Petrol towing advice please.

[donh54]

Looking (next 12 months or so) at buying a petrol D3. The price difference between diesel and petrol will buy a lot of fuel.
Looking at touring, some towing (under 2.5 tonnes) and some offroad stuff, not too gnarly.
This will be a long term vehicle, so looking for info from owners re maintenance, towing capability, fuel economy and reliability of the V6 versus the V8.
Not interested in factory or sales figures, just real world experience.

[KiwiD4]

Someone with far more knowledge will be along shortly, but as I understand it the V8 is a much better motor than the V6.

Mate of mine has a 4.0 V6, and has had a bit of trouble with it. The UK forums seem to suggest the ‘poverty pack’ Ford engine isn’t great.

I had the 4.4 V8 in a BMW and it was lovely. And the Jag 5.0 in my D4 is just glorious - almost twice the power of my old Rover V8s.

[Disco-tastic]

V8 has more power and torque for the same economy, so would be better for towing.

The V8 was discontinued when the Canbus upgrade came, so beware they may have cascading errors through the canbus system. There are stories of cars chucking a hissy fit just because a tail light bulb blew. Later models (since the 2nd half of 2007) do not have this issue. That said, there are plenty of happy v8 owners

Other than that they would perform pretty similarly. The most I've towed is about 1400kg and, though you could definitely feel it, it doesn't struggle, though i didn't spend much time making sure the load was distributed (i was only driving 15km) so the ball weight was probably way too high.

Cheers

Dan

[Disco-tastic]

Also, watch for cracked thermostat housings on the V8. They are plastic and are a known failure point.

From what i read researching before buying mine, not much goes wrong with the V6. You get the odd story though.

[Tombie]

Keep in mind once you stack 2,500kg on the back the “lots of petrol” to be purchased through the savings on a Petrol V6 vs Diesel soon becomes nullified

You can expect 16-18l/100km on level flat ground without a head wind on the PV6 with that load. Getting significantly worse on hilly terrain or head winds.

A TDV6 will pull 10-12s and 14s at 110km/h.

The V8 if you want Petrol is a sweet thing and will do a more economical job than the PV6.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

and the Jag motor goes like stink,,,
only the second vehicle I've been in that seriously sags in the bum under acceleration,,