Caravan Club Towcar of the Year 2013 See the results and details of the winning cars for the 2013 competition. 23 vehicles were divided into four Vehicle Excise Duty classes plus two All-Wheel Drive categories.
Brilliant isn't it????
The awards are sponsored by Bailey & the Tow Car of the Year can only tow a 2 birth Orion within the recommended 85% ratio.
Perhaps the club are going to rebrand as the Trailer Tent Club.
What a waste of time.
Just to make it clear, I appreciate there is a small market for lightweight towcars, but I don't feel the market is large enough to justify Tow Car of the Year for the 2nd year in the row. It is not even that it has particularly low emissions. The VW CC is lower emissions & us a suitable match for more caravans.
If the Jetta is the future of towcars then perhaps the club needs to reasses the 85% guide.
It's actually a bit misleading title, it should say Caravan Club NEW Towcar of the year as it only includes new cars released between 1st Aug 2011 and 30th Sept 2012 or ones that have been extensively revised between those dates.
Funny last year we went to clumber for half term, this was only a few weeks after the Jetta won the tow car, every night we walked around the site and never saw a single jetta, not bad considering the site site has 180 pitches.
One month later my car was damaged and was off road for 8 days, the replacement car i was given was a Jetta.
The only plus i can say about it was the engine was willing if not a little gruff + economy was quite good, the car felt small was very basic, bland and boring to drive. it just had nothing about it at all. It amazed me that this car got the cc car of the year last year, to get it again is nothing more than a joke, i'm back to clumber again in a few weeks i'd be pretty certain when i walk the dog again around the site my findings will be the exactly same as last year.
Dont have an issue with the other cars but the car of the year should be capable of towing a standard 4 berth family van within the cc clubs guidelines
Bring back the old way of testing them i.e weights rather than tax bands, i think more people will relate to that
..and the Discovery got no mention at all..which fully reflects every Club site I've visited.
Or not.
Was there a new model discovery last year? Did Landrover put it forward as a possible contender? If the answer to either of these questions is no then that explains why it did not feature.
------------- Bill
For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013
Quote: Originally posted by Zafiral on 09/10/2012
If the Jetta is the future of towcars then perhaps the club needs to reasses the 85% guide.
Post last edited on 09/10/2012 19:22:43
The 85% guideline says that for a person new to towing a the driver should aim for a towing ratio no greater than 85% but for a person with experience a towing ratio of up to 100% is perfectly acceptable.
That being the case the Jetta with a kerbweight of 1411kg would be an adequate match for virtually all two berths and also for a lot of 4 berths, it is only when you get into the humongous caravans that the towing weight rises alarmingly. As to whether this is the way forward, I would suggest that it is likely to be the case as more and more people take up caravanning with licences that are dated post 1997. To that end towcars like the Jetta restrict the choice of caravans to those which can be towed so that the Mam of the combination is less than 3500kg.
------------- Bill
For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013
Quote: Originally posted by Zafiral on 09/10/2012 If the Jetta is the future of towcars then perhaps the club needs to reasses the 85% guide.Post last edited on 09/10/2012 19:22:43
The 85% guideline says that for a person new to towing a the driver should aim for a towing ratio no greater than 85% but for a person with experience a towing ratio of up to 100% is perfectly acceptable.
That being the case the Jetta with a kerbweight of 1411kg would be an adequate match for virtually all two berths and also for a lot of 4 berths, it is only when you get into the humongous caravans that the towing weight rises alarmingly. As to whether this is the way forward, I would suggest that it is likely to be the case as more and more people take up caravanning with licences that are dated post 1997. To that end towcars like the Jetta restrict the choice of caravans to those which can be towed so that the Mam of the combination is less than 3500kg.
Granted
But during the testing procedure, the caravans are ballasted to 85% car's kerb weight, if this is above max tow weight then ballast is added to the towcar. So if a car is particularly light it will have an unfair advantage in the test as it will be towing a lighter weight than an equivalent rival car. It makes comparisons unrealistic.
Your point of licences is valid so perhaps there should be a separation of cars that can tow legally (perhaps within 92% ratio) a caravan ballasted upto GTW 3500kg.
It was ever the case and as in all things of this nature the result is subjective. That being the case we should take the results with a pinch of salt and if we are going to use the data in any way it should be as something with which to discriminate between two broadly similar cars. It is like a dog show, the final choice is a comparison of things that can not be compared so the judge just has to make his/her mind up as to which does the best job in its class. For the last two years the CC judges have picked the Jetta. For me the fact that I personally could not and would not ever choose one is besides the point, I would say the same if they had picked a large 4x4 as that is another beast that I would not give house room to.
------------- Bill
For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013
<“The model taking the glory is Skoda’s petrol-powered Yeti. All the owners who gave feedback said they hadn’t suffered a single breakdown in the previous 12 months.”
The diesel version fared less well but still managed 93 per cent.>
I'm guessing most Yeti's sold are diesel so perspective required, as in all 'reliability' surveys. Its fair to say though that most new cars don't break down.
I'm also failing to see how anybody can judge what is 'towcar of the year' if they are not actually going to buy & own the car for some time. Fact is any car of equivalent weight & engine bhp/torque would probably tow just as well.
If towing at 100% is ok, why are cars restricted to 85%, on the test. I use the 85% rule and try to strick to it, towed for over 4 years and covered many thousands of miles. Its 85% for a reason and that is for safety. Your kidding yourself on and pushing things to the limit towing at 100%.
I have said in the past that caravans are getting far to heavy and this needs to be looked at, as newer familly cars are becoming more eco friendly
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Topic: Caravan Club Towcar of the Year 2013
