Manual or auto? Those Mondeo auto transmissions are a hand grenade even without a tow bar.

CitizenErased:

Manual or auto? Those Mondeo auto transmissions are a hand grenade even without a tow bar.

boland: Planning to buy a 4 berth caravan, guess max 1200kg. Got a Mondeo 2L 105kW 190Nm. Certified up to 1850 kg. Tow bar certified up to 1500kg braked.

We're living near a steep hill, about 20-25%. I'm worried the car may get stuck up hill.
It's not a turbo and eg when loaded heavily it's slow as hell. However I don't mind, just don't want to get stuck.

Only want to swap for a diesel if necessary.

Advice is appreciated!

Regarding getting stuck, every FWD car I have driven has been capable of spinning the tires in lowest gear. As such, more power will not be of any assistance in this regard. As others have said, rent of borrow something to satisfy yourself in this regard.

Generally the limiting factors for towing to do with stopping, stability, and drive-train cooling. power is mostly a luxary that lets you go up hills fast.

Regarding stability / sway, the main cause of issues is trailers configured with their center of gravity to far to the rear. In NZ we typically like 10% of the trailer weight to be tow-ball down-force, although in Europe much lower numbers are used. you can buy a farily cheap scale to check you are loaded safely.

Note that you won't want much weight in the boot of your car when towing to limit the tail sag. 4 passengers + a boot load of stuff + a caravan may be a bit much.

If looking at other tow car options and you like fords, the falcon can be had fairly cheap, and is a great tow car. A heavy car with big displacement engine, and rear wheel drive make this better than many of the smaller suv's on the market.

[edit], if you are going to do a lot of heavier towing, you can have a transmission cooler fitted, which will keep your transmission nice an cool. also check in the manual about towing. lots of cars require you not to use overdrive gear while towing due to mechanical limitations.

Scott3:

 

If looking at other tow car options and you like fords, the falcon can be had fairly cheap, and is a great tow car. A heavy car with big displacement engine, and rear wheel drive make this better than many of the smaller suv's on the market.

[edit], if you are going to do a lot of heavier towing, you can have a transmission cooler fitted, which will keep your transmission nice an cool. also check in the manual about towing. lots of cars require you not to use overdrive gear while towing due to mechanical limitations.

 

Ford Falcon with a Barra 6 is a very good tow car as suggested, Most will rip the rear subframe out before slowing down lol. I'd avoid using that small Mondeo for towing.

Scott3:

Regarding stability / sway, the main cause of issues is trailers configured with their center of gravity to far to the rear. In NZ we typically like 10% of the trailer weight to be tow-ball down-force, although in Europe much lower numbers are used. you can buy a farily cheap scale to check you are loaded safely.

 

There's usually a maximum tongue weight specified for the tow vehicle, which tends to be quite low for some vehicles despite those vehicles having quite high tow ratings considering the size of the vehicle, for example some VW Golf / Tiguan platform variants (incl Audi etc) rated to tow at over 2 tonnes, but maximum tongue weight is specified as 100kg.  This might be okay with an anti-sway friction coupling and a UK style caravan on a UK freeway but could be very dangerous with a standard kiwi tandem trailer, going down a twisty steep incline at ~90 kmh.  The same model vehicles sold in the US may have a tow rating only 50% of the UK tow rating.  Here (NZ) they seem to use the UK figure - which I don't think is a great idea.

Note that the AA towing weight guidelines are incomplete, and don't adequately allow for the fact that "same name" model changes can occur during a year.  The NZ agent should be able to advise - franchise dealers (aka some "car salesmen") might not be the most reliable source for accurate info when purchasing a used vehicle.

Edit to add video to show the problem with incorrect loading, even when the tow vehicle and towed weight are probably within spec:

I tow medium weight trailers long distances, sometimes in a 2L saloon with RWD 160kw manual and sometimes in a XR6 (4L) Falcon. I wouldn't expect a 2L FWD Modeo auto to tow a 1200kg caravan too very well, especially once full of passengers. I think you will be pushing it hard/too its limits the whole time, which will send it to an early grave. I wouldn't attempt a 1200kg tow in the my 2L and it's got a more powerful and better configured drive chain.

Are you sure about that 1800kg tow weight? It sounds a little high for a modest family car, more like what I'd expect from a mid size ute/SUV.

Petrol vs Diesel - people tend to go diesel because it hurts the wallet less when towing makes the fuel bill goes up, but petrol can tow as well or better than diesel. It really depends on the car. Not all cars are equal. Some 2.5L diesels go like a rocket, some are embarrassing to drive. I know people who tow their tandem axle boat trailer long distance with a 3.8L Commodore but launch it with their diesel Hilux because the Commodore tows on the highway far better.

Towing on the current generation\shape Mondeo is a follows (from the brochure)

Petrol towing (braked) = 1200kgs

Diesel towing (braked) = 1600kgs

EDIT: Added screenshot from Ford NZ website

From the AA website:

Mondeo - all models 2001 - 700 1875

Also, Carjam shows 1875kg.

I'm from The Netherlands and people have smaller cars than our Mondeo and tow caravans all the way across Europe without any issues. Of course, New Zealand is a more rugged terrain, but I would not classify a car with 1875kg towing capacity as incapable of towing a ~1000kg (empty) caravan. I have seen the video about swaying before, interesting watch; I already know what to do in those scenarios although it will be scary I reckon.

I don't want to buy a very expensive car, just to tow the caravan a couple of times per year. 

I'll hire a heavy trailer and do some test drives!