Re: Best towing vehicle..
Re: Best towing vehicle..
I'm going to go out on a limb here and attempt to defend the LAST vehicle in the list you posted in the OP there - Land Rovers.
I've got to start of by reiterating the fact that the OP mentioned the vehicle will be a FAMILY VEHICLE when not towing - so anyone who mentions a diesel dually is smoking crack. I've driven many - yes they're badass and will pull stumps out of the ground, but they're not very practical when taking the family into the local movie theater parking garage on a weekend.
In your list, I feel like the Rovers are the only vehicle that offers impressive towing capabilities (nearly 8k lbs) while offering uncompromising safety, handling, and luxury. The Jeep GC would fit the bill in that respect too - however the Rover is the only make in your list which offers any sort of "exotic" appeal, which is kind of nice when shelling out your hard-earned $$ on a new vehicle.
All rovers have self-leveling 4 corner air suspension standard and a 7,700# tow rating; an option which would put you at nearly $45k out the door for a V8 Grand Cherokee with similar suspension options (which they directly copied from the rover Terrain Response dial system anyways). Granted the rover would still cost more, but I can at least handle the price for a european luxury SUV.
Back to the family vehicle usage; when I looked at the RRS I checked out the then-current IIHS safety report that had just been issued. For all vehicles 05-08, after accumulating 1,000,000 passenger-miles only 7 models on the road had ZERO DEATHS,
TWO of those were Land Rovers - both used the same "Integrated Body Frame" hybrid frame system, the LR3 and the Range Rover Sport. Look up the youtube video where they hitch 3 SUVs and rigging gear to an LR3 then lift it up with a crane and hang the weight through the chassis
EDIT: here's the official vid. The stability and suspension systems are first-rate, I simply can't say enough good things about the engineering behind it. For a 5,500lb SUV to handle like a sports car (even while towing a boat weighing just as much!) is rather incredible.
I can't tell you too much about the rest of the vehicles except that I was vastly disappointed in the quality control of a 2012 durango rental I drove for a week (ironically, while my range rover was in the shop
) fit and finish sucked, lots of squeaks and rattles - the shifter ALWAYS jammed while trying to put it into park, worthless rain sensing wipers and park distance control.
The new explorer drives nice and will probably get the best mileage of anything you listed above - it's also a sharp looking vehicle, but isn't without faults. The shape is similar to my range rover sport - however visibility is half as good! For example, the rear seat headrests on my range rover are contoured to the seat-tops so that when they're pushed against the seat, they don't block your view. I didn't appreciate this till I rented a new explorer and the rear headrests PERFECTLY blocked my view out the 3rd rear window!!!!
The park distance is also a complete joke on the explorer. It goes something like this while in reverse.. *backing up... backing up... backing up...***CRUNCH**** ...beeeeeeeeeep.
Please note that the above crunch was a snow bank that I was using for testing in Colorado.
My rover starts to beep slowly at ~4-5' and beeps solid at 1'. Yes I know they're "different" vehicles, but my rover is also 6 years older so they don't have an excuse here.
For the record, I managed to get 13.4mpg towing my Donzi for the first time this weekend - I was very impressed! (The 2012 Expedition 5.4 I used to get the boat only managed ~10. 17 UNLOADED on the highway, cruise control. What a joke!) On the return trip unloaded, I had her up to 23mpg @ 65mph on the highway. City/traffic is pegged at 14 though, obviously due to the immense weight of the rovers and their IBF frame. Unfortunately this also takes a toll on brakes, suspension bushings and tires (especially if you don't keep the thing aligned!!) but I'm an honest guy and want to give you the full story on these things.
All I can say is to go for a test drive. It took me 5 minutes to get frustrated with the Durango, while I remained very content with the explorer after a week. Then again, I was grinning ear-to-ear after 15 minutes of driving the rover lol. Have them take you on the rock course at the dealer lot.
edit: here's that IIHS PDF which has some interesting reading
http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4605.pdf
