This is not to deny Carol's comments about her Outback. I know nothing about their reliability. I can only relate our experience.
We towed a Scamp 16, 2400 pounds axle/200 pounds tongue, for 4 years for 7 months of the year. We have been all over the USA and Canada with it. As Ginny can attest we have driven many 'roads from hell'.
We also towed a
Casita 16 and a Sunline 15.5, both similar in weight and size to the Scamp. This covered a period of 7 years of towing with multiple loops of the USA. We used the same vehicle for towing all our trailers, our 2004 Honda CRV.
We never had a single mechanical issue with the CRV. We traded it in after 225,000 miles. Of course we had to down shift on long hills but they really are a trivial portion of our driving. Like Carol, we have never found tow vehicle
brakes to be an issue, particularly with
brakes on the trailer.
As to the 25% safety margin, if we followed it our new 2014 Honda Odyssey would 'just' be able to tow our Scamp. Interestingly the Odyssey is used by many to tow much larger trailers with great success.
As to the Scamp 16 there are many fine trailers available in the marketplace, We like our Scamp because of it's openness and cost. Our's is now 23 years old and going strong. We did buy it used, there are not a lot of products that you can buy that are still going strong after such a long period.
The major complaint about the Scamp is the size of it's rear bed. The most common Scamps have beds that are 44" wide though some of the newer units are available with 54" wide beds. We have found the smaller bed perfectly fine but not all feel that way.
Now that we have the Odyssey, assuming Honda reliability, I think we're going to really like having a mini-van. If I were younger I might have considered the Toyota Sienna 4 wheel drive mini-van but we're sort of stuck on Honda's.
If you're considering a smaller tow vehicle you need to consider the limitations. The major one is tongue weight. We towed with a
light tongue with no issues though there have been others who have had problems.
By the way we switched to the Odyssey because Honda no longer offered the CRV with a manual transmission.
Wishing you well in your search.
Just another view, previously stated but sometimes hard to find.....