Views please on towing with an automatic car, for and against welcome

Thanks in advance

Absolutely for!
Stress free towing, especially in traffic. No clutch problems reversing. Modern autos are no where near as inefficient as older ones so fuel economy is no longer an issue.
What do you have in mind?
TonyP

Agree with Frontone, my 2 litre Skoda with 6 speed auto box is fantastic, pulling my troll to southern France this year, never dropped down to 4th except on the steepest hills at lower speeds.Late 40's mpg, and although quite new to towing I find reversing much easier with an auto.

Highmiler.

No question at all, absolutely for towing in an automatic. Automatics come into their own particularly when regular gear change is necessary, I.e. Hills, slow moving traffic etc. Only disadvantage is that they are more costly to buy and to run. However for towing they are a dream. If you tow regularly I think they are worth every penny.
Stephen

A year or so ago I was asking more or less the same question. I was new to caravanning and planning to replace my then current car with a VW Golf Estate with a DSG gearbox - that's semi automatic. At the time I wanted an automatic with cruise control with the option to drop into manual mode if presented with long steep hills and slow moving traffic. We also have the option to put the auto in sport mode to give higher revs in each gear - not that we want to go faster but sometimes its better to have higher revs when in the lower gears. I support everything those above have said. To date the manual and sport mode have not been needed. Towing is stress free and all you have to do is steer and the right foot does everything - bliss for an oldie!.

Yes, definitely an automatic. Towed with my first ever automatic box earlier this summer, in fact my first ever automatic car, and am now fully converted and will never (one should never say never I know lol) go back to a manual box.

That said, there are auto boxes and then there are auto boxes. The DSG box - so called by one manufacturer but also known by other names - had reliability issues in the distant past although things appear to have quietened down a bit on that front. Reliability out of the guarantee period is obviously very important because one clutch going entails the entire box (effectively two clutches) being replaced which can work out mega expensive.

The alternative used by some manufacturers is a form of Wankel gearbox which costs somewhat more and is a bit heavier. This is how the automatic box started out in the old days before such things as weight and better fuel economy made the headlines. The plus side is that there is very little that can go wrong with it and reliability is not really an issue. For the technically minded, the image is of the auto gearbox fitted to my own car. Well not this one of course lol but one like it.

mazda-skyactiv-drive-next-generation-6-sp-automatic_100358731_l.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

And another vote for an auto box. After many, many years of driving a manual, I moved to an auto earlier this year with the purchase of a Volvo V70 with 6 speed 'Geartronic' gearbox. I towed the Troll 2000 miles this summer and it was a dream. Modern auto's seem to have a lot of 'intelligence' nowadays - for instance, on a down hill stretch with the foot off the throttle, the box changes down to prevent the car 'running away'. Effortless towing as others have said...

Cabbie's right about the 'intelligence' of modern autos, many claim to learn your driving style and after gearbox work or oil changes they have to be reconnected to the software to transfer the learned driving parameters.

Quote: Aaron Calder wrote in post #9

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I suppose it all depends on what proportion of one's annual driving is spent towing a caravan.

If towing is only a minor part of the annual mileage then the extra cost could only be justified if one has a strong preference for driving an automatic at all times.

If not, a manual box makes more sense.

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I did'nt own any of them, I worked for ARA (Asset recovery agency) via a 3rd party, ARA take valuables from criminals who profited from crime, I used to collect and / or load / unload them into long term storage

My lambretta was a TV 200 bored out to 225😎

I somewhat resisted the purchase of an automatic for some years, thinking that driving a manual somehow gave one more control. But when you think about it, most of the time when driving, one is cruising in top gear or, if not, you're probably in a traffic jam, crawling forward slowly forever using the clutch. Having now driven an auto for 5000 miles or so, I wish I'd made the move earlier. Like Agger, my 'Geartronic' also has a 'manual' option if needed. I thought when I bought the car, I should really play with that to learn how to use it when necessary. I've never got to that point and have just pushed the loud pedal when I wanted to go and the brake pedal when I wanted to stop.. SImple...

I asked this question when we got our Galaxy and was old 'not necessary'.