Tow car review

Kia Sorrento no problems with any of your worries

Mmm? 3.6 V8 full time 4x4 vs 2.2 4 pot part time 4x4 ..... 😞

What about the Jeep Grand Cherokee. 3l V6 perm 4x4.

I keep looking at them ..... though I'd love to justify the SRT8 😁

As a replacement for the V8 as the op    there is a V6 sorrento, but if you want a less reliable car without a  7yr warranty then buy just about anything else

All good knock about stuff.   

I have no idea about the Audi Q7, but since July we have had a  2015 Touareg.  We have the rare de-blinded, Escape version.   Impressions so far are very positive it tows our 1900kg single axle with ease, it’s smooth a comfortable, the 8 speed box seems go, I believe that the Q7 has a different box.  

The only problem we have had, it may have come with it and not spotted, was one of the rear passenger doors was permanently childlocked.  The main dealer presented me with a £500 bill to fix it.  I pointed out it was under warranty.  

There is a big problem with the Touareg, is that VW decreed that if you want to tow you need to an upgraded fan fitted.  As well as a towbar.   I did get it fitted, but lots of people don’t upgrade the fan and there are no  reports, that I have seen saying that there have been any problems due to the fan.    Some of the Touareg’s came with a factory fit swilling towball and the upgraded fan.  If you are looking at secondhand I would try and find one of those is you can.   I couldn’t ☹️Problem is that dealers most of the time don’t realise this towball is fitted and don’t list it in their adverts.  To add to this some of the vechicles with the ff towbar didn’t get in error the upgraded fan.   There is a lot of information on Mytreg which is worth a look.  

The above isn’t meant to put you off it seems to be a very capable tow car.   I am giving an honest view based on (short) experience and a sample size of one.

My belief is people who post. “I’ve got a (insert name of car / caravan here) and to be honest mate, I just can’t fault it”. Really should try harder

wouldn't we all MM, wouldn't we all.

 Thanks s very helpful . As our tow car is req to tow to the South of France the mention of additional cooling was very interesting .

If you look on Mytreg, plenty of people have fitted a towbar, and not upgraded the fan tow to France and Spain with no reported problems.  Also obviously plenty of people think they have the upgraded fan because they have the factory fitted tow kit and haven’t because VW cocked up. A case of you pays your money and you take your choice   

 I don’t know what the case is with the New Touareg, but with old one if you can get the ff bar you are going to save money because obviously they add nothing to the second hand retail value of the car.  

I was an ardent Land Rover fan and off-road enthusiast and have had 4 Discos in the past and loved them, so I'm not a LR 'knocker' but I have to say that the big issue I had with all of them was reliability. Mainly, but not always, electrical faults and one of them seemed to spend more time at the dealers than with me.

I switched to a Touareg five years ago and then bought a second, brand new in 2015.  Like Boff's - it's the Escape, with low ratio box, diff locks, raised and stiffened suspension and under-body protection - so just as capable off-road and in tricky towing situations, as the Disco.

The 3 litre V6 with 262 bhp and lots of torque makes it a smooth, relaxed tow car.  We have a Bailey Barcelona and sometimes forget it is on the back.  Just to give you an example - if you know Garrowby Hill in East Yorkshire (look on Google), this summer my wife was following me in her new Corsa whilst I was towing the van, and the Treg plus van just left her behind until she became a speck in my mirrors!

The big plus with the Treg is reliability.  Until a couple of months ago, it had never been into a garage other than for servicing.  However, I did have an issue at that time with a faulty air mass sensor - just out of warranty but it was fixed in 10 minutes (at a cost of £180!)

Towing that van, I average about 24mpg towing but did get just short of 40 solo on the motorway - that was until I fitted all-terrain tyres which has cost me about 2mpg.

Like all big 4x4s, they are heavy on tyres.  I had to change mine at 25k but towing won't have helped either.  They still had 3 or 4mm tread at that time, but that's when I prefer to change them.

There is nowhere nearly as much space in the back with the rear seats folded down as I had in the Discos, and it's a bit of a pain that the rear seats don't fold perfectly flat as per the Disco, but I have learned to live with that.

As Boff has indicated, the upgraded cooling fan is an issue to consider.  When I bought mine, I had both the dealer and my local Bosch service centre enquire with VW head office as to the implications of not fitting the larger fan.  Both came back with the categoric message that to tow anything without the upgrade would invalidate the warranty if a relevant fault were to ensue.  I then argued that since nowhere in any of the advertising literature or the handbook did VW say that the Treg's 3.5 ton towing limit was subject to the fan being fitted, and as a consequence, they fitted it free of charge. (It should have been £850).

That said, I towed the same van with my previous Treg, without the fan upgrade with no issues.  (That was limited to the UK, however).

I understand that if you get one with a factory fitted towbar, the fan upgrade should be included as a matter of course.

I think the one thing I like about it best of all, - and it might seem a strange thing to say,  is the gearbox.  It is so smooth when changing gear that if if wasn't for the change in engine pitch, you don't know it's changed. The Tregs are the first automatics I have owned but my previous experience of autos sticking to higher revs and being a bit 'clunky' when changing gear proved to be totally unfounded with this box.  1500 revs towing at 60mph on the motorway is fairly typical. It makes for a very smooth, relaxing journey.

Sorry if this has been a long post - but I've tried to give you a flavour of my experience.