Tow car review

Posted on 29/10/2018 06:41 by richardandros

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.