CC Towcar of the Year

[cokey1970]

Just noticed that the results have been released and the title has been given to the Ford Mondeo Titanium X Estate. The Mondeo also won the £16-£20000 class.

Other winners are:

Skoda Roomster 1.9TDi 'Under £16000 class'

Skoda Octavia 2.0TDi Scout '£20-£25000 clas and AWD under 1800kg'

Land Rover Freelander 2 'Over £32000 class'

Kia Sorento 'AWD over 1800kg'

Interesting to note that the Mondeo tested had the 2.5 V6 petrol engine.

Martin.

 

[GrahamSouthBrum]

I see the Kia is still there!!!!!!!!!!!

Graham W.

 

[Lutz]

Any Car of the Year, whether it's Towcar of the Year or Company Car of the Year or whatever, is only a PR exercise of the industry and says little more than it can't be bad. But it says little about whether it's actually any good to meet your particular needs. I've come across quite a few so-called Cars of the Year which I wouldn't want even if they given to me for free.

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Lutz

Interesting view.

I am fairly confident the judges at the Caravan Club, and there are a few , remain wholly impartial and independent.

Do you think there is some jiggorypokey going on??

Cheers

Alan

 

[clivea]

Hi,

The new Mondeo also beat the C&CC/Practical Caravn Towcar of the year, the VW Passatt 4motion. In a recent What Car test the Mondeo estate cam efirts from the Passatt, Accord and Vectra. Ford must be doing something right!

I went to the local Nissan dealer to see the new X-trail and was astonished to find that the auto is limited to 1350kg tow weight and 75kg noseweight while the manual has 2000kg and 100kg respectively. Yet just look at the Mondeo autos tow weight its awesome and the load carrying capabilty is good too. Can't wait to see if Ford plan a 4wd Mondeo or their new 4wd next year shold be good as they will have sold off Volvo and LR by then! By the way I am not unduly pro Ford although i hav ehad a Mondeo of each marque, and currently tow witha Sorento, wifey has the Mondeo.

Other Clive

 

[clivea]

Hi,

The new Mondeo also beat the C&CC/Practical Caravn Towcar of the year, the VW Passatt 4motion. In a recent What Car test the Mondeo estate cam efirts from the Passatt, Accord and Vectra. Ford must be doing something right!

I went to the local Nissan dealer to see the new X-trail and was astonished to find that the auto is limited to 1350kg tow weight and 75kg noseweight while the manual has 2000kg and 100kg respectively. Yet just look at the Mondeo autos tow weight its awesome and the load carrying capabilty is good too. Can't wait to see if Ford plan a 4wd Mondeo or their new 4wd next year shold be good as they will have sold off Volvo and LR by then! By the way I am not unduly pro Ford although i hav ehad a Mondeo of each marque, and currently tow witha Sorento, wifey has the Mondeo.

Other Clive

 

[clivea]

Hi,

The new Mondeo also beat the C&CC/Practical Caravn Towcar of the year, the VW Passatt 4motion. In a recent What Car test the Mondeo estate cam efirts from the Passatt, Accord and Vectra. Ford must be doing something right!

I went to the local Nissan dealer to see the new X-trail and was astonished to find that the auto is limited to 1350kg tow weight and 75kg noseweight while the manual has 2000kg and 100kg respectively. Yet just look at the Mondeo autos tow weight its awesome and the load carrying capabilty is good too. Can't wait to see if Ford plan a 4wd Mondeo or their new 4wd next year shold be good as they will have sold off Volvo and LR by then! By the way I am not unduly pro Ford although i hav ehad a Mondeo of each marque, and currently tow witha Sorento, wifey has the Mondeo.

Other Clive

 

[Angus1]

Trouble is Other clive, the rags that test the cars will do anything to sell copy, so you invariably find that the newest wins.

What Car is the worst offender, I stopped reading it years ago when we were told that the Primera was the `winner`, the following month it was the Laguna, then the Ford/VW/SAAB i.e whatever was newest, and whatever came second became fifth and what was fifth became third despite no changes etc,etc,

Basically they don`t have any credibility at all.

Anyone who buys a car based on what a magazine says needs their sanity questioning, would you buy one based on an advertisement?

I couldn`t care if a car `finished` first or fifteenth, as it is all irrelevant as no-one elses requirements are the same as mine, and the items which may be important to me may not even be on the check list when the `journalists` issues their marks. Case in point:- that clown in the Mail on Sunday doesn`t tell you how much tax you pay, what depreciation you can expect, if you can negotiate a discount. No. Every week he tells you how many cupholders a car has!! Oh ******, I wont buy the Bugatti Veyron after all as it doesn`t have enough.

 

[clivea]

Angus,

and your point is?

 

[Angus1]

My point is that people come onto websites crowing about how wonderful something is without trying it, or its competition "Ford must be doing something right", which is why they are on the verge of meltdown and selling everything they can.

I`ll make my own mind up thanks, and let the press with a vested interest decide what is best for the sheep.

