Bill Daniels schrieb:

Many of us drive larger vehicles than we might otherwise choose simply to
pull our trailers 1% of the time. 99% of the time, we could be driving,
say, a Volkswagen Passat TDI diesel getting 45mpg.

The Volkswagen Passat TDI is a fairly common tow vehicle in Europe. No
need for a SUV. But then, this has been discussed here many times.