Can anyone help with websites that I can put in the details of my caravan and get a list of potential tow cars. Whattwocar used to do this but the website has changed and they no longer do it.
Any help would be gratefully received.
Thanks
Faysie
------------- A messy house is a happy house ... and this one is delirious!!
There is a car matching page on the CAMC website but I think it's for members only.
If you could tell us what the caravan weight is and what sort of car you need we might be able to offer some suggestions for suitable cars. Do you have a B+E licence? How big is your budget?
Thanks Rob, most websites you need to know what car and what caravan and they will tell you if it is a match. On whattowcar you used to be able to put in your caravan and they would give you a list of suitable towcars. That is more what I am looking for.
We have no towing restrictions. We need to change our current towcar (2017 Kia Sportage) and were looking for something smaller really so would also then need to change our caravan from our current Swift Challenger 490 (MTPLM 1565) and were looking at something like a Bailey Orion 440 (MTPLM 1249). Will probably do a loan or PCP on the vehicle.
Thanks for any help
Faye
------------- A messy house is a happy house ... and this one is delirious!!
Some of the Focus range would tow that Bailey but they are not much shorter than your Kia. The Sportage is fairly small for an SUV at just under 4.5m whilst the Focus is about 4.4m, it looks like you would be spending quite a bit of money on a car and a caravan just to end up with a car 10cm shorter.
Do you want a diesel or petrol? Manual or auto? Do you need to be able to carry kids, dogs etc? There are loads of mid range hatchbacks available but anything to tow 1250kg will not be much smaller than your existing car.
Our current car is coming to the end of its lease so we have to change it and we wanted to get a smaller caravan so that we then don't necessarily need a big gas guzzler to tow it. Probably going to go for a more economical petrol/manual hatchback but thinking of a more traditional estate car rather than a big 4x4. Our son is currently at Uni so probably won't be coming with us as much as he did and we have a small dog who doesn't need masses of space but we may get more dogs in the future.
Seems an impossible task doesn't it ;-) but any help is welcome.
Faye
------------- A messy house is a happy house ... and this one is delirious!!
This year the CAMC towcar awards were sorted into categories according to the weight of the caravan they could tow. This is the list of cars in the 1100-1350kg caravan category:
Peugeot 308SW
Peugeot 3008
VW T-Roc
Peugeot 5008
Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross 4
Skoda Karoq
Jeep Compass
That list might give you some ideas to get you started. You can check car specs, weights etc on the Parkers website and use Honest John's real mpg site to check the everyday fuel consumption.
Diesel will give you better mpg than petrol, so switching to a smaller petrol car from a large diesel car will probably give you about the same mpg. I am assuming of course that your current car is diesel. Having said that I believe that petrol car economy is getting better, and petrol is generally cheaper than diesel.
Not everyone’s cup of tea but I tow a 1300KG Bailey with a BMW 220D XDrive active tourer, smaller over all than our Kuga that we sold and no problem with or without the caravan
Don't rely too heavily on the matching websites - they are notoriously inaccurate and many include data for non-UK spec cars. It's really not difficult to determine for yourself whether the car is suitable - if something has a kerb weight (if you can't find that value, mass in service is close enough) and a towing limit higher than the 1250kg MTPLM of the Bailey it will be capable of towing it. This info should be in the brochures.
You should be fine with a reasonably powerful petrol or diesel version of the Ford Focus, VW Golf or similar (or one of around a million VW T-Roc-sized SUVs if you prefer that). Alternatively a larger family saloon or estate such as VW Passat, Ford Mondeo, Volvo V70/V90 or BMW 5-series should be able to cope with your current Swift and save you having to change it. You'd almost certainly be looking at diesel in a car that size though.
Post last edited on 27/01/2020 18:19:03
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