LAND ROVER DISCOVERY

Our favourite 3.0 Sd6 Landmark Price £60,355 Kerbweight 2311kg 85% match figure 1964kg Legal towing limit 3500kg Noseweight 195/350kg*

For year after year, the Land Rover Discovery has been our favourite heavyweight tow car. The fifth model tows superbly. It’s stable at speed and more than capable of pulling a big twin-axle tourer.

The latest car’s slimmer build shaves hundreds of kilos compared with the fourth generation. Perhaps that makes today’s model slightly more susceptible to crosswinds, but we’re talking about fine differences and it’s still as stable as any big new 4x4 you can buy.

Pulling power

Buyers have a choice of three engines. The 296bhp

Si4 petrol is strong but thirsty compared with the diesels. You could argue the 237bhp Sd4 diesel is the sensible option, with sufficient pulling power for towing and reasonable fuel economy. But if we’re talking about luxury SUVS, there’s something to be said for having a little bit of performance in hand, so the 306bhp Sd6 is our pick of the engine range.

It’s not just that it has more shove, the six-cylinder diesel is smoother and more cultured. In fact, this quiet refinement, especially at high speeds, is one of the car’s chief strengths.

Practicality has always been another Discovery virtue. The driver and front seat passenger sit up high. The standard of finish bears comparison with the Discovery’s German rivals. There are seats for seven, with good head- and legroom in all three rows.

The HSE Luxury comes with every bell and whistle you can think of and costs £71,120. We’d go for the Landmark, priced from £60,355 with our preferred engine. This version is still very well equipped, and a suite of towing aids is available as an optional extra.

The BMW X5 has consistently run the Land Rover Discovery close as our favourite large SUV. We towed with the current X5 30d early last year and awarded the car a rare five-star verdict. We put it through a lane-change test, swerving violently one way and then the other as you might to avoid an obstacle if there’s no time to brake. The X5 was more than up to the task. “It’s even better than the Land Rover in the lane-change test,” we wrote, “changing direction with no drama, little lean and complete control.”

Luxurious finish

Buyers have a choice of five or seven seats. Choose seven, and there’s less space in the third row than you’d find in a Land Rover Discovery. But this is still a practical and roomy car, with a luxurious standard of finish.

Although we’ve yet to tow with an X5 other than the 30d, we have also driven the new xdrive 45e plug-in hybrid. We’ll stick our necks out and say this version has displaced the 30d as our favourite.

You can’t have seven seats because of the space taken up by the batteries, but if that doesn’t put you off, the 45e is an exceptional car. The claimed range running as an EV is over 50 miles. And on longer journeys, the combination of petrol and electric power makes for extremely rapid performance.

The plug-in hybrid is heavier than the diesel, so it should be at least as stable while towing as the diesel – quite possibly more so.

It’s not cheap, at £66,665 for the M Sport version. But running costs promise to be extremely low for a car of such power and performance.