If you want a tow-bar, don't be put off by it's presence.

There is natural reluctance among non-tuggers but no-one knows what this Avensis has been towing or for what proportion of its mileage.

In 35 years of caravanning, none of my cars have had a fault attributable to towing - that covers Ford, Vauxhall, Subaru, Hundai and Volkswagen brands.

Depends on how many owners and how complete the paperwork is, the towbar on my current 4x4 was fitted at scandalous cost by about Toyota 2 years before i bought it, and i bought it from a motorhome sales centre where it been traded for a new MH, so everything pointed to caravan towing only, i wouldn't have wanted a similar vehicle likely to have been towing plant/diggers around from day one.

As for the Avensis, well towing was hopefully a caravan or camping trailer on longer journeys so letting the engine run nice and hot hopefully leading to a healthy DPF, arguably better use for the car than pottering about on short journeys with probably worse clutch use and numerous failed regens, also it's not a vehicle likely to be bought by the more unsocial elements, so with the obvious careful examination of any car and as much as you can find out about its previous history it wouldn't put me off.

I'd be looking underneath for any tell tale signs of rear end corrosion of exhaust etc just in case it was used for salt water boat launching, though this is most unlikely.

The other sort of towing i would avoid is a car transporter trailer by car trader @ some 2+ tons gross trailer weight, cars used like this are rare but i do see them towing such weights more often than one might expect, hopefully its mileage previous ownership and service history will provide clues as to what it was used for.

Edited by gordonbennet on 21/11/2018 at 14:55