I asked my local VW dealer to quote me to fit a tow bar and electrics to my Golf. Mr service desk man, he say no! They are just not interested in that sort of work, despite the fact that the item is included in their accessories list. However, he did have the heart to recommend a local outfit that they used to use.
In the end, it was cheaper than what VW would have charged had they undertaken the work. The fitter told me that when customers wanted to fit them, VW would call him in, pay him and charge extra for their profit on the deal.
Seems to have done a nice job. He was there 2hrs, fitted a Westphalia Flange bar with electrics. £235 all in. Refused all offers of tea! All I gotta do now is buy a Thule Ride On bike carrier, sorted for the hols'.
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Honda retrofitted to my CRV and my previous Roomster. All genuine OE parts. Surprisingly Honda were cheaper as well.
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My mate has a Focus and the local main dealer wasn't interested either. Honda must be benevolent!
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Perhaps they just recognise that their price will be ridiculous.
There was story somewhere the other day about BMW chaging £1800 to fit an X5 with a towbar but £700 of that is for an extra cooling fan that BMW mandate.
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Toyota wanted something in the region of £450 to supply and fit a towbar to the pick up when supplying new...i thought that was ridiculous enough.
I sourced a Witter for about £130, fitted it meself as it's a (heavy) doddle having an open ladderchassis, and my sparky wired it inside the cab away from all water problems whilst doing some other mods at the same time.
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Perhaps they just recognise that their price will be ridiculous.
Thats it... well partly....
We priced one up today...(approx prices)
£950 for the bar and electrics.... also needs:
uprated radiator £300
uprated cooling fan £250
transmission oil cooler £500
upgraded electric control unit/fuse box £300
front bumper, with additional cooling slots £300 + paint
thats around £2600 for parts.. plus paint....
fitting £ dunno..... is down as time taken.... not done one before so would need to make an educated guess..... maybe 5 hours?
Now... you could say, the after market guys dont upgrade the cooling system, so why would we (as main dealers)
the answer.... liability... if we dont do the job as per manufacturers spec, we are liable for any grief that follows.
in all honesty, unless the customer was towing a van, on the weight limit, up a steep hill, in a heat wave, the chances of overheating are slight.... BUT..............
Not worth the risk.
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innit nice on older cars
mini , origional version , £38 for the tow bar £12 for the bkt/skt and wire , 7 x scotchlocks
couple off bolts
job done ,,
sigh , it beats me why you pamper to your "dealer" ,
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Moggie Minor, bumper off, bit of angle iron, two holes drilled for tow ball (that took the longest), scotchlok the electrics (including additional indicator relay). £peanuts.
It was only for towing a Mirror dinghy, (who remembers them, built from a kit)?.
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I wouldn't scoff too much at the need for possible additional cooling and vents for towing. When pulling bigger caravans it'd be very easy to cook an autobox in quite a short amount of time.
It does happen too.
Plus, cheapest isn't always best. Proper plug-in kits to CAN electrics will cost a lot more than by-pass kits, but you can be sure that the car's bulb failure detection, parking sensors, ESP (and trailer stability, if fitted) systems will all work *with* the towed equipment, rather than against it. Plus, I've never been keen on the idea of wiring equipment directly to the battery (which is what these by-pass kits do), it seems asking for trouble (insurance wise) if you ever get an engine fire...
You pays your money...
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Just for the record i found some scotch locks here at work yesterday and i threw them away.
I haven"t used these devices on cars for 10 years nowAas i dont like them,they cause too many problems i find
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>I wouldn't scoff too much at the need for possible additional cooling and vents for towing. When pulling bigger caravans it'd be very easy to cook an autobox in quite a short amount of time.
<
Just to make it clear, I wasn't scoffing, just wondering how far responsibility extends when you fit a towbar for someone. Presumably independent firms who carry out fitting don't consider they are responsible for how the towbar is used or abused.
Does anyone know of a case against a manufacturer, manufacturer's agent or towbar fitting firm for later overheating damage to the vehicle?
Manufacturers advise in their handbooks about maximum towing weights and avoiding overheated transmissions, etc, don't they?
Where exactly does responsibility end?
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>>i threw them away.
Shrewd fellow - nasty awful things.
There are some very nice crimped connectors with built in heat shrink - they make a strong neat connection.
However, more often than not, I make a proper soldered joint.
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My local Skoda dealer produced a ridiculous quote to fit an "approved Skoda" towbar to my Superb - about 400 pounds as I remember.
I bought a Bosal towbar (new) for a Passat on eBay and fitted it in an hour. The car was pre-drilled at all of the pickup points with masking tape covering the holes, sprayed body colour. Everything is a perfect fit.
For the wiring, I soldered short lengths of cable to the rear light busbars fitting proper in-line connectors to interface with the 7 core cable. This produced a neat job and enables the rear lamp carriers to be easily removed for routine bulb changing.
I wonder what the "approvals merchants" would make of a Passat towbar on a Skoda? (They're the same car, of course).
