Towcar of the Year 2020 Winners
Congratulations to Volvo on winning the Caravan and Motorhome Club's Towcar of the Year Award 2020.
There were 36 entrants tested over the summer in the industry's premier towcar competition but it was the Volvo who was crowned victorious, also winning the Caravan Weight 1400kg - 1500kg category with their XC40 D4 AWD R-Design Pro.
A significant breakthrough in the competition was made by Jaguar, whose all-electric entry won its category.
You can view all the winners here: 2020 Winners
You can also find a full round up of the competition here:
Comments
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The most bizarre category winner is the up to 1,150kg caravan weight. The winner, the Jag I-Pace, has, in their words not mine a "slightly limited towing capacity" of 750kg ! Happy to be proved wrong but I can't find a single (new) caravan in the UK that weighs less than 750kg. Oh and this car costs £65,000.
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How can it be the TCOY 2020? It's still 2019 on my calendar.
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I have said this before but is there a surge in sales for the TCOY?
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TCOY has absolutely no value to me and I suspect loads of others. The results are predictable VW group and often Land rover. Wouldn't touch a VW with a barge pole and during a recent trip we saw 4 Land rovers on recovery trucks, I x RR and 3 x Discovery Sports.
I want something reliable and robust. Last trip we did 2600 actual towing miles, returned 29.8 MPG and stayed at 2 sites that were over 2500 feet high. My car is 8 years old and has approx 103k miles on the clock. Next car I buy will be 2nd hand and will be from the Far East. How come TCOY very rarely have Far Eastern cars as winners when in every other car review they come out as most reliable.
Cynic in me wonders if its down to money
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Don't understand this club. They have a tow test every year outside the NEC caravan show and a line of Jeep Grand Cherokee's for you to have a go at towing, but they never have them on the TCOY awards. They don't even do real time testing on a motorway being passed by white van man doing 80+mph and HGV's pushing you closer to the hard shoulder, all done on a test track in good conditions. Until they test every single vehicle then this is a complete waste of time and money.
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It’s a nice jolly for the Club, but not that realistic in terms of the reality of what might be found living and using a particular vehicle. Mind, it’s convinced me that it will be a while before a realistic electric tow car will be along. And a Volvo as the outright winner.....now there’s a surprise😂
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As I understand it if it wasn't featured in the test then the reason is most likely to be that A) There was no new model to test and
the Manufacturer didn't submit a model for testing. I would imagine the Club have to have the permission of any car maker to put one of their cars through such a test?I thought it an interesting little film.
David
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It was a rather misleading little film, for anyone new to towing and looking to purchase a car. All carried out on a test track by the looks of it, with some professional driver input. Carefully controlled tests, a world away from the kind of conditions every tow journey is likely to throw up, no wet roads, no side winds, no hint of an exposed bridge, no 40 ton HGV overtaking you making the tail wag the dog, no mud when pitching up, no super tight site roads, (how many folks don’t have a motor mover nowadays, other than us?), a mere 36 cars involved out of how many hundreds realistically to choose from? I didn’t even spot one vehicle coming in the opposite direction, let alone having to pull up on a sixpence because the idiot in front of you has tailgated another car! And finally, surprise, surprise the overall Winner is a Volvo. Good cars, but a nice cosy little business deal with the Club hardly lends itself to total impartiality. Best of the 36 I wouldn’t doubt.
On the plus side, it might prompt some into checking weights, loading, making sure everything works before heading off, so not all a waste of time.
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Personal opinions of a very small selection of vehicles. There are renowned towing vehicles which are not tested, making this award nothing more than a 'pat on the back' for advertising with the Club.
Was there just these 9 'winners' on test because I couldn't find any information at 5am this morning, about 'the others' ? Maybe I was bleary-eyed, but what was clear, is that this TCOY award is utter tosh!
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...and stayed at 2 sites that were over 2500 feet high.
I hope the facilities block had been thoughtfully placed halfway up.
