Tow Car Awards 2024: Used car
If you’re looking for a great tow car that will also be enjoyable to drive solo, you need one of our 2024 Tow Car Awards winners. Here we look at the best used buy...
Kia Sorento 2.2 CRDi 3 (2021-present)
Kerb weight 1954kg 85% match 1661kg Max towing weight 2500kg Towball limit 100kg
Your money goes a lot further if you opt for a pre-owned tow car, and if you really want a lot of car for your cash, you should look at the Kia Sorento. Three years ago, the fourth-generation Sorento was a new model, and it saw off all-comers to be named the Tow Car Awards overall champion for 2021.
If you want to buy the new equivalent today, you’ll need £46,195. Shopping for a three-year old example drops that to around £30,000 – cheaper than all but one of the new cars in this year’s tests.
For less than the price of a brand-new Ford Focus Active, you can enjoy towing with a seven-seat, two-tonne SUV. Everything we loved about the Sorento three years ago still applies, most importantly, it’s an excellent tow car. A 1954kg kerb weight makes the big Kia a sensible match for most caravans and contributes to its superb high-speed stability. It doesn’t quite have the unshakeable feel of a BMW X5 or Range Rover Sport, but then it’s not at the same price point.
This generation of Sorento is available as a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid and a diesel. While we wouldn’t talk you out of choosing one of the hybrids, for regular towing we’d pick the 2.2-litre diesel. It has enough pulling power to handle any sensibly matched tourer, and in our experience it’s more economical than the hybrids on a long towing journey.
Inside, there’s space for up to seven in a car that’s packed full of thoughtful touches. Plus, if you fold the rearmost seats down, there’s a lot of space for holiday bags.
Kia finished an impressive eighth out of 32 brands in the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, with a score of 93.8%. If anything does go wrong, there’s Kia’s seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty to fall back on. A three-yearold Kia still has lots of warranty left to run.
Our ratings
Towing 5/5 Solo driving 4/5 Practicality 4/5 Buying and owning 5/5 Overall 5/5
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