Your questions answered: Can our 2020 Toyota Prado tow a 2.5-tonne caravan?

Aussies love hitting the road with a caravan in tow, but as one reader is learning there are plenty of numbers that need to be crunched.

We’ve also got a luxury SUV owner wondering if they should upgrade given their car has copped a healthy depreciation hit early in its life.

And we’re looking at full-sized spare wheels that so many car makers don’t bother with these days.

Plus, a two-seat version of the Toyota Prado that has one would-be buyer eager.

One reader is also keen to get behind the wheel of an EV or plug-in hybrid, but they have very specific requirements about selecting two- or four-wheel drive.

Got a question but don’t know where to find the information you need? Email us at

editor@carsales.com.au

Question: We are thinking of purchasing a caravan with a tare weight of around 2.0 to 2.5 tonnes. We have a 2020 Toyota Prado with a lot of accessories on it, and we are worried about being above legal GCM and GVM.

The car weighs around 2.5 tons so with my maths it will be over GVM, meaning we will need to upgrade it. Even if we can tow stock, would it be smart to get a GVM and GCM upgrade for the car or just buy a Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series?

Answer: A 2020 Prado has a gross vehicle mass (GVM) of 2990kg and a gross combination mass of 5490kg.

You also have to consider axle limits, which are 1450kg for the front and 1800kg for the rear.

The heaviest Kakadu model weighed 2455kg (slightly less for more affordable models).

With a 2.5-tonne trailer (we’ll do the calculations on the maximum) with 250kg pushing on the towball you’d have only 285kg of payload – and that includes accessories.

You’re saying you have lots of accessories, in which case you may have close to no payload left.

The GCM is less of an issue because there’s 535kg to play with.

However, it looks like you’d need a GVM upgrade to ensure the car is safe and legal.

And with any conversion like that there are compromises. It’ll likely include stiffer suspension that may impact the ride and wheel articulation, for example.

It’ll also likely be sitting higher, which could make it harder to get into carparks and increase the centre of gravity, negatively impacting dynamics.

Buying a newer car with better credentials is certainly the easier option, although even then you won’t have a lot to play with.

Take the new Prado, for example, and you’re looking at about 360kg of payload for a 2.5-tonne caravan (2570kg for the VX model with a 3180kg GVM and 6600kg GCM).

A LandCruiser 300 VX has similar issues, with 410kg of payload (2620kg for the VX model with a 3280kg GVM and 6750kg GCM). Pop some accessories on it and load the family up and it’s easy to breach that.

You’ll have more to play with in a ute. They start with higher payloads, which makes it easier to tow heavy loads and take things and people.

And with the upcoming Ford Ranger Super Duty you can take just about anything, such are its load carrying abilities.

Question: My current car is a 2022 Audi Q8 55TFSI, which I really like. It’s now at the dealership after breaking down earlier this week. Hopefully it’s just the battery and I’ll be back on the road again soon.

But it got me thinking about whether I should be trading it in to get something new. It looks like my car has depreciated quite a lot and I’m worried it’ll keep depreciating. I’d be looking to spend about $120K.

Is that a good idea or should I stick with what I’ve got? – Fiona

Answer: Luxury cars are often very good at depreciating and your Q8 is no different. According to Redbook it’d be worth something like $80K, obviously depending on condition and mileage.

And it’ll almost certainly be worth less a year from now because cars tend to keep depreciating.

That said, the biggest depreciation on any new car typically occurs in the first year of ownership. It’ll keep losing money after that, but usually not as much.

Given you’re happy with the car (once it’s up and running again!) I’d be inclined to stick with it.

The Q8 is a great luxury SUV and the tech hasn’t moved on enormously, save for the introduction of a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) option (there are more PHEVs arriving from luxury brands).

With the introduction of New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) next week – it creates strict CO2 emissions targets for new cars – we’re likely to see many changes in the new car market over the next few years.

So keep enjoying your Audi and get back to us within a year or two for advice on what to get behind the wheel of.

Question: Re full-sized spare tyres, why don’t car companies/dealers make them an option (say, $1000) fitted in the boot where applicable, as it’s a cost-cutting measure more than a fuel-saving weight thing.

There’s money to be made in having this option available to many people – people would take it up I’m sure if they travel long distances or go mildly off road, like farmers.

Can you change the temporary spare tyre for a real tyre to give you a better safety margin? A temporary space saver tyre can only be driven for 50 to 80km at 80km/h before it disintegrates, I believe.

Answer: Space saver spares do typically have a much shorter lifespan than a regular tyre because the rubber is often softer to account for the skinnier tread facing.

