Camping and Caravan Club MPG Survey

[geoffbeaumont]

Just received the following from the Camping and Caravan club, by email:

Dear Member,

As you may already be aware the Club is pleased to be sponsoring the new, comprehensive Towcar Awards 2007 in conjunction with What Car? and Practical Caravan.

The Awards will enable anyone who tows caravans and trailers to choose the right car based on its performance as well as its impact on the environment.

We would like members to get involved by providing MPG (Miles Per Gallon) figures for their vehicles. If you own one of the vehicles on the list below and know your towing MPG figure we would be grateful if you could provide us with this information.

I own one of the cars below and would like to advise my MPG figure

The model, engine size and transmission are important, however you do not need to include the vehicle trim details on the form.

Chrysler 300C Touring 3.0 V6 CRD AUTO

Citroen Berlingo Mutispace 1.6 HDi 92 XTR

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 2.0 HDi Exclusive

Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6 HDI VTR+ (5st)

Fiat Multipla 1.9 Multijet Eleganza

Fiat Sedici 1.9 Mutijet Eleganza

Ford Galaxy 2.0 TDCi Ghia 6spd

Ford S-Max 2.5 Titanium

Honda Accord 2.2 CDTi EX Sport Tourer

Honda CR-V 2.2 CDT-I

Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2 D CDX + 7st

Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 V6 CRD Overland

Kia Carens 2.0 CRDI LS auto 7st

Kia Cee'd 1.6 CRDi LS

Kia Rio 1.5 CRDi LX

Kia Sedona 2.9 CRDi LS

Kia Sorento 2.5 CRDi XS

Land Rover Discovery TDV6 HSE AUTO

Land Rover Freelander 2.2 TD4 HSE

Lexus RX400h

Mazda5 2.0 TS2 Diesel Sport (110ps)

Mazda6 2.0 Diesel Estate TS2 (143ps)

Mercedes E280 CDi Avantgarde Estate AUTO

Mitsubishi Grandis 2.0 DI-D Warrior

Mitsubishi L200 2.5 DI-D 4WD Warrior Doublecab Auto

Mitsubishi Outlander 2.0 DI-D Warrior

Mitsubishi Shogun 3.2 TD DI-D Warrior AUTO LWB

Nissan Navara d/cab Aventura 2.5dCi

Nissan Qashqai 2.0 dCi Visia 4x4

Nissan X-Trail 2.2 dCi Columbia

Peugeot 407 SW 2.0 Hdi 170 Sport

Range Rover TDV8 HSE

Renault Grand Espace 3.0 V6 dCi Initiale auto

Seat Altea XL 1.9 TDI Stylance

Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI PD Ambiente Estate

Skoda Roomster Level 2 1.9 TDI

Subaru Impreza 1.5R Sports Wagon

Subaru Legacy 2.0R Sports Tourer

Toyota Avensis Estate T180

Toyota Verso 2.2 D-4D T3

Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 CDTi Design

Volkswagen Golf 1.9 TDI Match 5dr

Volkswagen Golf Plus 1.9 TDI 105 SE

Volkswagen Passat Sport 2.0 TDI SE

Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 TDI

Volvo V50 D5 Sport Geartronic

Volvo V70 D5 SE

Volvo XC90 D5 SE AUTO

If you're a member as well (in which case you presumably also received the email), might just be worth emailing them to suggest they should take a rather more wholistic view of a vehicles environmental impact than just MPG. I know it doesn't say that they won't be taking other factors into consideration, but a prod in the right direction can't do any harm.

The email is from a no-reply address, and they don't give out an email address anywhere I can find, so you'll need to go to their website and enter your comments in their contact form. Make sure you enter your membership number so they can see you're a genuine member - they're more likely to care about comments from members than the general public.

I'd hazard a guess that a missive via their main contact form directed at their PR department is more likely to be noticed than one using the form linked from the email - that probably gets dumped in a database to have data analysis queries run against it.

Geoff

[Orgasmic Farmer]

List seems quite random to me! For example the Subaru impreza with a 1.5 motor has only been available for a couple of months. Can't see that it is a popular towcar by any stretch.

[geoffbeaumont]

For the record, this was their response - we'll see what actually gets published!

Dear Mr Beaumont,

Thank you for your email. It is important to note and perhaps not made

clear within the email that this research is just one element of the

Towcar of the Year competition. We felt that getting members involved by

gathering towing MPG figures would give a more representative

impression.

The competition itself will provide information on all factors related

to the vehicles and is intended to give a well-rounded review.

...

Regards

Tamsin Smyth

Marketing Department

[David Sparkes]

It's some time since I read about this yearly competition, but if I recall correctly there are 'conditions' around which cars are elegible.

It's not obvious, but there are two main forces behind this competition. The Tow-ers want to know which cars are 'best', but they can't afford to buy and test one of each. The manufacturers want the advertising benefits of an outside endorsement (and to know what areas of vehicle to vehicle comparisons to steer clear of when training sales people).

So, the manufacturers / importers provide the cars.

However, no manufacturer wants his previous model to be upstaged by the older model it's just superseeded, or by last years model from anyone else.

The result is that only new production models are tested, and I think the manufacturer has to deliberately put a model forward, inclusion isn't automatic.

Thus if you are interested in how a car introduced in 2002 performs, you need to go and search for 2002 test results. No, I don't know where they are.

Note that I don't recall the position re model enhancements, thus the 38A Range Rover might have only been elegible in 1995, but not in 2000, or whenever petrol engine management changed from Lucas to Bosch.

BTW, I am a CCGB&I member, but clearly not on their e-mail list. I didn't spot any comment in the current magazine. On reflection, I think I'll survive without getting more involved :-)

HTH