mercedes ML 270 or 280 4x4 anyone tow with one?

[scribble]

Does anyone have one of these please that they tow with. Looking at buying one to replace a older Sorrento and Mercedes C class so we have 1 younger car. what MPG. how does it drive etc? petrol or diesel. It will be an automatic. as far as I can see they tow about 3300kg. I have one horse 580kg and HB510.

 

[cyberhorse]

Awesome cars for towing! We have a 54 plate ML270 diesel and it tows a Wessex 3 horse trailer with 2 x large horses in. The newer MLs did not have the pulling capacity so we went a bit older and found one which had been looked after. They must have a good SH as this model in particular can suffer if they don't have regular oil changes. Only thing to be aware of if you are towing it might be an idea to get all of the brake lines stripped out and replaced on this age of car due to safety. Most of the designs of 4x4 have steel brake pipes that corrode about this era and that's really not funny if you loose braking with that kind of weight on the back. Our garage advised this due to the fact they know how much we care about our horses, instead of just doing a small section which needed replacing for MOT. All of ours are now copper all the way back to the master cylinder. Garage says the MLs are bullet proof, good for £250k miles and well worth spending on but get the suspension upto scratch and brakes thoroughly checked if you do buy one. Ours has now done 100k and is spot on and never let us down. It also seems to be one of the best for pulling off muddy fields and does not need the help other 4x4s need. Expect a very comfortable drive not an exciting one though! You have to accept it is a workhorse not a sports car...

eta: we have a friend with a sorrento and it's just spent 3 months in the garage due to a safety recall so maybe look into what the manufacture recall is about on those. She's been seething with them as it's affected hr business badly (she's a saddler). I think she had it back a week before it broke down on the motorway... not sure what mileage it has but I think its an 03