Good Tow Cars?

[No Crust Racing]

Nobody doing real 4wding rates the 200 series, best left on road. 

[fatz]

Patrol is 65k

[260DET]

Can't argue with Fatz' Audi, be a lot more satisfying and comfortable to drive on tarmac than some last century ladder frame.

 

[No Crust Racing]

Agreed, still want one. Maybe if I lose company car I can buy one?

Let's be real though, I will buy the cheapest thing I can because I'm a tight ass on that shit. 

[Duncan]

Still Titan-ing, 3 years later

[260DET]

Have a CX-5 2.5 turbo AWD now, rated tow load is 2000 kg and it tows like a bitch, seriously. Great overtaking power and very stable near the 2000 kg limit. Technology has moved on, another left fielder is the Jeep Cherokee V6 petrol but only a 60 litre fuel tank and it's thirsty.

[No Crust Racing]

The Jeep is actually a cracking drive, but feels like it's built to last 3yrs from new tops lol

 

 

[admS15]

I followed in the footsteps of fatz and bought a Q7. 160k km for $12k. Tows like a boss, has air suspension that keeps it level. Going off fatz's reliability testing i should get at least another 170k out of it. Time will tell, so far up to 175k without issue and pretty happy with it.

[fatz]

I am the minister for q7

Aold mine with 340k for 5500 

bought a patrol

and the regret is real

[No Crust Racing]

340 is legit impressive. 

Did you use it offroad?

I need a little clearance and at least some half decent all terrains at my place. I get by with 2" lift and K02s but have a winch as backup lol

I only care because there's a petrol Q7 available

[PranK]

While I've never towed a car I have had some hefty trailers behind the X5 and you'd be forgiven for forgetting anything was attached. It's effortless.

3l straight 6 turbo. 600nm of torque.

[fatz]

Smashed it off road

put some 32 inch all terrains on and a home job 2 inch lift

[No Crust Racing]

That's all I have tyre wise. 

What lift?

They're AWD right? No low range?

[admS15]

They're not too bad at the traffic light Grand prix either. Quatro launches have surprised quite a few.

[Tobz]

Just as an alternative, I used to have a Tesla Model X, full torque from zero rpm, was an amazing tow vehicle. Except range!!! Usually I could drive from Canberra to Sydney on a single charge. While towing it would add 2 hours to the trip in charging.... if the battery’s got bigger, this is defo the future.

When I bought the Tesla I didn’t really tow anything, but that changed during ownership so I sold it off. Used a mates ute a bit as well and really enjoyed the practicality of a tray, especially for fuel! We also go away twice a year for the 24 hour of lemons and having a tray is amazingly useful. Took them all for a drive and really loved the amarok, especially due to the V6. Again barely notice the car and trailer is there. 

The car trailer is a dual wheel tilta which only weighs 500kg, has airbags and compressor to drop the whole thing down and makes getting the car on and off a price of piss. Best thing I ever bought!

[Duncan]

The Tesla should to well although range towing probably takes a big hit. What did they rate it to?

Nissan refused to rate the leaf for towing so not legal in NSW...

[Tobz]

Was rated to 2750 but ball weight was only 90!

battery life was atrocious when towing. It’s the aerodynamics that kill it and not the weight

[No Crust Racing]

I'm yet to tow the car with the Prado (Petrol, I hate diesel) but I can't imagine it's gonna blow me away with the same power and less torque than my old Territory, 1 less gear, and easily 3-400kg more weight. 

I did do the intake and tune it but might get an exhaust yet to help. I've got a steep dirt driveway and with the work I do around the property and some offroad adventuring etc, I needed ground clearance and low range which rules out a lot of soft roaders that would be better towers on the highway. 

I was impressed with the power of the Jeep, but had doubts about it lasting.

I was looking at a V8 200, but with even more weight and size, I can't make that work on my property =\ 

So a slow Prado it is for now.

[Shoota_77]

Why do you hate diesel @ActionDan?

There's no way I would go the other way unless I owned my own petrol business.  I find that Diesel is just so much nicer to drive in a big heavy vehicle.  Being so heavy I feel they need the diesel torque to get them up and moving.

Have you driven a modern diesel engine (V6)?  If you've only driven Toyotas or an Isuzu diesel then I can understand why you may have doubts about them as they are the old generation of diesel engines.  Even though the Jeeps have questionable long term reliability the engine is a great engine and the ZF behind it is even better.  There pretty much isn't a crap modern V6 diesel in my opinion.  Any of the ones we mentioned in Fatz's post are brilliant - Audi Q7, VW Amarok, Jeep (diesel), Mercedes ML/GLE are all great tow cars but you obviously run the risk of issues down the lines as being European cars that can be costly to maintain once getting a little long in the tooth.

For me, I'd rather run the risk of a slightly less reliable ownership experience to be able to say I drove a car I enjoyed.  I'm sorry but there is not one car in the Toyota stable (excluding the obvious Supra) that would do that for me.  Their clinical plastickyness just kills me.  There is hope for Toyota, apparently there is a V6 TDI in the works.  Will take a lot more than that to get me on the Toyota bandwagon though.

As always, each to their own!  These are just my narrow minded, biased opinions! 

[No Crust Racing]

We've been over this. 

I get a phat car allowance and in normal usage the economy difference is negligible in terms of TCO over the life of the vehicle vs things like depreciation, cost of service/repair. Petrol is much nicer to drive to me, smoother, quieter, faster, doesn't stink or rattle everywhere. 

Modern diesel cost more to service and repair and have greater potential for shit to go wrong. A big NA petrol, especially a Toyota one, is immensely reliable and requires extremely little in terms of service or repair. 

Look around and you'll see more and more diesel engines being phased out of commuter vehicles, including the big yank tanks in the states. 

Direct injection petrol will replace them, I'd prefer no direct injection either, but it's a lesser evil than DPFs, EGRs, insanely high pressure expensive fuel pumps, mandatory second fuel filters/water traps, etc etc. 

Look at Y62 vs LC200 towing test, 2T up Hotham, the Y62 used slightly less fuel, but has 300kw on tap to play with. 

I know you're a big diesel VAG man, but it's a no from me and let's be real, I don't "enjoy" any of them and I test drove them all. Anything based on a ute drives like shit compared to a proper wagon and in the end they are all a compromise. I chose a Toyota because of everything I drove at the time for 30k or less it was the comfiest, quietest, and "went" the best and now modified it's just that bit better. 

It just needs a V8 in it