I do mean an honest 30mpg on the highway, at highway speeds, hauling bikes. Not 60mph either. That'll get you killed a lot of places. I'm contemplating a vehicle swap, and I'm finding both are requirements, but at odds with each other. Seems about the best you can do for a hauler type vehicle is 20-21mpg. Smaller cars will do the 30mpg easy, but I doubt they get that at speed with a trailer. Am I missing anything? It has to be sold in the US.
30 MPG while towing!? All I can think of are the compact SUV's that can do about 30 without a trailer but with I have no idea how much it would drop with a bike or 2 behind it. Edit: Just did some research and it looks like with towing at least on the Forester you go under 20MPG.
2wd 5spd 02+ ranger with the 2.3 DOHC. Probably get 25 loaded. My old one got 30-31 at 70mph using the cruise. I just disliked only having the single cab, good truck otherwise. Also, this was in michigans upper peninsula - snow tires and 200 lbs over the rear axle (and any idea of how to drive) and you will be fine.
+1. My 07 Ranger 2.3 5spd. I regularly go back and forth between the bay and Mt shasta on I-5 doing about 75mph on average. I typically get about 29-30.5mpg. This is with a ~300lb dual sport in the back. A little better on the return trip because of more downhill.
TDI with a trailer works great. Wouldnt go over 1500lbs though. They are rated to tow 600 kg. My bandit 600 was no problem and I moved a friend from NY to Houston with it as well.
How much weight are you talking about? We have a Nissan frontier with a 4 banger (auto) and it gets just under 30MPG.
30 on tow? It's not as likely as you think I'm afraid. We have a Subi 2.5l 5-speed, gets around 28 freeway but when the 1,800 lb trailer is behind it, fully loaded? 19 mpg. Depends on the size and weight of the trailer - a small three-rail with a single dirtbike is not in the same league as our teardrop. Question: How much towing do you need to do, that 30 mpg towing is critical? Seems like it would be a lot. Some say the Sprinter Diesel gets around 30 - can you carry internally rather than towing?
I've owned a Sprinter, and it's not getting 30mpg unless dropped off a cliff. I guess total miles hauled in a year might be around 10% of use. I do have a few cross country, or semi-cross country trips planned, and regularly do 800-1000 mile round trips. Just seems that on those occasions, if possible, I'd like to be up there mileage wise. I've been driving V6 vehicles for a while now, probably did 35K last year, all at a top of 20mpg, probably more like 17mpg overall. Adds up.
I usually average 20-25K/Year, this year will be my lowest in a long time since I'm not doing any big road trips this year. I've made the drive up the East Coast (I've only been in CA for <1yr) every year for last 10 years and I've only had 1 vehicle that got over 30 MPG and that was a 2.0L Golf (not towing). 18 is average and my newest vehicle a 4.0 V-6 4runner would get 19-20 going 75 mph while towing a Harbor Freight trailer with my Rockster on it. I think 30mpg towing at 70 mph isn't going to happen in anything but the TDI. The TDI Passat Wagon would probably be the only vehicle that could accommodate passengers and gear. There was a Jeep Liberty CRD but I don't think it got 30 MPG, I've contemplated trying to find a 4x4 one since my 4runner is 2wd and taking a 2wd SUV into the snow is not fun. We got Bio-D at the pump here which is pretty awesome. Looks like 25 MPG is realistic average after doing some googling on MPGs for it. I prefer an SUV with higher ground clearance than a wagon. YMMV
Same here,I have a 98 King Cab 4 banger Nissan that will just touch 30 mpg with a bike or two in the bed,maybe not going uphill a lot but it does a great job for a 4 cylinder truck. Nothing ever breaks on it is what I really like.
I think you have few good options. AFAIK, most of the high mileage smaller cars have very limited towing capacity like 1,000 lbs - good enough for a couple of bikes to be sure but not for a full on toy hauler - the Subi I referenced maxes out at 2,000 with trailer brakes but the newer ones may vary from that. We decided we wanted something with a bit more ummph and ended up with a V6 which gets better mileage on tow than the Subi does [about 2-3 mpg better!] but does not do quite as well unladen as the Subi can. Can you have two vehicles? One for high mileage driving and the other for when you need to tow? I realize that solution has a lot of suckage in it, but maybe you can justify it? I really don't know anything about the TDI's although if VW's quality control problems have been solved, they do know how to build decent cars, or they used to.
How about a Saab 9-3? With a stick, 31 highway and 3500 lbs of towing capacity. A version of the 9-5 gets 33 highway and has almost 4000 lbs of towing capacity.