Are all "towing" vehicles (estates/4x4s) fuel guzzlers?

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Maia

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Ok, so I'm in this delima of wanting to invest in transport this summer/autumn as I'll have finally finnished my degree and will be earning (even if its not that much!). So I think I have 3 options.

I will still have a 50mile round trip commute into the city every day, 5 days a week, (saving money by living at home still) so I need something for every day driving that is relatively fuel efficient - at the moment I have a "little run around" car that does about 38mpg. So my thinking is:

1) Invest in a 4x4 or estate that will tow and does atleast 30-35 mpg so I can still use it as my main car. Budget would be £3-4K (or possibly more if I can get a good deal on finance), and buy a trailer.

2) Invest in a very old 4x4/volvo (budget £1-2K) to use just for towing and will only insure for 3rd party, fire and theft, buy a trailer, and keep current car for commuting.

3) Keep current car and spend around £8K on a 3.5T lorry (7.5T is out of the question as I cannot keep it up the yard or on my drive!).

Ideas, what would you do and if I go for 1) which 4x4's would you recommend - what does yours do mpg?
 
I use a 3.1TD Isuzu Trooper to drive to work and for towing twice a week. It is the ultimate tow car. It has a 3.5 ton tow capacity. I drive sensibly, so I expect to get 30mpg from it.

If I was to toe it around and brake hard, it would drop into the mid 20's.

Your small run around is a poor car if it only gives you 38mpg. Modern small cars ought to be much better than that.

Don't touch a petrol 4x4. Some of the old petrol Shoguns will only 18mpg. Petrol Range Rovers can be even worse.
 
My kia should do 33mpg or there abouts

However with a 20 mile round commute and one 80 mile round trip to a show centre per week I seem to average about 25mpg.

I'd buy a lorry if I could do it again as I want a living!
 
We use a discovery auto as tow car and it does around 25 mpg if your careful.

I have an old rover diesel that does 50mpg for commuting.
 
LPG vehicles are quite good for towing - we used to tow with an L200 that had been converted and it did quite a lot (cant remember how much) and the fuel was cheaper
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Get a 4x4 with an LPG convertion!!

My old vauxhall monterey is 3.2 V6 and deos about 18mpg but because LPG is half the price of diesel / petrol its equivalent to 36 mpg

You get the power of a petrol engine with better economy than a diesel and its greener!!

You could easily get a 2.5l 4x4 that would do even better mpg, also a more modern convertion is better. Mine is very old but still does a good job. It costs about £1500 to get a convertion done but you'll find there are quite few 2nd hand cars with convertions already on them in auto trader
 
I have just swapped from a 1.3 petrol V reg Suzuki Jimny to a 2.5 diesel N reg Landrover Discovery.

I travel from the stables and back twice a day ( miles) and work and back (25miles round trip) 5 days a week. I use the car as a general run around at the weekends too. To be honest I find I use the same amount of petrol/disel in either vehicle - I think the small journeys suited my Jimny but the longer work journey is preferred by the Disco.

Obviously the amount I use goes up if I tow at the weekend!
 
If you get a 4x4 and trailer, you'll need to take your trailer test?
You can drive a 3,5 tonner lorry ( one horse + your kit) on your normal licence
 
[ QUOTE ]
If you get a 4x4 and trailer, you'll need to take your trailer test?
You can drive a 3,5 tonner lorry ( one horse + your kit) on your normal licence

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats not technically true! It depends when you took your driving test to weather you have to do an additional test.
 
I know
But as Maia said she was getting transport when she finished her degree, it is reasobale to assume she did not pass her driving test before 01/01/1997

( OK - so she may be a Mature Student)
 
[ QUOTE ]
If you get a 4x4 and trailer, you'll need to take your trailer test?
You can drive a 3,5 tonner lorry ( one horse + your kit) on your normal licence

[/ QUOTE ]

If you passed your driving test after 1997 then yes you need to take a towing test or a lorry (over 3.5 ton) test.

However it would not take much (with lorry, horse & stuff) to make up 3.5 tons and weight limits are being clamped down on (particularly in SE and around London) so you would need to be very careful that you weren't going over the limit.
 
I agree with Nats_uk - you do need to be careful with 3.5t vehicles about going over weight.

We used to have a discovery to two our ifor williams trailer - we had the diesel TDi one - and this always did well on fuel when towing, if you towed carefully it would only drop a very small amount of mpg from when you were driving it without the trailer.

We do now have a lorry, as i had done my HGV test a few years ago, so I can drive the lorry but can't tow a trailer. This is another important thing to bear in mind. If you took yocar test after january 97, then you also won't be licensced to tow a horse trailer. On you car license you can only tow up to a certain weight - which most 4x4's and a trailer will immediately be over. Basically on your car license you can just tow a little squitty trailer - nothing of any use.

