What 4x4?

A

Adrian888

A2OC Donor
we are pondering chopping in the Toledo for a 4x4 to tow the caravan with and wonder what experience or recommendations members on here may have. We are on a tight budget of around £5k, MUST be diesel and able to tow a van of aproximately 1300kg laden. My thoughts are Honda CRV, X-Trail, Rav4, possibly an A4 estate (as in quattro 4x4), Passat 4motion or Octavia 4x4 equivalent. Something which is also a good drivers car is also a high priority.
 
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Heart says this:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...01/keywords/quattro/postcode/ka91qx?logcode=p

Love the allroad; and often very welll spec'd up - but expensive to repair and thirsty beggars too....

Head says this.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../radius/1501/postcode/ka91qx/page/2?logcode=p


You had an Accord before didnt you? Good economy from the 2.2 though a bit rattley. The trim finish isnt up to Audi standard but a few guys at work have the CR-V and really like them. Always good level of toys as standard on the top end model too......
 
My father has a Hyundai Tucson. Well made, reliable, excellent dealers, decent economy, high specification, great value for money. No street credibility but do 4x4 owners look for that?
 
Must admit the CR-V is pretty much at the top of the list and something Hyundai/Kia is a good option. The only problem with the Honda diesel is the less than great reliability when getting towards the sort of mileage i will be buying. Having said that I note one of the Scottish ambulance services' have just bought 20 CR-V's after trialling them.
 
What about MAf problems with the beemer engine? Must admit I like the Freelander looks and they are a lot of car for the money. How was it on economy? I have had experience of that engine in a ZT and 75 albeit I understand there were minor spec differences in the Freelander installation.
 
I only have personal experience of an Octavia and a CRV. I would trust either for the job you have described.

If mileage Is to be low, an Octavia petrol 1.8t is worth a look.

The price of any Audi will be inflated by two words: "Audi" and "Quattro".
 
Must be diesel, nothing to do with mileage which will probably be around 12k but could be upto 20k, just preference for diesel torque/grunt which when towing has its advantages..
 
I've never owned a M-class, but have read quite a bit about them and not been too impressed by reviews. Quality, reliability and repair costs make them quite a specialist choice IMHO.
 
Will said:
I've never owned a M-class, but have read quite a bit about them and not been too impressed by reviews. Quality, reliability and repair costs make them quite a specialist choice IMHO.
Click to expand...

I looked at a few ML's when I put an Autotrader search in for Adrian's £5k 4x4. Looks like you can buy quite a lot of car fore that money.

I dont know anything about them, but admire the odd nice (older) one you see being driven around. Trouble seems to be with MB in regards your comment on quality, is that for every nice example over a few years old there seem to be as many troubled by corrosion. An example being an '06 plate E-Klasse I noticed recently that had rust around the boot and the arches. I suppose it could have been subject to a poor repair, but you definitely see more rusty Merc's than the respectively aged Audi or Beemer.

Apologies for the slight swerve here Adrian; but I suppose its still relevant to recommending a 4x4 motor - I had a quick mooch about google after posting the above comments from empirical evidence only and it would appear that rust is a pretty big issue for MB. Interesting when 1996-2006 cars have a 30 year anti-rust warranty I believe.

Here's the pick of whats's on offer from a pretty p'd off ML owner in the USA. Quite interesting if youve time for a gander. ( And here's me going to Audi UK about wee blisters on Ada's doors! :))

http://mercedesrust.blogspot.co.uk/
 
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Hi Adrian
Does it really need to be a 4x4? The Skoda Superb has won Towing car of the Year for the past few years - a quick look on Autotrader shows loads at 05-07 plate, under 60k miles for around £5k.
Or, if you want even more car for your money, how about the worlds best seond hand car - a VW Phaeton. Might need to up the budget to around 7k, and they'll be around 110k miles, but that's huge amount of car for £7k.
Having said that, when we were looking at an airstream caravan earlier in the year, the few trips we did to the airstream meetups showed exclusively 4x4s as tow cars - almost all Disco 4's and big american V8's required to pull the 1500kg+ weight of an airstream, although there was one Volvo V70.
How about an older Rangy/Disco with an LPG conversion?
 
If we weren't thinking of 4x4 then I would not be swapping. The Toledo has all the bells and whistles, with heated leather, sunroof, DSG, MFSW and so on and being mk5 Golf platform with the 2.0TDi engine is a good drive with plenty of room too. It needs to be an estate or large hatch for the dog so a Superb is ruled out on those grounds (the estate is too new to be available at £5k). The ML is simply too big and not very reliable. Running costs are important so Disco size vehicles are too costly even with LPG (which i understand do not work well with the V8 engine and are not recommended) and my wife simply would never drive anything so large. Its not just fuel but general servicing/running costs associated with such a beast. (My stepson has just bought an 05 range Rover petrol supercharged which came with a sheaf of history and the bills are enough to make both eyes and everything else water).

I have done an autotrader search with '1 owner' typed in the filter box (if they are 1 owner they also usually come with a good history file and tend to have been cared for) and even at £5k limit quite a few vehicles come up including all the usual suspects such as CR-V's, X trails, RAV4's, Vitara's, A4's etc and the odd Octavia 4x4 estate with the old and trusty 1.9tdi engine. My next check is road tax levels on the various vehicles and warranty/reliability survey feedback.
 
I get the impression you've bought enough cars over the years to hopefully avoid any lemons, so I'm not sure I've much more to add other than the link below. Good luck with the search.

JD Power 2012:

2951212940140.jpg
 
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