Towcar of the Year 2021
The results are in! Forty vehicles for towing have been evaluated by a panel of industry respected judges.
We're excited to announce the Caravan and Motorhome Club Towcar of the Year 2021 is the ŠKODA Superb Estate SE L Executive 2.0 TDI 150PS DSG.
Find out more about what made the ŠKODA our overall winner and see all class winners on our website: www.caravanclub.co.uk/towcar
Comments
-
how did the Tesla X do?
0 -
“Estates are ideal for dog owners”..... you don't say..... this gets the award for most fatuous and irrelevant comment of the year award. Please get some motoring journos next year who actually know about cars. If not i am happy to volunteer my services.
1 -
I know that I'm biased against FWD, and FWD make up the majority of cars on the roads these days, but I'm surprised at how a relatively 'light weight' FWD VW can be crowned TCOTY when there are larger cars eg E Class Mercs & 5 Series BMWs, both of which are RWD, which must surely make better tow cars. 🤷♂️
1 -
I would need two of any of those "winners" to carry all the stuff that goes into the Land Rover.
2 -
"evaluated by a panel of industry respected judges"
Utter nonsense. Admittedly they can only test what's in front of them, but to award a car which will only tow a very modest sized caravan as TCOTY, utter nonsense! Any self-respecting "industry expert" wouldn't even consider FWD over RWD for towing either. Easy enough to win an award when there's no real competition.
0 -
AD, yes and i have a dog and have driven estate cars since my first dog in 1986. But that statement appears to be the best they can say about the Leon estate... really? Who writes and edits that stuff? However it will not impact upon my tow car decisions having just bought an estate Volvo plug-in hybrid with 4wd..... As for FWD being a handicap, i towed many 1000’s of miles with a fwd A6 without any problems until i got stuck on snow covered grass (with winter tyres too) and soon after i changed to 4wd. In practice fwd is fine 99.9% of the time.
3 -
@Flatcoat. Many people have & do tow with FWD. I just don't like the general understeer of FWD and have only ever owned a FWD as a general run-about, never my 'proper car'. I've frequently seen FWD vehicles starting off on the modest incline on the approach to Burrs scrabbling to get traction. 😎
2 -
Not that we seem to get any real snow south of Watford gap now,but as noted when any where gets snow or soft ground it is far better having a front wheel drive vehicle (and even better with traction control/hill start) than being stuck behind a rear wheel drive "fish tailing"
0 -
very easily.....fido in boot, with table top BBQ, rear seat back raked towards the rear, on rear seat/between seats, we get, awning (heaviest piece of equipment we carry, approx 20kgs, so good place for it), 2 folding chairs, 1 table, 2 x groundsheets, 1 x windbreak, our coats and wellies, just in case, rest goes into caravan, we do have a 5 berth so no problems with weight in caravan for 2 people, dam good car Sorento with loads of space, you should know.
We do have a roof box but seldom use it, travelling at 60 mph generates a lot of wind noise. 0 -
I think we have to remember that not everyone is a car "enthusiast" so they don't always follow the usual motoring press/online forums places where they would get the information they need? They are, however, more likely to get their information from the clubs and Caravanning magazines I would suggest. TCOY is only a snapshot of what is available from those cars offered up by manufacturers. The uninitiated might well come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that if a particular car is not offered to the competition it might not be any good as a towcar? Perhaps the usefulness of TCOY is not the cars that win but the ones that don't? Just glad I don't need to bother about towcars anymore!!!
David
0 -
If the car is only going to be used occasionally to tow the caravan, say two or three times a year, will play a significant role in a purchasing decision. I had a dedicated towcar once for a couple of years. It was great for that purpose, but then, when I disposed of the second car, it proved to be totally unsuitable to take on the job as a means of transport on a daily basis as well. For that it was far too big and the running costs for all the miles driven solo were completely unjustifiable. I don't think that such considerations are adequately taken into account in any award.
One must also bear in mind that only cars submitted for the award can be taken into account. Others, not submitted, may be a lot better so it's still up to the customer to do his homework before a purchase.
3 -
Everyone has differing needs and budgets so such ‘awards’ can at best only be a guide of what might be worth considering. Look how many COTY winners in the past have bombed in the showrooms... In pure terms rear or AWD will or should provide the best driving dynamics and traction. In practice a friend of ours found his 3 series estate rubbish at towing and much preferred his previous Passat. I found the FL2 a good tow car but cr8p build, fit, finish, reliability. Pre caravanning days the MG ZT i had was simply a superb handling car, far far better than anything else FWD at the time but still no match for my 944turbo. Current Volvo towcar has not (to the best of my knowledge) been awarded any towing awards, previous Passat Alltrack did. The Volvo is turning out to be a better towcar (except for boot volume) for me than the Passat on almost all measures. However a car with good driving dynamics will also be inherently safer irrespective of the owners interest in such matters. In the end we pays our money and takes our choice....
0 -
Having spent a day in a Skoda Superb following Tour of Britain all over Lake District and Dumfries and Galloway, up hill and down dale, I can confirm they are a nice, bland, comfortable ride for following a bike race. Towing a van? Havent got a clue.
We have only once towed with a conventional car. A very nice and powerful Rover. It survived, but only just around our hills. Give me a proper gutsy LR, Jeep or big 4x4 everytime for towing. Plenty of room for dogs as well......
0 -
there should also be a dog owner on the judging panel, preferably one who's had an ageing German Shepherd who in his last days couldn't manage the leap from ground to boot and had to be lifted (I made a ramp but the old fella refused to use it). It seems modern 4x4 designers have no sympathy in this department.
0 -
Our "getting on" border collie has a problem with jumping now so when going away with her ,we use a caravan double step that is "spare?", which she is used to as its the same as the one with the c/van which she uses when on sites to access car(just have to remember not to move it until OH has got in the car
and then it travels on back seat to give her ,and me, an easier method to exit/enter car when out with her, (dog i mean)0 -
You should try the BMW i8. You need to do the "Fosbury flop" to get in.
1 -
I happen to agree with Lutz's comments about taking day to day driving into account. Even with a good years touring under our belt we will probably only hitch up about 30 times so the other 330+ days the tow car needs to justify its place, so we tend to compromise, not being in a position to leave a car lying around just for touring.
We did look at the Skoda Superb when needing to change our tow car last year following acquisition of a heavier, bigger caravan. I was surprised by the kerb weight, or lack of it, and we ended up with a 4WD Kia instead.
Wouldn't have a rear wheel drive BMW. Had them years ago but fishtailing on ice and missing being hit by a braking lorry by about 1 foot made me decide to change to FWD. As said above it only does 30 days of tugging and providing it can do the job adequately that's good enough for me.
Only good thing about TCOY is that it tends to let me know which vehicles I can definitely discount.
0
