Tow Car Awards 2019 – Volkswagen takes the honours
- 40 cars tested this year – from a lightweight Seat Arona to a Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid
- Nine award categories (five weight classes – from up to 1400kg to 1900kg+, plus Best Ultralight Tow Car, Best Budget 4×4, Best Plug-in Hybrid, and Fuel Economy Award); one chosen as the Tow Car Awards 2019 Overall Winner – the Volkswagen Arteon 2.0 TDI 150PS Elegance DSG
- First all-electric car tested this year (Jaguar I-Pace)
- Petrol v. Diesel: first time petrol cars have been outright winners in two award classes (by weight)
- Cars scored in four categories: towing, practicality, everyday driving, buying and owning
- Each car matched to caravan weighing 85% of its kerbweight, or its towing limit (if lower)
- Dynamic tests include acceleration and braking, high speed stability, emergency lane changes, and a hill start on 1-in-6 slope. (NB: All caravan stability aids disabled for testing purposes)
- The competition is a joint venture between Practical Caravan and What Car? magazines and
The Camping and Caravanning Club - The fleet of caravans used for testing were supplied by the Swift Group
- The competition is also supported by AL-KO, Witter Towbars, Milenco and Tyron. In addition, this year Club Care Insurance joined the team as the event’s official insurance partner
- Individual reviews of all cars tested in 2019 (and archives of previous years, back to 2007) are available at www.thetowcarawards.com
- Over 500 cars tested since first Tow Car Awards in 2007
The results of the Tow Car Awards 2019, a joint project between Practical Caravan, What Car? and The Camping and Caravanning Club, saw petrol-engined cars as outright winners of two weight class awards for the first time, a new award category for the Best Plug-in Hybrid, and the competition’s first towing test of an all-electric car (the Jaguar I-Pace).
40 cars were entered, competing for nine awards, but only one could be chosen as the Overall Winner of the Tow Car Awards 2019: the Volkswagen Arteon 2.0 TDI 150PS Elegance DSG, which also won its 1550-1699kg weight class.
The cars are tested in groups according to their respective kerbweights (from up to 1400kg to 1900kg+), plus four individual awards: Best Ultralight Tow Car, Best Budget 4×4, Best Plug-in Hybrid, and a Fuel Economy Award.
Experienced caravanners from Practical Caravan and Camping and Caravanning (the monthly magazine for members of The Camping and Caravanning Club), were joined by one of What Car? magazine’s expert road testers. The judges assess each car against four key criteria: towing, everyday driving, practicality, buying and owning.
Some cars seem almost unbeatable, such as the Skoda Octavia, which has now won the Up to 1400kg weight class for the sixth year, but this time with a 1.5 TSI petrol rather than diesel engine. Other regular tow car winners include the BMW 5-Series, winning the 1700-1899kg weight class again with the 520d Touring xDrive M Sport, and the Land Rover Discovery, which has won the 1900kg+ weight classes for 12 of the 13 years of Tow Car Awards competitions, this time with the 3.0 SD6 306hp HSE.
Other cars to receive towing honours were the Seat Arosa 1.0 TSI 115PS, as Best Ultralight Tow Car, the petrol-engined Seat Ateca 2.0 TSI 190PS 4Drive FR DSG beat several diesel-powered competitors in the 1400-1549kg weight class, the Dacia Duster Blue dCi 115 4×4 Comfort as Best Budget 4×4, the Ford Focus Estate 1.5 EcoBlue 120PS which won the Fuel Economy Award, and the Land Rover Range Rover Sport P400e took the first Best Plug-in Hybrid award.
This year, for the first time ever, the Tow Car Awards had an all-electric car entered – the Jaguar I-Pace. A legal towing limit of 750kg restricts it to micro-caravans or small trailers so isn’t a viable option for the majority of caravanners yet, but the Jaguar’s pace and stability while towing were certainly cause for optimism about the future of electric vehicles as tow cars.
Individual reviews of all cars tested in 2019 (and archives of all those tested in previous years, back to 2007) are available at www.thetowcarawards.com.
The competition is grateful to welcome a new insurance partner, Club Care Insurance, this year which provided cover for the Tow Car Awards test programme, and also to the Swift Group, which, once again, provided a fleet of caravans. The caravans’ Al-KO ATC stability systems were disabled for the purposes of testing. Instead, they provided valuable data about the stability of each car and caravan combination.
Each car was matched to a caravan ballasted to weigh up to the recommended guideline of 85 per cent of its kerbweight, or its manufacturer’s maximum towing limit, if lower, and put through a series of challenging and dynamic tests at the Horiba-MIRA Proving Ground in Warwickshire. This includes high-speed stability, emergency lane changing and a hill start on a 1-in-6 slope.
Discussing the Tow Car Awards 2019, David Motton, tow car editor, Practical Caravan magazine, said: “Having tested 40 of the newest cars on the market, including our first time towing with a pure electric vehicles, the results of this year’s Tow Car Awards are really interesting and valuable for anyone choosing a car now, or in the future.”
“A coupé-style fastback wasn’t what we would have predicted to be chosen as the Overall Winner of the Tow Car Awards 2019, but it won because it impressed us enormously. It does all of the sensible, important things that we ask of a tow car, and brilliantly,” added David Motton.
Paul Jones, the Marketing and Communications Director at The Camping and Caravanning Club, said: “We are really proud to have started this awards programme in 2007. Since then, our rigorous testing schedule has generated a valuable library of more than 500 tow car test reports, which our members find invaluable when researching their next purchase – whether that’s a new tow car or a second-hand vehicle.”
Tow Car Awards 2019 winners
| Up to 1400kg | Škoda Octavia Hatch 1.5 TSI 150PS SE L DSG |
| 1400-1549kg | Seat Ateca 2.0 TSI 190PS 4Drive FR DSG |
| 1550-1699kg | Volkswagen Arteon 2.0 TDI 150PS Elegance DSG |
| 1700-1899kg | BMW 520d Touring xDrive M Sport |
| 1900kg+ | Land Rover Discovery 3.0 SD6 306hp HSE |
| Best Ultralight Tow Car: | Seat Arona 1.0 TSI 115PS FR |
| Best Budget 4×4: | Dacia Duster Blue dCi 115 4×4 Comfort |
| Fuel Economy Award: | Ford Focus Estate 1.5 EcoBlue 120PS Titanium X |
| Best Plug-In Hybrid: | Land Rover Range Rover Sport P400e HSE Dynamic |
| Overall winner: | Volkswagen Arteon 2.0 TDI 150PS Elegance DS |
