Typing in to Google, "best car for towing 1500kg caravan" gives this from caravanhelper.co.uk,

www.caravanhelper.co.uk/best-car-for-towing-1500kg.../

Not sure if any appeals (they do seem to be mainly diesel). However, looking beyond that website, i did come upon this,

www.thetowcarawards.com/tow-car/honda-cr-v-6/

Seems to fit your weight and petrol powered requirements (obviously they are not overly keen on it, but it may work better with 1500kg than the stated 2000kg max), though not sure about lease rates.

Edited by badbusdriver on 01/10/2019 at 19:30

The 1.6GDi Sportage is painfully underpowered, even without dragging a plastic shed behind it.

Edited by DieselBoy on 01/10/2019 at 20:45

Ah, okay. I'll wind my neck in then!

The obvious choice would be a big Skoda superb 2.0 TDI estate, that will do it all for you and a very good car as well, when it's on lighter duties.

Well we tow a 1400kg caravan too but our requirements are otherwise a little bit different.

Key here is what the OP said about weight of the towcar, not just its power output. We have had the same caravan 11 years, started out towing it with an Octavia Estate 2.0 TDI, then an S-max 2.2 TDCi, now a Sorento 2.2 AWD.

All three of these had plenty of power to tow the van. However, the S-max was more stable a tow car than the Octavia, by some margin, and the Sorento better still, because of it's weight to caravan weight ratio. If you are going to carry on towing, you have to prioritise this, because even if your towing mileage is low, you want the most stable towcar possible. Believe me journies with the caravan are so much more relaxed now than when we had the Octavia.

The Sorento is our first auto, and personally I do not want to tow with a manual car again, just so much more relaxing and less stressful with the auto.

So if you do plenty of long runs, I'd recommend a nice heavy diesel auto. 4wd is nice for towing in slippery conditions, but hardly essential unless you're camping in muddy fields on a regular basis.

We looked at the (then new) 1.6 twin turbo CRV when we ended up the Sorento, but I felt I was getting more for my money at the time with the Kia (especially the warranty). I was also a bit nervous about the twin-turbo setup and smaller capacity of the Honda, the single turbo 1.6 diesel was well proven but the twin turbo less so. I guess it might well be worth a look now. BTW our Sorento has been a great tow car. Now has 70k miles on the clock (15 plate).

You don't give a budget so it's hard to say what would suit.

If there's no real restrictions, my top recommendations would be:

• VW Toureg
• Kia Sorento/Hyundai Santa Fe
• Ford Mondeo

Edited by SLO76 on 04/10/2019 at 20:10

I wouldn’t pay attention to the caravan club either as they come out with some very strange advice, like the Kia Rio at one point being towcar of the year.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club, as it is now, employs some utterly clueless people.

I couldn't believe my eyes in 2016 when the Citroen C4 Cactus was named Towcar of the Year in the under £20,000 category. There is scarcely a caravan on the market that you can tow with this and carry any rear seat passengers or luggage.

I thought they must have made a mistake with the weights so I wrote to them -

The Club tested the car with a 825Kg caravan and gave it the win. I am astonished that this car has won and that there is no mention under “Caravanability” of the fact that towing the caravan used for testing was at the expense of a large chunk of the car’s own payload allowance. The nearest the comments come is to say that “loadspace for a family is restricted”. In fact, you probably wouldn’t be able to carry the family at all.

The Club quotes a kerb weight of 1143Kg, presumably after weighing it. From the Citroen brochure, the maximum laden weight (MLW) of the car alone is 1610Kg. The maximum gross train weight is 2210Kg. The maximum towing weight (MTW) is 825Kg.

Perhaps you have already seen the problem. If the car is loaded to its maximum of 1610Kg, including the 55Kg maximum noseweight which must come out of the MLW, the heaviest caravan that can be towed without exceeding the MGTW is 655Kg.

Put another way, if one were to tow a 825Kg caravan, then the available payload in the car would be 2210-1143-825=242Kg.

That 242Kg has to include the driver and passengers, any luggage or possessions, and the 55Kg noseweight. My wife and I together weigh 146Kg (we are not especially heavy people) so we would only have 41Kg to play with for other contents. A further passenger would have to be well under 7 stones not to break the MGTW limit, with no other items in the car at all.

I think a mistake has been made. Perhaps someone from the Club would like to comment?

Their reply was-

The Citroen Cactus was the best towing vehicle in its category, despite its GTW limitations. Please note that the Peugeot 2008 was also restricted on its towing weight based on the GTW.

which is just ridiculous, especially as they made no mention in their report of the limitations.

So I replied -

Thank you for your reply.

Can I just add, for your information, that the [Caravan Club] matching tool that might alert members to the limitations of this car will not currently help, as it is using an incorrect value for GTW (2435 rather than 2210) and the noseweight limit figure is not populated.

Also, neither the GTW or noseweight limit are populated at all for the Peugeot 2008.

Answer came there none, so I gave up. Do not rely on anything the CMC says or writes about towcar suitability, check for yourself.

Edited by Manatee on 05/10/2019 at 09:42

I still don’t see how any of these beat a petrol Outlander. Why buy a diesel with DPF and the eco lobby gaining footholds in governments across europe. I wouldn’t pay attention to the caravan club either as they come out with some very strange advice, like the Kia Rio at one point being towcar of the year.

Side note, sorry but ‘big’ isn’t how i’d describe a honda CR-V. It’s well packaged ie spacious inside for its size, but still based off the civic. Drove one recently and wasn’t impressed by the fidgety ride even on the motorway and the road noise was much worse than my 15 year old Discovery. By British standards a Discovery or Mitsubishi Shogun (not the Sport) can be considered big. CR-V is more comparable to a Rav 4, eclipse cross, ewok, are compact 4x4s. Apologies if this is a rant, but it’s a bugbear of mine when jacked up hatchbacks get described as big 4x4s.

I guess it depends on what you are used to or indeed comparing it to. Coming from an Audi Q7 or a Range Rover yes, a CR-V isn't that big. But it's a good chunk bigger than our Jazz and i'd certainly describe it as a 'big' car, if not the biggest. As for comparisons to the Outlander petrol, well i'm not sure what your criteria are, but the stats don't really support it as being a better choice than a CR-V either in current petrol form, or the last gen twin turbo diesel SLO is referring to.

The Outlander produces 150bhp @ 6000rpm, 144lb/ft of torque @ 4200rpm, and weighs 1540kg.

The current CR-V produces 190bhp @ 5600rpm, 179lb/ft of torque from 2-5000rpm, and weighs 1600kg.

The previous shape CR-V twin turbo diesel produces 160bhp @ 4000rpm, 258lb/ft of torque @ 2000rpm and weighs 1658kg.

I don't know how the towing weights compare, but those bare figures show the Outlander petrol as being the lightest in weight (so, in theory, less stable) as well as having less torque (much less then the diesel) at much higher rpm than either CR-V.

BTW, going back to the size of the CR-V, it is 9.5cm shorter, but 4.5cm wider than the Outlander. So in terms of it's 'footprint', or the amount of road space it takes up, the Outlander is very slightly smaller than the (current) CR-V, but is in turn slightly bigger than the previous one.