advised that the fully loaded carvan could be too heavy, as the car is a light weight it could mean that the van could push the car and cause problems when breaking hard or at speed might cause it to be uncontrolable. Cant say that we noticed any of this in the past, because the vectra is a heavy car. Is all this just hog wash or fact.
What are the weights for the car and caravan? You need to know the MTPLM of the caravan and the kerb weight, max towing weight and gross train weight of the car, all these weights will be on the chassis plates. We have a new 1.6 diesel focus estate which has a max tow of 1200kg but your model may well be different.
I have a 1.8 focus ghia 07 plate and we pull a Abi transtar 1300kg it pulls it fine. The maximum weight for our car is 1500kg but I wouldn't like to try that.
Well Folks at last we did it & keep the boys happy we are now the proud owners of a Ford Mondeo Giha DTI 2ltr 05 plate with only 83900 miles on the clock. Next thing a tow bar. She indoors is over the moon and it cost me £2000. No part exchange. So the old Vectra goes for scrap.
Quote: Originally posted by wilfred.powell on 13/3/2014
Well Folks at last we did it & keep the boys happy we are now the proud owners of a Ford Mondeo Giha DTI 2ltr 05 plate with only 83900 miles on the clock. Next thing a tow bar. She indoors is over the moon and it cost me £2000. No part exchange. So the old Vectra goes for scrap.
sell it to a private hire driver for £500, they will soon have it fixed up
or spares or repair for that amount
I have had a 2001 (Y Reg) TD4 Freelander for a number of years now and love it! I would be a bit cautious about a pre 2001 model as has been mentioned before. It tows my caravan perfectly well (and I have had no problems with the VCU or any other aspect of the 4X4 system (yes I have driven off road).It is a very versatile vehicle. Many owners/drivers of other Land Rover models have had hang ups about Freelanders for years, much of the reason for this was the poor performance and reliability of the early models.
------------- The Sun always shines on TV.(and not on my caravan!)