Small car for towing

Shantara

Shantara

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Can anyone recommend a small-ish car for towing? I have a Toyota Yaris currently, but am looking to upgrade in a few months.
I have a 16.1 TB mare.
 
Honda CRV (idtec). Fab little runaround (esp with reversing camera, life is so much easier to park in town!), great long distance too. Easier on fuel than many (35ish mpg unloaded) and pulls a new version Ifor 505 and my 470kg cob no prob :)
 
Chan said:
That's meant to be "I've ONLY passed my normal test" I made it sound like I have passed recently. I've been driving for almost 5yrs
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I had a honda CR-V and ifor williams single box (403) for when was driving on a B only license. I was stuck between the honda and toyota rav 4 but found the honda drove better. So pleased to have more flexibility having passed my trailer test and now tow with a vauxhall antara which has more pulling power but is a heavier car so i don't think it will be legal without the trailer test.
 
As you have a B and not B+E then the GVW of the vehicle added to the trailer plated MAM must not add up to more than 3500kg

The trailer can be down plated provided the manufacturer is still trading

If not going for a 4x4 then you will likely be restricted to good solid surfaces to tow on


More info in post number 3000 of the HHO TOWING CLINIC thread - link below in signature
I have instant email alerts for that thread
 
coss said:
I had a honda CR-V and ifor williams single box (403) for when was driving on a B only license. I was stuck between the honda and toyota rav 4 but found the honda drove better. So pleased to have more flexibility having passed my trailer test and now tow with a vauxhall antara which has more pulling power but is a heavier car so i don't think it will be legal without the trailer test.
Click to expand...

Hi,
How do you find the Antara for towing and as every day car?
Currently have an older Nissan Terrano for towing and small car for everyday but thinking of swapping and just having the one car and the Antara is one of we're looking at. Reviews seem very mixed from what I've seen so far. Would be towing ifor Williams 505 and one horse around 15hh, every day driving of a 20 mile commute each way.
 
sky2 said:
Hi,
How do you find the Antara for towing and as every day car?
Currently have an older Nissan Terrano for towing and small car for everyday but thinking of swapping and just having the one car and the Antara is one of we're looking at. Reviews seem very mixed from what I've seen so far. Would be towing ifor Williams 505 and one horse around 15hh, every day driving of a 20 mile commute each way.
Click to expand...

Hi, I also tow with an Antara and find it fab, it's an extremely comfortable car for driving and it tows a 510 +650kg horse for me no bother. I only use it for towing and get about 20mpg, I think it gets around 45mpg town driving, probably more if you do motorway distances. Plus personally I think it looks really smart.
 
sky2 said:
Hi,
How do you find the Antara for towing and as every day car?
Currently have an older Nissan Terrano for towing and small car for everyday but thinking of swapping and just having the one car and the Antara is one of we're looking at. Reviews seem very mixed from what I've seen so far. Would be towing ifor Williams 505 and one horse around 15hh, every day driving of a 20 mile commute each way.
Click to expand...

Mine is my everyday car. I've done a couple of 5hr journeys no bother, very comfortable to drive - mpg went up to around 37 and that included motorway driving. My usual day to day are very short trips (2miles here and there) and it hovers around 30mpg and also hovers around 30mpg when towing over a greater distance. I tow a single iw 403 with a 440kg pony or his slightly bigger brother (first one been on a weigh bridge, bigger one hasn't). It's done steep hills with that combination too. If I'm picky, there are 3 things I find frustrating: in winter the inside gets full of condensation and wiping with a cloth doesn't seem to clear it, still foggy/smeary and needs to run the engine for 5-10mins to get it up to temperature and clear it - or park in the sun, even had frost on the inside when i've not put a windscreen cover on. Turning circle feels big but I think that is a general trend with cars and finally the engine does a regeneration approx every 550miles depending on the driving you're doing. If you're doing a 20miles commute you SHOULD be ok and not notice it very much. Basically it's the engine burning the diesel particulates off, it gets hotter, lowers the mpg temporarily while it does so and if you stop driving, turn off engine before it's complete the fan whirrs for a bit (sounds like a plane about to take off) and then the next time you drive it is likely to go through the same process and it will repeat until you've done a long enough drive for it to complete. With the short journeys i do, it often lands after i've just done a longer (100miles) trip which is sod's law and infuriating as then have to take it for a 20mins run to get it to clear.
However, the positives for me to outway though niggles. It tows very well, have towed in crosswinds (unintentional) - obviously dropped my speed considerably but could feel the back brakes working to ensure the trailer didn't start weaving. the tow bar is the correct height which helps (my crv towbar couldn't be put any higher so the trailer was slightly nose down and above 40mph tended to weave for no reason, not had any weaving *touch wood* so far). I tow at least 3-4 times a week and in winter pick up 30 square bales of hay in my trailer too. Im personally not a fan of an electric button handbrake which it has got but i've got used to it. It's only a problem when the handbrake gets worn as you can't manually pull it on any tighter.
It's spacious inside and holds the road well. Have driven in snow without bother (and towed hay). It's 2-wheel drive most of the time, only 4x4 if you spin the wheels and it knows it needs extra grip.

