fuel efficient car for towing, etc.?

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Why not? I get 8.5L average with my Grand cherokee CRD. 420ft/lbs at 1500 rpm, 7500lbs towing rating. Got 11L towing an Acura RSX on a Uhaul wheel dolly. In the case of the OP, probably overkill.

ZX600 said:
Not a Jeep :)
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Now, someone mentioned a Volvo V70 and i wholeheartedly agree but the newer ones, up to 07 i believe. My mom has an 04 V70 and the car is worth peanuts even with low km. I was shocked how little they sell for on kijiji as it an amazingly comfortable, smooth and pretty decent gas mileage vehicle. Her car was rear ended and the ins wanted to write it off and pay her out. We went shopping for another car. Utter garbage. I was shocked how shoddy the Volvo V50 feels compared to the V70. Newer more "luxurious" cars felt like toys after driving her V70. You can pick up early 2000's for $5K, and believe me thats a lot of car for the money.

Shes owned it since new and in the 10 years replaced the brakes, oil, two headlight bulbs, one taillight bulb and unstuck the rear windshield wiper motor.

In the end we decided to fix her car instead as for the money they wanted to offer her, nothing came close to the quality, comfort and safety of her car.
 
Any hatch in the size of a Matrix will do. Forte, Mazda 3, Focus, Elantra, Impreza.

For the lowest cost of ownership the big differentiator will probably the best deal you can find to minimize depreciation (though the Toyota will probably hold its value a bit better). Otherwise they're all pretty even for fuel consumption and insurance, which are the other two big factors of the cost of ownership equation.
 
What is wrong with your van? Have you considered that any money "saved" in fuel consumption would be lost in the purchase of a new vehicle?
 
Tdi passat or jetta. All of what you want. If you're a fancy person then a diesel grand cherokee for sure. Wicked mileage, all the toys/comfort in a good looking suv and relatively not that expensive compared to some of the other fugly suv's
 
Robp said:
What is wrong with your van? Have you considered that any money "saved" in fuel consumption would be lost in the purchase of a new vehicle?
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It's a GM.

lol...rusting away. Should have done an oil/underbody spray when I first got it new.

CruisnGrrl said:
If you're towing twice a year why not rent and buy a Eco car for the rest of the year?
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Renting is not convenient as I live in the 'burbs. Gotta have wheels up here, especially in the winter. What do you mean by Eco car?

Yeah, I'm thinking I just gotta concentrate on the car and hope it can do a little bit of towing and worry about a trailer much much later.
 
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Riceburner said:
It's a GM.

lol...rusting away. Should have done an oil/underbody spray when I first got it new.


Renting is not convenient as I live in the 'burbs. Gotta have wheels up here, especially in the winter. What do you mean by Eco car?

Yeah, I'm thinking I just gotta concentrate on the car and hope it can do a little bit of towing and worry about a trailer much much later.
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I live in a rural area, renting is still an option. By Eco car I mean something that is fantastic on gas. I had been looking at a new car and the corolla was an option with its 1500 tow rating. It won't do a 4x8 enclosed but it will pull my 4x8 flatbed with a bike.
 
Would definitely be a flatbed or open box trailer.

I need...want...to have a cage available at any time, especially in the winter, so owning is the preference. Or do you mean renting when needing to tow? Maybe, but like having my own stuff and doing as I will.

Too bad there wasn't a Corolla wagon any more.
 
Riceburner said:
Would definitely be a flatbed or open box trailer.

I need...want...to have a cage available at any time, especially in the winter, so owning is the preference. Or do you mean renting when needing to tow? Maybe, but like having my own stuff and doing as I will.

Too bad there wasn't a Corolla wagon any more.
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Renting a truck for when you need something bigger. Get the most fuel efficient car otherwise, and if you only tow once or twice a year I wouldn't even worry about tow rating, the money you save in gas would easily pay for a number of rentals. The reason I was thinking of a corolla is I tow stuff semi often (firewood, bike, various other things)
 
The Matrix keeps popping up. So does it fall into the fuel efficient category? What else? Something a few years old. Plan on keeping it a while. My current cage is 14 years old.
 
Highlander hybrid?
 
Hummer H1.
Anything short of that means you have a dinky winky.
 
MSRP said:
Hummer H1.
Anything short of that means you have a dinky winky.
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Meh, they're cruddy. The helicopter tie downs rip right off and drop the car.
 
i use a 2006 jetta TDi to tow a 4x8 trailer to the track with all my gear. it costs me about 1/4 tank worth of diesel to tow about 340km to the track round trip with the air conditioning working for the drive home

It was fairly reliable. (never left me stranded)

It loves wheel bearings at 200,000km
Mine had a stage 1.5 tune done to it, and made a big difference to the tow, without sacrificing fuel economy.
Typical tank of fuel was about 850 without towing.

I just traded it in @ 280,000km for a new 2015 jetta tdi.
 
Nick_f said:
I just traded it in @ 280,000km for a new 2015 jetta tdi.
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... and that one will have the new EA288 engine with liquid-cooled (and temperature-regulated) intercooler to eliminate the intercooler-freezing troubles that the 2009-2014 common-rails had, and they've gotten rid of that trouble-prone EGR back-pressure flap, and hopefully they've fixed the HPFP. I think they ditched the cheap beam axle and went back to all-independent suspension for the TDI models, too. Let us know what you think of it.
 
Brian P said:
... and that one will have the new EA288 engine with liquid-cooled (and temperature-regulated) intercooler to eliminate the intercooler-freezing troubles that the 2009-2014 common-rails had, and they've gotten rid of that trouble-prone EGR back-pressure flap, and hopefully they've fixed the HPFP. I think they ditched the cheap beam axle and went back to all-independent suspension for the TDI models, too. Let us know what you think of it.
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it feels faster than my stage 1.5 malone tune 1.9 PD tdi. The Jetta i had was a 5 speed, the new one is a DSG.

It only has 900km on it as of today, but km to empty on the first fill was showing 1050km. The DSG really calms down my driving habits :)
This is the first one with the adblue in the trunk. If the adblue tank wasn't in the way, the old hitch should have fit. Just waiting for someone to design one. (probably going to be mounted to the spare tire rubber plugs like the passat TDi)
 
TDI wagon.

That said, almost anything new is unlikely to have any tow rating or it will be very low so you're likely to void any power train warranty it comes with.
 
TDI has higher inital cost and my mileage is about only about 10k/year. I only have 151k on my 15 year old cage.

So any pros and cons between the Matrix (if any still available new) or a Mazda3 sport?
 
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Riceburner said:
TDI has higher inital cost and my mileage is about only about 10k/year. I only have 151k on my 15 year old cage.

So any pros and cons between the Matrix (if any still available new) or a Mazda3 sport?
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Mazda's are very prone to rust for some reason, especially on the rear quarter panels/tire wells. Matrix has more interior cargo room, larger rear opening.
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