When towing a caravan, having the best car for the job can make the experience a lot easier and more enjoyable. The right car can help improve handling, safety and manoeuvrability with a caravan in tow.

When looking for your new vehicle, it can be hard to determine whether its specifications will translate into being good for towing. After all, you can’t attach your towbar and caravan during a test drive! For this reason, the experts at What Car?, Practical Caravan and The Camping and Caravanning Club have created the Tow Car Awards. This is a comprehensive annual examination of the best cars available on the market for towing and covers a variety of categories. Let’s take a look at some of this year’s best cars for towing.

Up to 1400 kg: Skoda Octavia Estate (2.0 TDI 150PS SE L DSG)

The winner of the smallest category on the list, the updated Skoda Octavia is a great option for towing. For regular towing, the car is very stable and can deal with the extra weight of the caravan on slopes and hill starts just fine. What’s more, the car has plenty room in the back seats and boot making it ideal for comfortably fitting in the whole family with luggage for your trips away.

1400 – 1549 kg: Skoda Superb (2.0 TDI 150PS SE L Executive)

The Skoda Superb is a worthy category winner and was in fact named as the overall Tow Car Awards winner in 2016. During the tests of handling and stability, the Skoda Superb coped admirably within the legal speed limits. Quick stops and acceleration are no problem for the Superb either, making it a great all-round towing performer. With or without a caravan, the car provides a comfortable ride, has a great capacity and impressive fuel economy.

1550 – 1699 kg: Jaguar XF (2.0 i4 180PS RWD Portfolio Auto)

Another repeat category winner, the Jaguar XF is perhaps a surprising choice for towing. As an executive car, the Jaguar XF is comfortable, has admirable steering and overall handling combined with a slick, attractive interior and exterior. When testing its towing capabilities, the car was stable and powerful even above the towing speed limit in winds. Even in the trickier tests of hill starts and emergency manoeuvres, the Jaguar coped without difficulty.

1700 – 1899 kg: Jaguar F-Pace (3.0D S)

The Jaguar F-Pace is a fantastic tow car and was ranked top of its weight category by every one of the test drivers for the Tow Car Awards. The F-Pace is impressively stable towing in high speeds, crosswinds, when slowing down or when dealing with sharp steering. The car is powerful too with one of the quickest acceleration times of the year and strong performance on gradients, even with a large, weighty caravan attached. The F-Pace is also a great drive without a caravan in tow, has a good-looking design and has ample interior space. Although it has a high price tag, resale values are good.

1900 kg and over: Land Rover Discovery (3.0 Td6 HSE*)

The Land Rover Discovery is a familiar name in these awards, having been a regular category winner; this year it’s also the overall 2017 Tow Car Awards Winner. The redesign has effectively addressed previous weaknesses of the model without watering down its strengths. The Discovery is still a beautiful tow car with wonderful power and exceptional stability even with big, heavy caravans in tow. The standard 1-in-6 slope hill start test was so easy for the Discovery that it was tested on a challenging 1-in-3 slope too where the car still performed smoothly.

With all 3 rows of the Discovery spacious enough for adults to sit comfortably, a roomy boot and slick new interior, this is an impressive large vehicle. The updated Discovery model is also more economical, quieter, has reduced emissions and lots of clever technology packed in. The Discovery is a tried and tested great all-round tower, delightful drive and worthy winner.

Towbar2U has a large team of expert fitters who provide comprehensive towbar fitting services. We use high quality towbars from leading manufacturers – such as Witter – and can cater to all makes and models of car. Our convenient, reliable and competitively priced mobile towbar fitting service is available to customers across England and includes both fixed and detachable towbars. For more information about our professional fitting services, contact our team today.