Towcar - Passat, Volvo V70 or Ford Galaxy?

[RubberDuck]

Dh has been pouring over stats and reviews for hours and I've just said "bugger it, I'm asking Mumsnet" so don't let me down

We're upgrading from our folding camper to a caravan but the first thing we need to do is upgrade our car as ours just won't cut the mustard

So I was hoping for some ideas on which the best towcar to get is - our shortlist after doing our weight sums are the Volkswagen Passat, the Volvo V70 or the Ford Galaxy (seems a nutty choice given that we have only 2 kids, but struggling to find a heavy vehicle that isn't a 4x4 and has a non-crap fuel economy). We'd be looking at an 02/52 reg plate (approx £4k price).

Anyone has any of these cars comment on how they got on with them? Our key needs are reliability, comfort on long journeys, fuel economy and ease of towing.

PS. Anyone want to buy a 2001 Pennine Pathfinder or a 2004 Nissan Almera

volvo

Well that was brief Anything in particular you like about the Volvo?

well I've no idea about towing ability but we love our passat estate (03 model). We test drove the newer passat and preferred the 03 one. The boot is huge and it is a lovely comfortable family car (we have 2 children too). We have the 1.8 petrol version. We have done 50,000 miles in ours and the only things that have worn have been the tyres and that could be due to the large number of potholes in the roads.

I have a ford galaxy automatic, its comfy, but crap fuel economy. I love it tho

So an even split between all three then?

Eeeny, meanie, miney, mo....

If you go for the V70 get the diesel version.

We changed from petrol last year as the fuel economy was awful and it wasn't the best at towing TBH. The Diesel is much more powerful. Don't even know that you are towing! We also considered the Mondeo estate.

we went for an audi a4 avant - 2litre diesel automatic, it was that or a volvo v70 or a passat - which i found very basic inside.

What caravan are you getting?

oh but sorry, seen the budget - ours was £8000 from car giant

serin: good point about the diesel version - we liked our diesel Almera for much the same reason.

QOD: apparently, the A4 Avant is way too light, according to dh

We're hoping to get a Swift Challenger which has an MTPLM of 1475kg. We're experienced towers, so going for 90% ish weight ratio rather than an 85%. (Our favoured layout is the 490L - side bathroom, end bedroom which can be a double bed, double bed with bunk, or just bunks - very flexible and has the bonus of being able to shut the kids off at night )

just in case you haven't seen it, this is a good site for info

Ta Betsy, I think dh already has that one, but will pass it on

Both Volvo and VW are expensive for spare parts in case something does go wrong, Ford more affordable...

I still would go for Volvo though much to my DH despair

nah A4 is perfect as long as you get single axle - having said that, we dont plan to do, nor have done, long trips, overseas or hilly!

V70 is a top tow car, mine did 160k miles, around a 100k with a caravan
a4 and passat will do the job just but the v70 is in a different league

Go for diesel and manual and fit the tow bar yourself otherwise the car may have been a tractor in it's foer life!

kia sedona is what we got its fab to carry grandparents and friends too!
love it love it love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!