Tow cars go toe to toe

I’ve always been slightly bemused by the Tow Car of the Year awards, a staple of the annual motoring calendar. The 2011 honours are revealed today and the overall winner is the VW Passat Estate TDI 170 PS (above). I’m not a caravanner, never have been and, in all honesty, am never likely to be. Despite that, from an outsider’s perspective I can appreciate caravanners need to replace their car from time to time like everyone else, and want to make sure they get something that’s up to the task. But surely whatever they choose will be hauling for a tiny proportion of its road-going life. You wouldn’t honestly judge what to buy by giving too much weight to that single criteria, would you? To my mind, almost everything else would be ahead of it – styling, comfort, standard equipment, eco-credentials, price, dynamic performance, etc, etc. Surely any car of a decent size and with the right towbar fitted can drag a caravan to a campsite and back?