But you’d generally expect to get more than 80km, possibly something closer to 1000km.

As for car-makers making them an option, there would be two main reasons it’s not commonplace (although there are some that offer it, such as Toyota with the RAV4 and Subaru with the Solterra.

The first is engineering and safety; car companies couldn’t just pop a 20kg-plus lump in the boot unsecured. It would need to be properly restrained and crashworthy, all of which requires engineering resources.

Secondly, car companies only typically offer options if there is enough demand. With many cars currently running space saver wheels or a tyre repair kit, we suspect there would not be much consumer interest in limiting the boot functionality for something many see as something they’re unlikely to ever need.

As for farmers wanting to buy an optional spare, in most instances farmers are driving utes or proper off-road SUVs, each of which typically comes with a full-sized spare.

Question: I saw Toyota has done a commercial version of the Prado overseas. For me something like that is perfect.

I only need two seats so I can pack it with four-wheel-drive gear. I also love the simplicity of it.

Will we get it in Australia? Surely it makes plenty of sense? If not, why wouldn’t Toyota sell it here? – James

Answer: The LandCruiser Commercial – as it’s called in the UK – is an interesting take on the Prado formula (the UK, like many markets, doesn’t use the Prado moniker).

But it’ll almost certainly never come to Australia, mainly because Toyota has a healthy commercial-focussed off-roader in the LandCruiser 70 Series.

The Commercial version of the Prado comes out of the factory just like the Prados sold here and is converted locally in the UK, removing the back seats and fitting a cargo barrier so it can carry plenty of gear.

The workhorse 70 Series obviously comes out of the factory in Japan ready for the rigours of Australia.

And keep in mind the Poms aren’t as ute crazy as us Aussies. Many tradies and people who need to carry things use vans rather than utes and the LandCruiser Commercial is partly trying to tap into that market.

So don’t go holding your breath, because we’re not expecting to see the Prado Commercial here anytime soon.

Question: As I use 30 per cent suburban roads in Brisbane and 70 per cent off-road regional, I like the choice of selecting 2WD or 4WD modes in electric battery power.

Apart from Mitsubishi and Subaru, what brands would allow me to manually select between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive?

I also want a car with full-size spare wheel, good suspension, a quiet cabin and doors that lock automatically when I walk away, without pressing a button.

Would a PHEV allow electric power independent of the rear wheels? – Ben

Answer: Most four-wheel drives these days use computers to work out where best to send the drive depending on the driving conditions. Or they use a simple mechanical system to constantly send drive to all four wheels (as is the case with Subaru; you can’t select 2WD in modern Subaru SUVs).

Most will also have selectable drive modes that can tweak the driving experience depending on what the driver wants.

Many heavy-duty four-wheel drives will allow more manual selection of where to send the drive.

A part-time four-wheel drive system, for example, allows you to lock the car in two-wheel drive (driving only the rear wheels) or choose to drive all four. You’ll then often have a choice of 4A (four auto), which works out where and when to send the drive automatically (it can be used on- or off-road). Or there’s 4H, which will typically send half the drive to the front wheels and the other half to the rear (it’s only for off-road use).

But again, that’s only for hardcore four-wheel drives. And something like a Toyota Prado or LandCruiser won’t have that 2WD mode, instead making 4A the default setting for everyday driving.

And I’m not aware of any with the configurability you’re looking for, especially in the EV or plug-in hybrid space.

There are some instances when an EV may run as a two-wheel drive; select Eco mode in a Hyundai IONIQ 5 or Polestar 3, for example, and it’ll temporarily only drive two wheels (the rears in the Hyundai, the fronts in the Polestar).

Some PHEVs also do things differently. With the GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV, for example, both the petrol engine and electric motor drive through the gearbox, so there’s no independent splitting of where the drive is going.

But with the BYD Shark 6 the petrol engine only drives the front wheels, often in conjunction with an electric motor (it doesn’t have a traditional gearbox), while an electric motor is the only thing driving the rear wheels.

But I’m not aware of any PHEVs that will allow you to manually select front-wheel drive then dial up four-wheel drive on demand. Instead, they’ll typically send drive where it’s required depending on the conditions.

There may be more configurable options in future as the number of EV and PHEV offerings expands. But even then, I’m not sure you’ll ever get exactly what you’re chasing.

That’s because the computers are generally doing a pretty good job of working out what’s needed and when.

And even though a car may be running as an all-wheel drive, in many instances it will temporarily disable two wheels to save fuel/electricity.

Got a question but don’t know where to find the information you need? Email us at

editor@carsales.com.au

Join the conversation at our Facebook page
Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au