We now have a half decent lorry, which i love to bits - however, we still only get about 22 - 25 mpg out of it - and then you have a whole extra lot of tax, insurance and MOT to pay for.

if money is an issue, and you can tow on your licence, then go for the 4x4 and trailer.

We always enjoyed having our Discovery.
 
My Kia Sorento (55 plate) is returning 32+ mpg (more on a long run, less in heavy traffic). My old 1.8l Focus only did 34mpg so I'm not finding it too bad (except diesel costs more than petrol).

If you want a cheap to run car, you should be looking at 45+ mpg (my OH's Peugeot 307 diesel is currently at 52mpg). Newer cars are more fuel efficient than the older ones. New 4x4s are more fuel efficient than older normal cars.

Not sure what I'd do if I was in your position. Maybe work out the annual cost of each option and compare?
 
I was in exactly the same position as you a few years ago!! I initially kept my renault megane that I had at the time, but it was s sporty one so not massively cheap on fuel. I bought an ancient Daihatsu 4trak, and had those two for a while. However the old 4x4 (and it was OLD!) started playing up, and I had a few problems with the car, so decided to sell both those and get one 4x4 that I could use for both. Had a Pajero that cost me £5k. Was a fab tow vehicle and at the time I only worked 4 miles from where I lived so was ok.
It did play up a few times and cost a fair bit to repair each time though.
Eventually OH and I were both driving many more miles for work (other car is a 55 reg Golf that does over 50 miles to the gallon) and whichever of us took the pajero, it was costing us lots and lots in fuel, plus OH's new horse was a bit big for the trailer, so we decided to upgrade to a lorry (limited budget of £5k) and change the pajero. Ended up with a 2 horse Bedford TL with living and another golf (cabriolet) that wasn't as good as the other golf (much older and heavier) but still much cheaper than the pajero.
I'm very glad we did, I absolutely love my golf (the newer one!) and having a lorry is fantastic, even if she is a bit on the elderley side we have been all over the place (hickstead, lincoln, etc etc) and stayed overnight many times.
However, I have to say that having heard SO many lorry horror stories I think I was very lucky, and as and when my lovely bluebell goes to the big scrapyard in the sky, I will probably go back to a car and trailer because I now only ever really travel my 15hh arab and a lorry for any more money than mine would be an expense that I couldn't really justify. espeially as I now really need a 4x4 now to get to where my horses are kept!!
So as I'm going to have the 4x4 anyway probably, I'll most likely go back to a trailer but possibly an equitrek as I wouldn't be able to cope without a hob I don't think!!
grin.gif

Sooooo, not sure what I'm advising really. I think if you can afford a decent lorry and a cheap run around, I'd go with that option assuming you are out regularly with the lorry (I try to get mine out and about weekly), especialy if you drive distances in to work. TBH I wouldn't do the whole car and old 4x4 thing again, seems to me you might as well tax/insure/service a lorry as a second car!
 
I have a 3.5Ton Renault Master box - it carries, me, OH and 15.1hh show cob + kit comfortably with around 200kg to spare.
I get 38-40mpg out of it, and my day car is a Ford Mondeo diesel 2 litre which does 41-48mpg and I *could* drive slower.
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I tow with an X-TYPE estate and in the past towed with a mondeo. Both are very good on MPG. I will say though I am on the limit in terms of weight, my boy is about 450 kg and I have an Ifor 505. I do have to be careful, particularly with hills. It's not the ideal towing vehicle but for me it is the best compromise for mpg and towing.
 
I get about 27mpg from my old non-turbo landie 90 when not towing, and it's in the lowest insurance bracket too. It's a bit less economic when towing but it's still reasonably cheap to run all things considered.
 
Have you looked at the price of insurance on a 4x4? You may find this very expensive compared to the cost of insuring a lorry. Also, you can do much better than 38pmg for a runaround - my Peugeot 206 does 55mpg+.
 
I'm in the same boat - same kind of decision based on wanting to have a horse and not destroy the environment

Where I"ve got to is this:

if you look here http://www.fuel-economy.co.uk/stats.shtml

you'll find that best fuel economy for a small 1.5l diesel C2 or Renault Clio is around 68.9 mpg combined. The Renault can do over 100mpg on a long motorway trip

Given that I only have one pony and she doesn't weigh very much, my best 4x4 is a Toyota Rav4, which gets around 42 mpg combined, but only tows 1.5 tonnes, so may not work for you

my garage defines an LPG car as 'driving a bomb' and said they wouldn't drive one - having said which, I haven't ever heard of any problems. But not many LPG filling stations near us. We do have the only genuine biofuel pump in England - no idiot/non-eco rapeseeed oil, but made from recycled chip fat, so I can at least use that.

a lorry eats fuel like it was going out of fashion, but then it's not doing the mileage of the car

so currently, I think lorry plus Clio is the answer, but I'm still weighing the options

E
 
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