 

[Oldfogey]

I noticed that they tested the Freelander, Disco, and Range Rover - but not the Defender/County type, which I am thinking may be my next vehicle.

 

[Lutz]

"Do you think there is some jiggorypokey going on??"

No, Alan, I wouldn't call it jiggorypokey but the press will only test the models that the manufacturers provide and the manufacturers will only provide those where there is more profit to be made by a push in sales that comes with such an award. I am certain that the magazines themselves have little influence over the selection of cars tested. That is why you nearly always find that these cars are the top of their particular range with all desirable goodies fitted.

The judges can only be impartial to what is placed before them but there are surely quite a number of models withheld by the manufacturers for reasons best known to themselves.

 

[AdifferentJim]

I agree with Lutz. Most of the reports are no more than a PR exercise. Up until a few years ago a lot of reports were very precocious with comments such as ' but afterall it's still only Ford'. Then Pc voted the Passat as towcar of the year but the Volvo V70 had a better score towing. So how is the Passat a better towcar? If you are arguing that the Passat is a better all around car why doesn't it have cruise control like the V70 ? In addittion there is a test on the new brand new V70 in the latest PC which gives a very good account of itself but in the CC tests it is very mediocre. There is also around a 200kg kerb weight between the same two cars depending on which figures you choose to believe ( if indeed you do) I take all of these reports with the proverbial 'pinch of salt'.

 

[JTQ]

If they included as part of the test the real life situation of towing off wet grass or through a muddy field entrance then they would be sorting out which are suitable tow cars.

Virtually anything can cope with trundling along tarmac and using CC sites, its using 5 van sites other that in good weather where the realities of front wheel drive become evident.

So its not a "Towcar of the year" test its only a "Towcar of the Summer" test!

 

[S-MaxJon]

Towcar of the year to me would mean the best allrounder and not just for specific situations.

How many people actually tow across muddy fields and entrances compared to the vast majority who frequent CC sites and their ilk?

 

[JTQ]

Probably some caravanners never tow onto grass, but many if not most do and I have even seen the results of inadequate vehicles on the CC's manicured lawns. This wet year being a particuarly good example; Meathop earlier this year had examples, more akin to a ploughing competition.

I take the view that nothing can be best "all round" if it fails on one important point. The weakest link in a chain situation; not much use shining in every other respect but unable to leave the in the morning, or push the van up a slight incline on site without tearing the site up for others.

 

[Jazman]

My employers had an office next door to a motor industry business who worked on new car model promotions and press launches and test days as well as delivering and collecting cars to and from Journalists for test reports.

As well as promotional materials their warehouse housed "press packs"(gifts) for journalists that were left in the car boot when delivered.

Talk of the sort of flight and quality of hotel and exotic location that was provided and the standard of "promotional materials" that journalsists could take home was the regular lunch time chat between our work force and the neighbouring ones when they had been away on a new car launch.

Our staff got the impression that reports revolved around the quality of service provided to journalsits rather than on reliability and practicalities of the cars.

 

[RogerP]

These so called competitions are biased. Why , because everyone , even the judges , have their individual preferences and experiences and these will influence the rating of a vehicle.

I bet if you were to ask any of these judges what was their own car few , if any , of them would be driving the so called winners.

As long as the car is technical capable of doing the job you need , is comfortable for you and your passengers and finally you like its looks. What does it matter if its not Towcar or WhatCar or Jeremy Clarksons car of the year.

 

[Jazman]

CC Magazines latest offering has just winged its way to us today with stunning twenty page TCofTY supplement. Some models shown have more than a fair share of reliability issues and on the whole it is a pointless excersize as far as we're concerned.

Test results suggest in the open ended over

 

[Rodone]

One or two manufacture's noticable by their absence -- Citroen and Honda for instance.

 

[cooky1]

And Audi and BMW. Maybee they didn't offer as many goodies to the journalists as the other companies!

 

[KeithJ]

I agree with Lutz and with Angus. No doubt the tow cars chosen are good, but we have to make our own decisions about what is best for us. Any real enthusiast would do this and not just buy the choice of a magazine.

I agree that the models tested are often top of the range- ie the versions that would impress the most, and magazine comparison tests often don't compare like with like with regard to specifications.

This time's winner costs

 

[clivea]

Hi,

I think the CC test cars that are new in the last yaer or which have been substantially updated, hence Sorento and Freelander but not Disco. Also given the Mondeo Titanium price would not you expect basically the same overall performance from the lower priced Zetec?

 

[Del_374232870]

Had a read of the results, surely the ultimate tow vehicle must be the Range Rover 4.2 V8 diesel, but seems like this wasnt included in the tests, yet the Sorrento won the best over 1800kg category. Are we supposed to believe that a Kia Sorrento is better than the Range Rover.

 

[Lutz]

The intent of any Car of the Year award is not to find the ultimate car of whichever category but which model is the best out of those which appeared new on the market during the past year, or an existing model which has undergone some major changes during that time (such as a new engine being offered).