The 5008 arrived for the Tow Car Awards as What Car?‘s favourite large SUV. It didn’t take long for us to discover why.

Inside, the big Peugeot is well made, stylish, and practical. The seven-seat cabin is spacious and very cleverly designed, with individual seats and a wide choice of layouts depending on how you slide, recline, or fold away the chairs.

In fact, if you think of the 5008 as an MPV in SUV clothing, you won’t go far wrong. There’s no 4×4 version (although a sophisticated traction control system called Grip Control makes the most of the available grip in different conditions) which means there’s no bulky transmission tunnel to get in the way in the second row.

There’s plenty of legroom in the centre of the car, but the panoramic sunroof fitted to our GT spec car does eat into headroom.

A fine family seven-seater, then, just as What Car? promised. But how does the 5008 measure up as a tow car?

Stability is our favourite aspect of the Peugeot’s towing performance. It was exemplary in our lane-change test, with just the slightest movement from the rear of the car on the third and fastest attempt at the manoeuvre.

The Peugeot performed well at speed, too. The Al-Ko ATC sensors picked up some slight lateral movement from the van when slowing down, but nothing to make the driver nervous.

With 177bhp and 295lb ft of torque, there’s enough brawn to handle any sensibly matched caravan; the Peugeot towed a tourer weighted to 85% of its kerbweight in a brisk 12.5 seconds.

It’s not just what the Peugeot does that impressed our drivers, but the way it does it. The ride is comfortable, both with and without a caravan hitched up, and the engine is refined and smooth.

For a car of this size and price the Peugeot is rather light – a plus for most owners, but not necessarily for caravanners. However, provided the 5008 makes a suitable match for your tourer it’s an excellent tow car.