VW Jetta named Tow Car of The Year for second year in a row

Celebrating its second win in a row the Volkswagen Jetta has been named the tow car of the year by the Caravan Club. There were 23 suitable cars put through a number of vigorous tests to find which was the best suited in a number of categories based on their tax bands. The cars were loaded up to represent a family of four and the caravans filled so that they represented  85% of the cars  kerbweight, while within the recommended limits. The cars then underwent a series of tests, doing laps of Millbrook’s speed bowl so that they could be judged for stability both at speed and with the effect of any winds. They were also tested for their stopping distance and in power tests in which they needed to accelerate the over 20mph gaps. They were additionally tested for hill starts at various inclines including . their ability to hold caravanning holiday related items such as awnings, folding chairs, tables etc.

So those are the tests that were carried out, but what about the Jetta. First of all lets have a look at the class division that the Jetta was in and how it took the title with a fairly solid lead. It was placed in the most competitive class for this year (emission bands D-F). Even with the caravan in tow the car is powerful and gives a smooth, confident drive allowing it to accelerate from 30-50mph in just 7.6 seconds. It has a 510 litre boot too so you could get in plenty of extras in if your caravan is already feeling overloaded. Even though this was a new classification for testing this year (tax band rather than cost) the Jetta was also only the second most expensive car in this group, coming in just behind the Yeti and was significantly cheaper than a lot of its competitors. No wonder it then was rated as the best across all categories.

The VW CC won it own class with another VW Group car, the Skoda Yeti SE Plus, winning the up to 1800 kg 4wd class.  Mercedes Benz won the Class for emissions J,K,L & M and  over 1800 kg 4 wd class was won by the Chevrolet Captiva 2.2 LT.

Also, class winners were the Skoda Superb Estate 2.0DSG,  the VW Touareg and the Volvo V60 D5 AWD.

Just too late for the judging, was the launch of the Passat Alltrack with VW four wheel drive system.

http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/about-us/press-centre/press-releases/2011/september/caravan-club-towcar-of-the-year-2012-results/

These tests are taken very seriously by the manufacturers, with design and suspension set ups in theUKbeing tailored to what is a huge market of owners with caravans.  In some car cases, for example the Citroen Xantia, tow car of the year upped demand considerably.