To return to the subject of the header, it's fairly obvious that with dealer overheads as they are, the only profitable work for them is servicing (an oil change if you're lucky, most other things ignored) brakes and cambelts.
Use an independent wherever possible - they are in charge of their own business plans and a good one will give you a fair deal.
659.
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My last 3 and the current Suzuki have all been used for the caravan. All 4 have been fitted by me with towbars from A1 Towing of Rotherham...delivered very promptly to the door.
The Vitara was easy......4 captive nuts inside the bottom of the chassis...just screw the bolts up and job done. Not!.....Mr Suzuki had made sure one of the nuts had no thread.
Had to cut a flap in the side of the chassis with a 1mm disc, heat and peel back the steel and put a new nut in. Flap welded back, painted and all boxed off. Good job it was accessible for the angle grinder.
One of the best towcars I had was, surprisingly, a 97 Punto 1700 Turbo Diesel. It stormed along at the legal limits with a Coachman Mirage 13ft van and sipped DERV at the same time.
Ted
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My local Mazda dealer outsources tow bar and parking sensors - SWMBO had both on her M2 and both are Mazda accessories with warranty.- salesman said their mechanics are mechanics?? not tow bar fitters. I did find the tow bar fitter left all bumper screws loose.
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What would be the warranty implications of using an independent to fit a towbar to a newish car? I wasn't sure (nor were PU and some others when I raised the question here in May) so we had our Toyota dealer fit the detachable towbar we wanted for our Verso. It wasn't cheap but was done very neatly and we know there'll be no quibbling later if any problems arise. The price included a courtesy Auris, and our car came back washed and vacuumed, which all helps.
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Probably no direct warranty implications, but if the installation requires holes to be drilled through the bodywork (as they often do), then you can be sure the corrosion and anti-perforation warranties will be null and void should an indy (or yourself for that matter) fit the towbar.
Edited by TheOilBurner on 10/08/2009 at 09:53
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...Probably no direct warranty implications,...
My concern with using an independent to fit a tow bar is you are giving the dealer a ready made excuse to reject anything remotely connected with it.
So any electrical fault could be blamed, however unfairly, on the work done to fit the tow bar.
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exactly the reason I'm getting the Volvo dealer to do mine. Fixed towbar, single electrics on V50 including pick up/drop off and courtesy car for £380 all in. I was also concerned/paranoid about future warranty claims for electrics being rejected due to towbar wiring outside of dealer network.
£380 possibly expensive for a towbar fitting place but not too bad for a main dealer I hope.
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Why don't manufacturers design the steel inner structure of the rear bumper and its brackets so they double up as the towbar. The the plastic bumper could have a small removable panel, which you simply take off and bolt on the towhitch and electrical socket(s)..
Edited by Sofa Spud on 10/08/2009 at 10:43
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Weight and cost reasons I expect. How many cars have a towbar fitted? I don't know, but it's surely not the majority.
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When I had a towbar fitted, they had to take out the bumper brackets that reach forward into the floorpan and replace them with the similarly shaped forward-facing prongs of the towbar assembly. That's what made me think that the hidden parts of the towbar could be engineered into the cars structure so you just need to add the hitch and sockets.
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That's quite unusual, I think, from my experience. It'd be handy if they could all do it that way.
All the tow bars I've fitted (six in all) have been the type where a large cross piece of metal is bolted into place behind the bumper and through the chassis rails. Usually it adds about 20kg or thereabouts in weight, and is a costly additional piece of metal, hence my comments about weight and cost.
But it's a good point, perhaps with a little more forethought it needn't be so expensive and require so many extra parts to be fitted.
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When I got s towbat fitted to my Scenic by an Indie, he left the bumper bar in my boot for me as this had to come off for the towbar to go on. This effectively was a beam that ran the full length of the inside of the bumper to give it its strength.
When I got my Altea XL, I didn't get a towbar fitted as SEAT didn't do one, and no indies could do them either as the pattern part wasn't on the market yet.
Eventually some indies did start quoting for them but it seems the electrics are a bit of a nightmare to do.
Also, I have never found the answer, what happenes with your reversing sensors? OK when trailer is connected the sensors automatically disconnect but what happens other times, do the sensors pick up the towball?
And no smart answers about who needs sensors when you have a towball.....
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Can't answer for anything other than VAG or Honda. CRV has switchable sensors (dashboard) apart from being a reasonable solution the switch and associated warning light is out of sight. In the Skoda, connecting the electrics automatically disconnected the sensors - a bonus of having the towbar fitted by the dealer and a far more elegant solution than Honda's.
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For your reversing sensors to continue working correctly you'll need a detachable towball. That way, with proper plug-in electrics they'll turn off when you're towing and work fine when you're not.
If you use a fixed towball, then whether or not you use the plug-in or by-pass, the sensors will not work properly.
It's a bit of a pain, cost wise, but at least with a detachable towball you don't bash your shin on it when loading stuff into the boot!!!
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Can you get semi-detached ones for the less well orf or those starting out on the towbar ladder ?
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Then there's social towbars....
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