Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have been shopping new vehicles recently, looking for something that will handle towing a small pop up. What I am surprised to find is that nearly all new cars are not rated to tow at all, or have very meager tow ratings (1000 lbs or less).
This is surprising to me. I remember back in the day, tons of people towed with cars. Now, it seems that the automakers are not engineering their vehicles to handle the requirements, and leaving it up to their CUV's.
BTW, I am not buying the unibody argument. Plenty of car based CUV's have much higher tow ratings than the car they are based on, and are still unibody. I have an auto engineer friend who says, at least for the company that he is employed for, the tow ratings are most limited by thermal testing (engine, transmission, brake cooling), and that the CUV's tend to have cool higher thermal loads.
It is too bad too. I am sure plenty of people would love to do a little recreational towing, on occasion, without having to drive a CUV or other small SUV all year round.
There are a few car options, but very few. (Volvo cars tend to have CUV like tow ratings and overall GCWR's).
Because they don't make big 4 door cars that weight 6000lbs (well not many)
with a v8, massive cooling and high torque ratings, or torque converters that can handle much of any thing, transmissions that can handle pulling 7k.
They don't built them like they use to.
new cars are about fuel economy and a soft ride.
but to day we have suv's that can pull a trailer.
If your going to tow why are you fixated on a small or midsize car?
By the time you fined a car big enough and optioned out to tow, you could have gotten a suv or a pick-up and saved a buck or two.
The engineering parameters for cars have changed due to gov't regulations for safety levels and fuel economy.
Those cars of yesteryear were designed and built with other priorities which made the ability for towing a reality. Adequate HP, brakes, frame & suspension with the ability to tow were readily available.
Now the car market dollar is spent on so many other features ... communications, entertainment, power everything accessory, styling gimmicks, suspension and brakes targeted for better handling and performance .... and not the capabilities for towing which are met by other vehicles in their line-ups.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,712 posts, read 58,054,000 times
Reputation: 46182
Towing with a 'fold-up-in-case-of-crash' car is not quite like the days of the FRAMES.
but... I tow several x/ week with my 50 mpg 'Stealth Rabbit'. (and Passats). Many times 1200 - 2000#. (and I live in the Mtns.)
I do keep a few 'bigger' rigs around for HD towing, (20,000 - 60,000# loads). I hire out the towing over 80,000#
There are plenty of minivans that have up to 3,000# tow ratings.
Bigger Cooling system is key, as are tranny cooler, larger sway bars and 'sport'/ larger brakes. Many 'Sport' model versions come with this stuff. DO NOT try to overwork / overload your generic car. TOWING is dangerous, and quite hard on the WRONG equipment.
I've seen vehicles as small as Kia Souls tow lightweight pop ups.
Just because it "can" do it, doesn't mean it can do it safely. I wouldn't put anything other than a bike rack on a Kia Soul. I don't even know that I'd put a popup behind my Camry, but it doesn't matter anyway. If I need to tow, I'll use my Jeep rated for 5k. If I find myself needing to tow more than that, I'll trade it in, get one with a V8 and a 7400lb capacity. Better safe than sorry.
Our 4 cyl Subaru is rated at 2000 lbs (with electric brake) and 1000 without. That's not too bad. Check out the Forester.
My sister and her husband have an older Forester that they tow one of those mini-campers with, I would guess that the weight would be similar to a pop-up. They've towed it all over the country including up into the Rocky Mountains without any problems. I know they considered several other vehicles when they bought it so there are apparently still several that have tow ratings, they went with the Forester because its towing capacity was the highest of the smaller cars.
It's not that new. I remember in the early 80s when we had a little popup tent camper (I was a kid then). It was much older than that and only several hundred pounds, under 1000 easily (probably like 700). The first tow vehicle was a 79 diesel Rabbit, which may have even been rated to tow 1000 or 1500. Then we got an 82 Accord. Honda rated this to tow...not at all. Heh. But hitch makers still made hitches for it, and we towed with it just fine. We drove it from DC area to eastern Canada and back. Did get a flat tire but didn't appear to be related to the trailer. The other 3 original tires on that car lasted 99,000 miles!
Anyway, point being it's been common since around then at least for popular-sized front-drivers not to be rated to tow much if at all. 1000 pounds sounds about right. And yes I don't think it's anything to do with the body so much as the engine/trans/brake stuff. These days with the popularity of CUVs the market for towing anything with a moderate sized car is probably minimal.
My sister and her husband have an older Forester that they tow one of those mini-campers with, I would guess that the weight would be similar to a pop-up. They've towed it all over the country including up into the Rocky Mountains without any problems. I know they considered several other vehicles when they bought it so there are apparently still several that have tow ratings, they went with the Forester because its towing capacity was the highest of the smaller cars.
Yeah, we have an older one too. One of these days we'll get a pop-up and I just assumed I'd have to tow it with my pickup until I looked up the capacities of our little subie.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
