Decent tow car

[Nath911t]

It looks like my FFRR will be going this weekend and I'll need a suitable car for towing the caravan easily enough. It has an MRO of 1054kg so it's quite light in terms of caravans. Ideally, I'd like an auto and petrol that will hoover up everything thrown into it with preferably a removable towbar and 13 pin electrics. It'll also be used for load lugging, tip runs and blasts to the coasts and south Wales. I'm nr Basingstoke.

I did think of another ML or even Grand Cherokee, X5 but they seem a tad overkill for a small caravan, so maybe an estate car would work? Plus, I'm not a fan of the near £700 per year tax that will no doubt increase year on year. Part problem is that nearly most things under say £3/4k are dervs which maybe is a plus when towing for the torque.

I did go and view a 2011 BMW 530d SE tourer that's done 184k miles but not owning of the brand for so long, I'm unsure what to look for it to not be a potential wallet hoover. There's also a 2013 520dSE tourer local to but I've hear these like timing chains and eat turbos for fun. While these aren't £3/4k cars I would like some creature comforts, whereas an old Mondeo would likely be quite basic and I'm not keen on Fords autobox. Maybe Mercs or even something that hasn't hit my radar.

[Nath911t]

seiben said:

Guessing a budget by what you've looked at, I'd be checking out a Volvo V70 of some sort, either in D5 or T5 guise.

Can increase budget to £6/7k if needed. Aren't the auto boxes hit and miss on these with the manual box been the better one?

[Nath911t]

Thanks for clearing that up guys. I know with my CLS about gearbox servicing. In fact I've just picked it up from having it done at 125k miles