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Subject Topic: Caravan Club tow car of the year
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PersonApproval Man
30/9/2014 at 8:57am
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Well the CC have gone and done it again
Tow car of the year Seat Leon
Max towing limit 1200kgs
Is it me but how can that be tow car of the year it can only tow at most 5% of all the caravans manufactured.
Who make this decision the car manufacturers.

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Approval Man


Persontrog100
30/9/2014 at 9:24am
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its a nice car that can tow the odd light weight caravan.. :)

trog


Person664DaveS
30/9/2014 at 9:50am
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Nice car, as late they do seem to like VW group cars!

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DS-There's more to life than football!!!


PersonLobeyDosser
30/9/2014 at 10:06am
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Quote: Originally posted by trog100 on 30/9/2014
its a nice car that can tow the odd light weight caravan.. :)

trog




Nice to know that my 17 year old 4 berth caravan is "odd".

-------------
Lobey.


Persontrog100
30/9/2014 at 11:41am
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to be fair the CC have a task when asked to come up with an ideal tow car.. a real ideal tow car or nice family car that is okay towing some caravans..

if they really picked an ideal tow car it would not fit the nice family economical category..

i think they know people buy the caravan that their "okay" family transport will manage.. the Seat leon isnt the ideal tow car its ideal family car that can manage the average caravan.. just.. plus out of a whole bunch of much of a muchness they have to pick something.. :)

trog


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Persongeoff+emmy
30/9/2014 at 12:04pm
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I think a lot of car manufacture's avoid this now where were ford, Mercedes etc


Personjanus
30/9/2014 at 12:09pm
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Could be there is sense in the outcome. More and more people are going to be restricted by the B licence conditions and producing car and caravan combinations that everyone can use is a good thing. The plethora of humungus caravans that need enormous tractors to tow them is something that must be addressed at sometime in the future, as LobeyDosser says in the not too distant past such combinations were very much the exception and caravans that a car such as the Seat Leon could tow were very much the norm.

The testing is set up in groups according to price and the caravans are tested according to what they can tow and how well they perform other tasks that are required of them. The final judgement is not on a comparison of the simple towing abilities of the very largest tug towing the very smallest caravan compared to the smallest car towing the largest caravan but on the merits of each car and its capabilities to tow a caravan that is within its capabilities. If a family sized car that is relatively cheap to run does a good job of towing a caravn that is within its abilities the simple economics are going to say that it is going to have an advantage over a £60k monster tug.

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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

Mondeo Titanium 140 tdci


Personsunshinetours
30/9/2014 at 3:06pm
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Completely agree Janus.

Bigger and heavier vans and trucks to tow is a bit of a UK obsession compared to rest of Europe

Smaller lighter vans maybe with larger awnings may be way forward as costs rise and rise


Persontango55
30/9/2014 at 3:18pm
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I think judging anything these days you just have to take with a pinch of salt really because it's down to the opinion of one team or person and what they think is best. It's very much like cooking programmes on TV whereby they judge various dishes but what may seem delicious to them may taste awful to someone else.


PersonLobeyDosser
30/9/2014 at 4:56pm
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I doubt if many folks go out and buy a caravan and then look for a car suitable to tow it.

We buy a practical car that suits our requirements and then look for a van that would suit it.

We bought a new car and then, by necessity had to find a suitable 4 berth van for it. Fortunately the first van we went to see was perfect. All the space we required and an 85% towing ratio.

It just so happens that it was voted car of the year in last year's Scottish Caravan Club Mag.
But we had already bought it by then.

Common sense should rule your decisions, not other people's market trends.

-------------
Lobey.


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Personmillermicm
30/9/2014 at 5:22pm
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The Caravan club regularly come up wih some odd choices. No doubt the leon ST estate TDI FR is a very competent vehicle. It is however too light in my view for a decent tow car and I would always make up my own mind what to buy.

It will be interesting to see when the first Leon ST estate TDI FR appears on a site as a tow car.

A bit like spot the first cuckoo!

-------------
Steve


Personjanus
30/9/2014 at 6:10pm
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The judging is very objective. Only in the final event of comparing one group winner with another does a subjective opinion come into play.

-------------
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

Mondeo Titanium 140 tdci


Personleon copa
30/9/2014 at 7:20pm
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i have old shape 61 plate 1,6 ecomotive diesel my first tow car it has being a good one. never let me down in 3years and 35000 miles .hope my new car is as good as this one


PersonGCMS2012
30/9/2014 at 7:36pm
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But they never say how 'reliable' they'll be after having the guts towed out of them by the people that bought them on the assumption of.....

!!!Being the 2014 TOW CAR OF THE YEAR THAT 'PEOPLE* THINK' THEY CAN HANDLE OWT!!!!


*Ignorant / Naïve 'It'll be fine' people

-------------
Damned if I do...

Damned if I don't!!!!


PersonLudovine
30/9/2014 at 7:58pm
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Whatever is towcar of the year, any similar car will be equally as good or bad.

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Freeman on the land.


PersonAldoscott
30/9/2014 at 8:17pm
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Quote: Originally posted by Approval Man on 30/9/2014
Well the CC have gone and done it again
Tow car of the year Seat Leon
Max towing limit 1200kgs
Is it me but how can that be tow car of the year it can only tow at most 5% of all the caravans manufactured.
Who make this decision the car manufacturers.



I agree.
Surely a tow car of the year should be good at towing an average weight caravan.



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