ETA: lots of diesel cars do the engine regen so you'll not necessarily escape it by going for a different car. I've also used the downhill descent whilst towing - steep tracks going downhill on rough stoney ground, it's like cruise control but applying the breaks accordingly rather than keeping up to speed. I did 30k miles on a set of tyres and have had the brakes redone twice (I think) in that time too. Rest has just been usual servicing.
 
Last edited:
ROG said:
If not going for a 4x4 then you will likely be restricted to good solid surfaces
Click to expand...

Just to pick up this point, I tow with a vehicle that is only part time 4x4, and when it is in 2wd it is rear wheel drive.

Honestly I very rarely need to turn on 4wd whilst towing. Generally it is only if I need to pull away up hill on soft (muddy field) or loose (gravel) ground. Much of the time I could avoid this by parking differently or driving to a solid surface or downhill area before loading up. I hunt so do park off road in winter.

4wd increases your running costs so consider part time 4wd or if you will mainly be going to venues with a solid car park maybe even 2wd.
 
coss said:
Mine is my everyday car. I've done a couple of 5hr journeys no bother, very comfortable to drive - mpg went up to around 37 and that included motorway driving. My usual day to day are very short trips (2miles here and there) and it hovers around 30mpg and also hovers around 30mpg when towing over a greater distance. I tow a single iw 403 with a 440kg pony or his slightly bigger brother (first one been on a weigh bridge, bigger one hasn't). It's done steep hills with that combination too. If I'm picky, there are 3 things I find frustrating: in winter the inside gets full of condensation and wiping with a cloth doesn't seem to clear it, still foggy/smeary and needs to run the engine for 5-10mins to get it up to temperature and clear it - or park in the sun, even had frost on the inside when i've not put a windscreen cover on. Turning circle feels big but I think that is a general trend with cars and finally the engine does a regeneration approx every 550miles depending on the driving you're doing. If you're doing a 20miles commute you SHOULD be ok and not notice it very much. Basically it's the engine burning the diesel particulates off, it gets hotter, lowers the mpg temporarily while it does so and if you stop driving, turn off engine before it's complete the fan whirrs for a bit (sounds like a plane about to take off) and then the next time you drive it is likely to go through the same process and it will repeat until you've done a long enough drive for it to complete. With the short journeys i do, it often lands after i've just done a longer (100miles) trip which is sod's law and infuriating as then have to take it for a 20mins run to get it to clear.
However, the positives for me to outway though niggles. It tows very well, have towed in crosswinds (unintentional) - obviously dropped my speed considerably but could feel the back brakes working to ensure the trailer didn't start weaving. the tow bar is the correct height which helps (my crv towbar couldn't be put any higher so the trailer was slightly nose down and above 40mph tended to weave for no reason, not had any weaving *touch wood* so far). I tow at least 3-4 times a week and in winter pick up 30 square bales of hay in my trailer too. Im personally not a fan of an electric button handbrake which it has got but i've got used to it. It's only a problem when the handbrake gets worn as you can't manually pull it on any tighter.
It's spacious inside and holds the road well. Have driven in snow without bother (and towed hay). It's 2-wheel drive most of the time, only 4x4 if you spin the wheels and it knows it needs extra grip.

ETA: lots of diesel cars do the engine regen so you'll not necessarily escape it by going for a different car. I've also used the downhill descent whilst towing - steep tracks going downhill on rough stoney ground, it's like cruise control but applying the breaks accordingly rather than keeping up to speed. I did 30k miles on a set of tyres and have had the brakes redone twice (I think) in that time too. Rest has just been usual servicing.
Click to expand...

Thanks you've pretty much covered everything there, makes me more confident in whether the car could do the job we want, sounds like it could. Just need to weigh up whether we want to go down to 1 car so would mean only having the antara for day to day commuting 20 miles each way and as a tow car or keep the economical small car for commuting and the terrano for towing this means insuring and taxing 2 cars though and we only ever really take the one horse.
 
atropa said:
Hi, I also tow with an Antara and find it fab, it's an extremely comfortable car for driving and it tows a 510 +650kg horse for me no bother. I only use it for towing and get about 20mpg, I think it gets around 45mpg town driving, probably more if you do motorway distances. Plus personally I think it looks really smart.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the rely! We'd be towing a ifor 505 with 15hh horse so around 500kg good to hear it could do the job.
 
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