Land Rover Discovery Towcar of the Year 2010

The Land Rover Discovery has been named as 'Towcar of the Year 2010' and was described by a panel of judges from The Camping and Caravanning Club, Practical Caravan and What Car? magazines as "the best car in this year's tests by some margin", The Discovery also won the category for vehicles weighing more than 1900kg.

As a life time Land Rover Fan and a Discovery owner I am pleased to hear it, but it comes as no surprise. It is a bit like those best Dad in the World mugs that some of us might get this week-end, nice to receive but there was not much competition was there.

Caravans are an emotive subject but as an ex-caravan owner I have some sympathy with those that enjoy the rally scene, less with those who bring them out once or twice a year and none what so ever with those that clutter up good sites by leaving their vans there 365 days a year. However I am as frustrated as anybody by the damned things on the road. Like snails towing their homes behind them they leave a trail of frayed nerves in their wake. The problem is usually a poor choice of towcar, a vehicle that is not heavy enough to provide a stable towing platform and not powerful enough to keep a steady speed. When you do get someone who has the right vehicle and can properly anticipate conditions they are generally in some sort of convoy led at the front by a seventy five year old chap in a green trilby called George in a 1964 Morris Oxford towing a 1956 Argosy Twelve that he bought when he left the army. Everyone calls him the Colonel even though he probably never rose past the rank of private, but he digs a "damn fine latrine" even if he does say so himself.

Far from driving 4x4s off the road, as the government seem to have been trying to do recently, they should be making sure that if you tow a caravan you do it with a Land Rover or something similarly suitable. It just such a pity that the ineptitude of the British car industry as seen all our great marks either disappear or fall in to foreign hands. It is shocking to think that the best Land Rovers ever are being produced now that the company is in the hands of Indian owners, why could the British Owners have done this?