General Towing! Which engine would be best?

[slimgimli]

Hi! We are thinking of upgrading from our 1.2 500 to the 500L , at the moment we have a T@b caravan which is 750kg max when loaded but we weighed her at only about 670kg with everything in! But we might also be upgrading this to a slightly bigger caravan in the future which would be max of 1000kg.
Anyway........ I'm afraid I know nothing about engines :0( hence the post
At the moment it seems to be between the 1.3 and 1.6 diesel , but I was wondering if the 0.9 twin air would be viable? We are looking at second hand as well so I am trying to whittle down my options lol!
Any input would be great as I'm really loathe to part-ex Bibi but needs must I guess!
Thanks
Suzi x

 

[MJG]

Hi! We are thinking of upgrading from our 1.2 500 to the 500L , at the moment we have a T@b caravan which is 750kg max when loaded but we weighed her at only about 670kg with everything in! But we might also be upgrading this to a slightly bigger caravan in the future which would be max of 1000kg.
Anyway........ I'm afraid I know nothing about engines :0( hence the post
At the moment it seems to be between the 1.3 and 1.6 diesel , but I was wondering if the 0.9 twin air would be viable? We are looking at second hand as well so I am trying to whittle down my options lol!
Any input would be great as I'm really loathe to part-ex Bibi but needs must I guess!
Thanks
Suzi x

My inclination would be to say go for the 1.6 diesel if you can afford it.

The current diesel offerings in the 1.6 500L are with 105hp or 120, the 120 version would on paper be a better tow car but the 105hp version would probably be OK too.

I suspect the 1.3 at 85hp would struggle more than a 1.6, particularly on long inclines.

I have always preferred diesels as tow cars as they seem to cope better because of the low down torque available and thus the fuel economy seems to suffer less.

I am personally still sceptical about the twin air particularly on the fuel economy side of things (see various posts on the forums) and I suspect adding even a small caravan would hammer that even further.

 

[slimgimli]

Thanks Martin! Thought that might be the case.....all the ones I've seen so far that I like and in our budget have been the 1.3 , but will keep looking......makes it even harder when I only like 3 of the colours lol!!

 

[MJG]

Thanks Martin! Thought that might be the case.....all the ones I've seen so far that I like and in our budget have been the 1.3 , but will keep looking......makes it even harder when I only like 3 of the colours lol!!

The 1.3 diesel at 85bhp does have more ooomph than the 69 BHP available in your current 1.2 500 petrol, so it may fare just about the same so I wouldn't rule one out all together, it's just that one of the 1.6 diesels will have a bit more spare to offer when needed, plus you have to factor in the additional weight of the L over the 500 which the engine also has to haul around.

As a very rough guide we find the performance of our 1.4 Petrol just marginally better than the 1.2 Petrol in the 500 we had, it just has a bit more torque but the additional weight of the L seems to take it's toll on that extra 200cc.

On the issue of the vehicle itself I suspect you would find the L way better than a 500 from a practical point of view - it's almost a car made specifically to go camping/caravanning with. I suspect they will become a popular choice particularly with campers.

 

[slimgimli]

Well the 120hp is only an extra £500 apparrantly! So might be worth thinking about.
Looking like I might have a long wait to get exactly what I'm after lol.....
1.6 120hp Lounge in vocal green , bashment blue or at a pinch the dark grey, with white roof ........anyone got one that they fancy selling :0))

 

[Ricardo Silva]

In this case i suspect the 1.6 diesel is the sensible choice. The 1.3 isn´t powerfull enough for a big car like the 500l and with a trailer even worse. The 1.6 diesel will be more refined and relaxed than the 1.3 and the fuel consuption even lower when carrying extra weight compared to the 1.3. 2 cylinder is ok and the 105hp version is faster than the 1.6 diesel but the fuel economy would be miserable toying 800kg...

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

No offence why you're going the completely wrong way about this. Forget looking at what engine to get until you've checked the car can actually pull that towing capacity!

If it cant then it's going to be pointless choosing an engine when it's going to be illegal to use the car to pull what you're planning.

And remember, the actual weight of the trailer being pulled is irrelevant, if the stamped weight is 750kg, then this is what the car needs to be rated to pull.

 

[MJG]

No offence why you're going the completely wrong way about this. Forget looking at what engine to get until you've checked the car can actually pull that towing capacity!

If it cant then it's going to be pointless choosing an engine when it's going to be illegal to use the car to pull what you're planning.

And remember, the actual weight of the trailer being pulled is irrelevant, if the stamped weight is 750kg, then this is what the car needs to be rated to pull.

Rather annoyingly the handbook doesn't give actual max. towing weights for all models which seems a bit of an omission.

This site however lists them and they all seem to be around the same at 1000kg for a braked trailer.

http://carleasingmadesimple.com/business-car-leasing/fiat/500l/towing-weight-limit/

Obviously each engine will cope better with that weight and some will do better than others....(the 1.6 diesels are quoted as having a limit of 1100kg)

The unladen weight of the L is around 1300kg so 1000kg should be well within the safety parameters from a towing stability perspective, (though as stated not necessarily from a performance perspective), as it comes out at around 80% of the vehicle weight (all these figures would need double checking prior to making any purchase of course)

 

[santa]

In the danish manual, it states that the TwinAir and the 1.3 MJET can tow up to 1000 kg. and the 1.6 MJET can tow up to 1100 kg.

 

[slimgimli]

Thanks for the reply's.......I had looked to see what the towing limits were BEFORE embarking on buying the 500L , they all said the same which is why I was asking the question , of course I could just go out and buy a bland, boring box of a car in silver that would do the job, but..........why :shrug::shakehead:

 

[JTD_Liam]

The Vocal Green was discontinued late last year, so you will probably struggle with finding one of them. I dunno why they launched it with a colour like they'd previously pulled on the regular 500 (Ye Ye Green) and then did exactly the same on the 500L - either learn from your mistakes and not launch it or keep it available for long enough for people to actually choose it. I swear if Ye Ye Green had stayed available on the regular 500 it would've sold :bang:

Most of the cars on AutoTrader are of the same colours - Red and White - I think that was the launch stock colours - the odd Bashment Blue pops up, but it's not available on the popular PopStar trim level so this will narrow down its availability. Good colour in the flesh though!

 

[slimgimli]

Oh nooooooo!!!! Why on earth have they pulled it?? Was the only colour I really wanted when I realised it wasn't available in yellow!!!
Looks like I'm back to square one and will have to reconsider the Trekking model!
Thanks for the info