You don’t want to miss our third Summer Special TV show – it’s a Tow Car Awards special!

The Practical Caravan editorial team works with Information TV to produce our shows on The Caravan Channel, and each episode is shown 10 times over a two-week period – please scroll to the bottom of this page for the broadcast schedule. You can find The Caravan Channel on Sky 192 and on Freesat 402, or watch live online.

The Tow Car Awards 2015, a joint project between Practical Caravan, What Car? and The Camping and Caravanning Club, saw 37 cars put through their paces in our rigorous test week, and we kick off this TV show with our own Tow Car Editor David Motton, who explains how the cars are tested. He takes us through the programme every vehicle is put through, including acceleration and braking tests, high-speed stability, ride and handling assessments, plus the hill-start and emergency lane change manoeuvre tests. Each car’s practicality is also evaluated for its load carrying capacity, while the spare wheel provision and any other towing or caravanning aids are taken into consideration. How the car performs in everyday driving, and the kit levels and value for money it represents are also taken into account before the test team members put their heads together to decide what tow car will win each prize.

Before we reveal 2015’s winners, we speak to Rob Ganley of The Camping and Caravanning Club and What Car?’s Jim Holder, who underline the importance of the awards in both helping caravanners assess what tow car is right for them, but also in educating the car industry as to what traits people who want to tow are looking for in prospective purchases.

Then it’s time to take you through the winners, class-by-class. Of course, we’re not going to give the game away here, you’ll have to tune in. So watch our latest TV show on The Caravan Channel either live online from your laptop, tablet, smartphone or computer, or on Freesat 402 or Sky 192 – look for Showcase TV.

We start with the ‘Up to 1400kg’ class, where the Citroën C4 Cactus, the Fiat Panda and the Škoda Octavia are among the cars challenging for the top prize – What Car?’s Nigel Donnelly reveals our winner.

Next was the hotly contested 1400-1549kg category. Cars competing for this award included our 2014 overall winner the Nissan Qashqai, as well as the Seat Leon X-Perience, the Volkswagen Passat Estate, the Škoda Octavia Scout, the Mazda 6, the Audi Q3 and the Ford Mondeo.

Alright, so we have to give away something now, as then it’s time to see our full tow car test of the 1400-1549kg class winner, the VW Passat Estate. Watch our Tow Car Awards special TV show online, on Sky 192 and on Freesat 402, to find out what we think makes the Passat such an exceptional tow car.

After the break, it’s time to reveal some more class winners from this year’s Tow Car Awards, starting with the 1550-1699kg category. Here the Nissan X-Trail and Mazda CX-5 were among the contenders, the latter scooping the top prize, so then it is time to rewind to our full CX-5 test from 2012.

This is followed by the results of our two top weight categories, 1700-1899kg and over 1900kg. Many of you won’t be surprised to learn that the Land Rover Discovery triumphed in the 1900kg+ class, so then we remind ourselves just how good the Disco is with Motty’s original test.

After handing out our non-weight category prizes, Motty is back to tell us which car is officially number one and the overall winner at our Tow Car Awards 2015 – so make sure you are watching!

Our Tow Car Awards special TV show will be broadcast between Monday 20 July and Sunday 2 August 2015, at these times, on these days:

  • Monday at 8pm
  • Wednesday at 5pm
  • Thursday at 5.30am
  • Saturday at 10.30am
  • Sunday at 10.30am

Remember, you can find The Caravan Channel on Freesat 402 and on Sky 192 – just look out for Showcase TV – or simply watch live online on the Information TV website! We hope you enjoy watching our third Summer Special.