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The Caravan And Motorhome Club Towcar Of The Year 2019 Awards Results

We bring you results from this year's award ceremony

By William Coleman

On Friday 21st of September myself and the CaravanTimes Team had the pleasure of attending the The Caravan And Motorhome Club Towcar Of The Year 2019 Awards. The event that brings you an unbiased look into what are the stand out towing vehicles on the market and what manufacturer’s vehicle is the overall winner.

This year marks the 36th edition of the Club’s competition which featured some significant changes to previous years. Why the change to the previous tried and tested format? Each year The Club try to deliver the best and most informed opinion on each vehicle. As times change so must the way in which things are done. The Club strive to provide the most relevant information for those thinking of buying a new towing vehicle. After all word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising.

New for this year, vehicles were put into caravan weight categories – rather than listing them by price – to make it easier for buyers to tell which cars could tow their caravans. Cars were entered into classes using their 85% kerbweight figure or by their towing limit, whichever was the lower. The Club also introduced two new categories – ‘Best Family Towcar’ and ‘Best Large Family Towcar’.

So here are the categories and the winners of each;

  • Caravan Weight Under 1100kg – Volkswagen Polo SEL 1.0 TSI 115PS DSG
  • Caravan Weight 1100kg – 1350kg – Peugeot 3008 Allure BlueHDi 180 EAT8
  • Caravan Weight 1350kg – 1500kg – Volvo XC40 D4 AWD First Edition
  • Caravan Weight 1500kg – 1700kg, Best Family Towcar and Caravan and Motorhome Club Towcar of the Year 2019 – Volvo XC60 D5 PowerPulse AWD R-Design
  • Caravan Weight over 1700kg – Volkswagen Touareg R-Line Tech 3.0 V6 TDI SCR 4MOTION 286PS Tiptronic
  • Pick-Up – Volkswagen Amarok Highline 3.0 V6 TDI 4MOTION 258PS Auto
  • Best Large Family Towcar – SKODA Kodiaq Edition 2.0TDI 190PS 4×4 DSG

There are your category winners, but what was the overall winner of the The Caravan And Motorhome Club Towcar Of The Year 2019 Award?

The The Volvo XC60 D5 PowerPulse AWD R-Design is your winner and champion of this year’s event. 3 awards in 1 evening! There really is no surprise that this gem took the top spot.

The Volvo XC60 fended off some very impressive vehicles in the competition as it pulled of a hatrick to take the top spot as overall winner.

This year’s competition was comprised of 35 entries and each car was put through their paces at the Millbrook Proving Ground near Bedford. A couple of us CaravanTimes chaps were in attendance during testing, and one of us was even a judge in the competition. But we will cover that more in detail a little bit later.

Millbrook provides a variety of testing driving environments. Manufacturers were invited to submit for testing any vehicle that was capable of towing a trailer over 750kg and on sale on 1 October 2018.

Grenville Chamberlain, Caravan and Motorhome Club Chairman, said: “Here at the Caravan and Motorhome Club we are committed to driving forward positive change within the motoring industry and to providing our one million members with relevant information for them to use as they make their next towcar purchase. Our congratulations go to all the winners.”

Matt Allwright commented, “This was my second time being at Millbrook Proving Ground for the competition. It was great to see how the event continues to evolve in order to get the best independent information for car buyers. The testing is so thorough, the winners should rightly be proud of their achievements.”

Simon Howard, Marketing Director of Bailey of Bristol, which provides the caravans for the event, said, “Vehicle testing for the Caravan and Motorhome Club Towcar of the Year competition really is leading the way. We are extremely proud to have been supplying the caravans for testing for over 20 years.”

Last September was the first time I had attended the The Caravan And Motorhome Club Towcar Of The Year Awards and was thoroughly impressed with the amount of work, effort and man hours that go into giving the best and most informative opinion possible. Buying a new car can sometimes be a very daunting prospect, especially when you are going to tow with it. These tests eliminate a lot of the searching and really does give a non biased industry opinion.

Our very own Dan Cartwright was a driving Judge at this years TCOTH and he drove and assessed every entry. We have a feature coming about the experience but before that these are Dan’s comments: “The The Volvo XC60 D5 PowerPulse AWD R-Design is an incredibly accomplished tow vehicle. Rather than standing out in any one area it was great in all aspects of towing and comfort.

Towing on narrow twisty roads and hilly roads really tests a tow vehicle and this is where you will appreciate the XC60 D5. Even with a big twin axle Bailey Unicorn hooked the Volvo is relaxed and capable. It’s almost too good and you can forget your towing.

At motorway speeds the whole set up is incredibly stable. Even trying (and even violently trying) to get the caravan moving the Volvo just settles the van down with little movement or panic and no electronics taking over and slamming on the breaks.

If you can afford the The Volvo XC60 D5 PowerPulse AWD R-Design and your caravan of choice you can buy with confidence. If you have every struggles, worries or even found towing difficult then consider this…. The biggest challenge towing with the XC60 is reminding yourself that you are towing.”

After last year’s awards I was able to get my hands on 2018’s overall winner, SKODA’s Kodiaq SE L 2.0 TDI 4×4 DSG. Not only did I test drive it but I also drove it over 5 thousand miles. What did we think of the Kodiaq? Watch our exclusive review, Here