Buying a New Car? Do Your Homework First!!
It’s happened a couple of times lately that a person I have weighed has gone and bought a new-er car with a higher braked towing capacity in order to ensure they are compliant.
But if you are considering a new car you must do your homework first!
In one example a client bought a 2015 Pajero with 3000kg braked towing capacity, however he was unaware of the towball complexities of the Pajero – and it has meant that his car is legally unable to tow his 24ft van.
In Pajeros of that era the rules are below:
Standard ball weight: 250kg for loads up to 2500kg.
Reduced ball weight: 180kg for loads over 2500kg.
So when towing a caravan that is 2780kg in weight, while the Pajero can do it, the ballweight of 280 makes it a breach of what is allowed. Add to that, you can’t open the tailgate while hitched and the Pajero becomes a real dog of a car for towing anything over two tonnes.
OR
Maybe like me you are going to be in the market for a new ute very soon. I have a spreadsheet running that compares the different attributes of the current utes I am interested in.
Criteria include warranty, payload, rear axle rating. I recently weighed a Volkswagon Toureg, more a car than a ute, but with a 6 cyl motor and 3.5 tonne towing capacity, however in my exploring of these cars I discovered that the new Toureg has a deplorable 1530kg rear axle capacity! How you tow legally with that is beyond me.
While I wasn’t looking seriously at the Toureg I am interested in the Terron 9 and the MG u9, both big utes and in general identical… except… for payload… And payload matters! Here is a snippet from my spreadsheet. As you can see the MG has much less payload than either versions of the Terron.
And payload matters because this is the weight your car can legally carry. It includes:
Towball downweight eg 300kg
People 2 x 70 = 140kg
Fuel 80kg
We are already at 520kg before we put any luggage in or make any modifications to the car. Right now the Terron looks like a better bet than the MG, but I still lean towards the reliability of the Ford Ranger. That said, this Ranger had a hairline crack in the transmission after 40000ks and now has a new trans, so even the ‘safe bets’ have trouble.
Either way, go to Redbook or car sales and check the specifications of a car before you purchase. Make sure payload is more than 675 (basic Landcruiser amount) and that the vehicle can legally do what you have bought it to do.
It sounds simple – and it is simple. Do it – it will save you a lot of stress down the road!