It is my business and has been for over 15 years.

 

Thank you for the advice as I was not aware of this and obviously this is your field of expertise.
what a great place rennlist is with such helpful info when you need it

 

I had 3 4Runners over 18 years.
Best all round in my opinion.

 

2003 4runners tow capacity is only 5000lbs...not enough

 

I currently have a Cayenne S, but its too new to indicate any reliability problems. I had a 2005 Touareg V8 which was the most reliable vehicle of any kind I have ever owned. Get the air suspension..they are usually fairly loaded and depreciate like crazy soa good used buy. about 7000lb towing capacity. I turned it back to Foss about a month ago with 50,000km on it and not a single undscheduled service visit. They are not bringing in any more Touareg V8s so i moved to the Cayenne as a result. I would have gotten another one if I could. ( I had a 2004 Touareg V8 which was early production and was an electrical nightmare, so I would avoid the early cars).

 

for $20,000 you aren't gonna get much. My money would be on a Yukon Denali. The KING of towing and still looks cool. One can be easily had for $20k. Matainence is the best of all other SUVs mentioned other than the toyotas. Heres my thoughts.

4 runner- cant tow 5000lbs

Toureg- only V6 is in your price range and will struggle to pull 5000lbs not to mention super high maintainence.

Mercedes ML- a hit and miss vehicle V8s in your price range. Great towing vehicle. This would be my second choice.

Stay far away from the other GM Trucks tonnes of issues.

Dodge Durango- 19-21 lt/100 klm avg with hemi...I had one for a few months.

Jeep Cherokee v8s- big tranny issues and to tow should add tranny cooler. The good news is that the trannys are cheap to fix/repace. Pretty quick to drive but once again 19-21lt/100 avg with v8

Good Luck

AL

 

Nice review Albert. Concerning the Jeep. make sure that you make a difference between the 4.7 V8 and the 5.7 V8 engine. I had a 2005 Grand Cherokee 4.7 V8 for 2 years, mostly driven around town (which is the worst possible for gas mileage purposes) and never exceeded 17 L / 100 Km. Highway consumption would go down to about 12.5 L / 100 Km. Mix city / highway would return about 14.5 L / 100 Km. And that's with my lead foot

 

Isn't it ironic how there is so much discussion about fuel consumption coming from a bunch of guys who would pay stupid amounts of money to kill our fuel economy for a few horse power??


hummmm????

AL

 

I just had a thought.

An Infinity FX 45 is by far the best driving SUV on the market. Not too sure if it can tow 5000lbs.

Nissan Armada or even a Pathfinder can tow 6000 lbs

Al

 

FX is 3500 lbs.