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No doubt the full report on all those tested will come out in a leaflet enclosed with next month's magazine, as usual.
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"slightly limited towing capacity of 750kg"
"Slightly", well that made our day yesterday on getting the "mag", best laugh we both had in a long while.
Who with any level of insight into caravanning, could possibly write such a so out of touch statement, let alone one representing the UK's premier Club for caravanners?
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Not only that but in his welcome article Editor Gary Martin says they were eager to see how the i pace performed and that It left all the driving judges gobsmacked.
have they forgotten that they are undertaking a tow car test?
what can you possibly tow with a max limit of 750kg, perhaps my old 6x3 trailer. Have I missed it but did they quote the range whilst towing?
when are we going to get some meaningful information on tow cars going forward or what the plans are for motor homes. In the meantime I think I’ll stick to my 3litre diesel. I don’t think the club has a clue which way to go in the future, we might all be expected to arrive in a EV and use one of the wooden pods!
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The question on my mind is - why was it included in the first place? Someone should have 'educated' JLR marketing (or whoever suggested it be included) that its a very expensive 'white elephant' where towing a caravan is concerned.
Perhaps the makers of the 'dinky' caravan it was towing, has friends in high places at the club, so they needed something appropriate to tow it.
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As an EV owner I can understand the judges being absolutely smitten by the iPace and this seems to have rather gone to their heads. 100 miles would get me to our nearest CL and back and I guess we could buy one of those pod style vans. What on Earth were they thinking?
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what do these so called testers do for the rest of the year and what qualifications do they hold or does this club just waste our membership fees to produce results that the testers would like to drive or what extra discounts they get for better results. Bye the way, if you ask nicely I will give you the results for 2021.
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The 'bigging up' of the iPace is comedy gold. Towing limit of 750kg. Towing range is mentioned rather evasively as a number slightly in excess of 100 miles.
But..it accelerates from zero to 60 in only 6 seconds! Zero to sixty is always my first priority when I'm buying a towcar. Yes, well I'm pretty certain you're not going to get 100+ mile range on THAT setting.
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Who would tow with an electic car, evan if you could find a caravan small enough to tow. Just returned from the Yorkshire moors back to the Midlands, we would have had to charge up 3 times just to get there!
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How on God's Earth can an electric Jaguar I pace be even considered as a Tow Car ? £65,000 and a tow limit of 750 kg !!!! a bad joke.
If I ever see such an outfit on a Club site I will gladly donate £10 to the Wardens benevolent fund.
Please, Please be realistic we want genuine viable alternatives not pie in the sky politically correct rubbish.
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Is 750kg enough for this i-pace to be able to tow a small generator . . . ?
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Like many, I’m baffled by the selection of cars for the TCOY test. And the criteria for scoring / detracting. Many cars were praised / criticised for having a temporary spare wheel readily available or hidden under all the boot contents. I thought we weren’t supposed to tow with a “toy” wheel in place. This is a towcar test. Also, the Subaru was criticised for its CVT transmission not being suitable for towing. So why test three of them with the same transmission? The Kia Sorento lost marks for no battery/ fridge wiring. On the car supplied maybe, but this implies that a previous TCOY winner doesn’t run the fridge on 12v at all.
Having recently changed my tow car, I had a long list of boxes successfully ticked: substantial kerbweight, good power and torque, good nose weight limit, full sized spare wheel (easily accessed), lockable 4wheel drive if needed, decent reputation for reliability, and a price tag a little over half that of the class winner. Sounds ideal? Was it tested this year? No, nor any others of the make. Maybe the Club can only test what has been offered by the car companies, but who can blame them for not participating when their potential buyers are put off by irrelevances.
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Here's a thought.
I would love to be able to test a range of tow cars in real conditions (albeit on a test track) as all the figures and data in the world in the handbook don't really help. Next time there is a TCOY, can the Club contact members who have significant experience of towing using different car/caravan combinations and say 'As this is your Club, what do you think of these cars and can you give us your input?'
Hello, is that a pig I can see overhead ......
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