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I have a Mondeo TDCI with 5-speed Tiptronic gearbox. With my Dandy weighing 500kg all up it doesn't even notice and drives just as if it was not towing. With the caravan I had before, weighing 1326kg all up it did cope very well although I did prefer to use the manual change especially on hills. I found it was slow to change down and very slow to change back up again.

Overall I much prefer the auto except the road tax remindeer came today at £260. The manual would be much less.

Depends on the car. We used to tow our Fiesta with a petrol 1.6 Hyundai Matrix auto which was ok.  It struggled on some hills and positively limped up the Massif Central from Clermont Ferrannd heading south on the A71.  It got us to the south of France and back though.  We have 163bhp 2.0L diesel Ford Galaxy auto now though and you don't even know that the trailer is on there.

I prefer towing with an Automatic. My last car was a Mercedes E320 CDI, which had absolutely loads of power - even towing a TT, and a full load on the roof and full load in the car I could maintain over 70mph, even through the Massive Central on the A71. I was aware of teh car changing down on the big climbs, but that was about it

Now I have a Kia Sedona with 192 HP, it is a great tow car, and does not struggle, even on the A71... however, it is a real pain to have to change up and down on those long hills