Hi Andy,Hi Janet,
we have a passat estate sel 2.0 dsg and we tow a dethleffs camper which most of time is at 1500kg but is plated up to 1600kg.Plenty of power and level but wish id had 4wd as it wouldnt take much to loose traction,having said that we always use a motor mover.We just did 1700 miles round france and germany towing at an average 65mph returned 25 to gallon.very stable but i suppose by text book van is a bit big but we bought out of a vw brochure that had inaccurate kerbweight info.that said I use a roof box and tend to weight up car as opposed to van.I tend to use dsg in tiptronic setting when towing as i like instant options if i want power on hills but the 170 horse power steams up hills and i rarely changed down from 6th.But as i say dsg and front wheel drive and reversing are not good combinations you need a mover for anything other than a drive in.
regards
andy