[Iceberg]

I was in the CinqueTerre region of Italy this past weekend and saw that someone had simply ignored this sign:


As you'd expect, they had their car towed.


The car started out to be much farther away from the truck. However, the tow driver would lift the front an inch or two, causing the back wheels to roll an inch and then slide. In the end, the tow driver never added dollies to the car's rear wheels and there was no impound lot for 50 km in any direction. I would think that this tow would certainly destroy the transmission. Am I correct?

[wj4]

This is how a lot of cars are towed here in the U.S. I think it'd be fine.

If the car was AWD, then the tranny would definitely be messed up as you are only suppose to flat bed an AWD car.

[Eazyrock]

That sucks.. Not sure about the trani question, but atleast they didn't yank the car up by its control arms like some lazy tow people do.

[HappyG]

Sucks to be towed.

[Revlis]

Nope that will likely cause a lot of issues down the road. God forbid it's an Automatic placed in Neutral. But even the 6-speed is flat bed or Dolly only. Sucks to be the tool who parked it there.

[pokerface]

I know tow truck drivers usually break into the car to release the handbrake.OBviously for automatics it doesn't really benefit that much. I guess it was a stick?

[Revlis]

Originally Posted by pokerface

I know tow truck drivers usually break into the car to release the handbrake.OBviously for automatics it doesn't really benefit that much. I guess it was a stick?

Duh... Really good point. No way to tow the Automatic unless you have the key... I hadn't thought of that. Early on the west coast and all.

[OhhaiAlex]

poor bimmer, I would be

[AndreyATC]

Originally Posted by wj4

This is how a lot of cars are towed here in the U.S. I think it'd be fine.

If the car was AWD, then the tranny would definitely be messed up as you are only suppose to flat bed an AWD car.

Nope.

FX45 = AWD and picked up by front wheels (rear roll)
Bimmer = RWD, other way around, they lift rear and car rolls on front wheels

That's NYC

[noktekniq]

damn i would sue the tow company for being retarded and unprofessional

[alistair]

Originally Posted by Revlis

Duh... Really good point. No way to tow the Automatic unless you have the key... I hadn't thought of that. Early on the west coast and all.

You can release the shift interlock and put it into neutral without the key though, can't you? (just a handy screwdriver to push the emergency release button?)

Not that a tow-driver would bother doing that anyway....

[achien]

Originally Posted by pokerface

I know tow truck drivers usually break into the car to release the handbrake.OBviously for automatics it doesn't really benefit that much. I guess it was a stick?

Not a chance, what if there are valuables stored inside the car.

Tow drivers can "tow" the car, but they will be breaking the law if they "break into" the car.

[JIMD1709]

BMW's need to be on a flatbed. Short of that it might be "OK" to lift from the rear, front wheels rolling, but not the front lifted. This will likely cause some tranny or rear diff. damage on a RWD car, auto or manual. And, he may not have any recourse, since he parked illegally.

[siriusinvestor]

How about not parking your car in a no parking zone? At school some douch bag parked there car right behind my vehicle, leaving me no room to back out of my parking spot to leave that day. The two options were 1) Wait 4 hrs until the last classes were dismissed, then wait for the vehicle owner to move or 2) Call the school tow truck to take the car away. I obvously decided on #2. The car was a FWD economy car, so no damage done there. But, seriously if you just follow the fucking rules none of this shit would happen.

[ironic]

yeah tow with front wheel on the ground

[BMWCali]

Originally Posted by AndreyATC

Nope.

FX45 = AWD and picked up by front wheels (rear roll)
Bimmer = RWD, other way around, they lift rear and car rolls on front wheels

That's NYC

Yes, that's how they do it. I know BMW recommends you only use a flat-bed for a tow though. Some idiot tow truck drivers just don't give a shit though.

[BMWCali]

Originally Posted by JIMD1709

BMW's need to be on a flatbed. Short of that it might be "OK" to lift from the rear, front wheels rolling, but not the front lifted. This will likely cause some tranny or rear diff. damage on a RWD car, auto or manual. And, he may not have any recourse, since he parked illegally.

On an Automatic I'd imagine there'd be severe damage considering at the time of the tow the car would be in park. Would the rear wheels even roll? I suppose they would but there'd be quite a bit of smoke from the parking brake being activated. I remember many years ago my dad and I were driving back home on the highway and we drove for 20 minutes at 80MPH and he had the parking brake on the whole time. Lots of smoke when we finally stopped! Smelled horrible, too. Yeah, and he did it again a week later.

[Iceberg]

I figured that since the police truck-thing was right behind the car, and given how Italian police like to flex their muscles, they wouldn't give a crap about the owner's tranny. In fact, I think the owner might get charged for the skids left in the road, since it's an Italian national park and they like to bill people for crazy things...

[ejazbmw]

isn't that awd? I thought your not suppose to get them towed like that?, last time they used a flatbed truck since i told them it was AWD

[ShinBalNom]

LOL. I'd be pissed if my car got towed like that. RWD needs to be towed with the rear up.
BMW roadside assistance is really good about sending you a flat-bed tow truck. thank God.

[DaveStinsman]

Alot of the times they can't access the rear of the car. So they'll drag it to get access to the rear to lift it from there. Still wont help if it's all wheel drive.

[AndreyATC]

Originally Posted by ShinBalNom

LOL. I'd be pissed if my car got towed like that. RWD needs to be towed with the rear up.
BMW roadside assistance is really good about sending you a flat-bed tow truck. thank God.

Not to mention your car will scrape the front bumper against the pavement if lifted too high or if road is crappy