UKC

Evening all,

Wondering what peoples thoughts (or experiences) are on buying used cars with towbars. Do they really point to more wear and tear on the car or do you think the difference is negligible with modern cars (thinking diesel 2litre estate types).

I have always avoided cars with towbars when looking to buy, but am thinking of getting an estate soon and keep seeing the 'right car' at the right price and then the (dreaded?) tow bar in the pics.

Still worth a look in your opinion?

Cheers, M

In reply to ma-ding:
I would not worry about it,and saves the expense of fitting one in the future. A car will get more wear and tear from neglect and been driven badly.

In reply to ma-ding:

I once bought a car with everything 'right' about it. i.e. I bought it off a 90 yo bloke who had owned it since new and kept it in a garage all it's life. He'd only really ever used it to go to the local supermarket and he had all the recepts and a full service history.

It was probably the worst car I've ever owned, started giving me trouble as soon as I got it, cost me around £1,000 per month for 4 months until I finally gave in and scrapped it.

Conversly one of the best car I ever owned was an ex taxi with 250,000 on the clock. Pulled like a train and was gonna last forever.

With those 2 experiences, I don't take much notice of pointers like tow bars any more. I think it's just luck of the draw.

In reply to ma-ding:
Def worth a look as long as its a car that is easily capable of towing in the first place. clutch and brakes may have seen a bit more wear than usual but again, it may have a towbar but never spent much time towing anything. Most don't after all.

In reply to Tiberius:

Had never been asked to do any work before.



Everything that was going to break had already broken.

In reply to Jim Fraser:
I'd say that is quite near the truth of the matter as daft as it sounds

In reply to ma-ding:

Another tip is check what sort of electrics are attached to the tow bar, are they for a caravan or just a trailer.

In reply to ma-ding:

Tow bar might have been fitted to take a bike carrier, rather than for actually towing anything, so ask what they've been using it for.

Whatever it was, if it's a private car, then it won't have been used that much, anyway, unless they're mad keen caravanners or own horses.

Only real concerns generally are extra wear on clutch and brakes - and brakes are fairly easy to replace. Might be worth checking what the replacement cost of a clutch is for the car you're considering, just in case.

In reply to Jim Fraser:

Absolutely, lesson learned, never bothered looking at mileage or old people's cars again

I had a policy, I bough a series of Mondeo's from ebay, generally paid around £500 for them and allowed another £250 for work to replace break pads/disks etc. Then I ran them until they were going to cost more to get through the MOT than they cost me to buy. I got 2 or three years from them all. I don't think it was possible to get cheaper motoring.

tbh similar with my current mx5 (my second), although they were slightly more expensive then the modeo's (£1,200 and £850), and the fuel performance is quite a lot worse. It's still a very cheap way of motoring.

In reply to tradmania:

Yes, black for trailer, white for caravan. The best thing is to speak to the owner, allowing for the fact that they might be lying, so best to ask the questions when not looking directly at the tow bar!

Although a caravan is generally much heavier than a trailer, ask what work they do, they could be a builder who has used a heavily over-laden trailer every week. Similarly if they are a caravaner, what sort of van have they had? Size, number of kids etc. Where do they go on holiday? If they go hundreds of miles with four teenage kids and a huge caravan every weekend then it's taken a lot more punishment than a couple with a ten foot caravan that leaves it on one site for the summer. Ditto lots of foreign holidays towing. Look for the caravan club sticker and the advert for a camp site in the south of france.

As well as the clutch the rear shocks take the most punishment, especially with lots of people/gear in the car and heavy van behind. Knackered rear shocks means four new shocks. So what you're trying to find out is how much work the car has done.

In reply to ma-ding: Ours is mostly used for the bike carrier, or taking stuff to the dump on a trailer. It has towed a caravan about 4 times and hardly noticed it was there. Only real strain on clutch was when van was being parked up the drive.

In reply to ma-ding:

If it has two separate electric sockets by the towbar, then it's probably been used to tow a caravan. A single socket will mean its probably only towed a trailer.

You could also check how much wear there is on the ball of the towbar - lots of use towing something heavy will eventually show as wear on the section nearest the car.

That said, we tow a large trailer-tent - probably 5000 miles over the last three years but I doubt it's had much impact on the car. The school run will have done far more damage.

In reply to steve taylor: Personally, I'd try it out, whatever it's got fitted. Drive it. Talk to the seller, get THEM to drive it. Look for a caravan on the drive. Ask them what they do, where they go. Be prepared for a LONG session, possibly with pictures!

Be honest, tell them of your concern.

Dual Mass Flywheels are usually what kills clutches, and they go around £400-500 depending on spec, another £350ish on top for a clutch. Valeo do a 4 piece solid flywheel conversion kit, around £400 all in.

That's just for the bits, BTW...

In reply to Tim, the Grey:
Yep, me dad got spanked for his on a Mondeo diesel, £800 all told after fitting. I did my clutch over the same weekend for 58 quid and a sore back! Needless to say dad made me buy the beer that weekend.
I guess a good driver with a caravan who looks after his car and loads the van correctly would have a better car than a carless driver in a year old car. <Notice how i never said said WOMAN there>

In reply to blanchie14c: He got off light... Ford price is over £1600 for a Focus!

Right, I'm off to 'image' a partition, wish me luck!

In reply to ma-ding: If the tow bar has been used for a bike rack it means that they probably havn't been using other types of bike rack which could rub paintwork and depending on what sort of boot it has and/or deform the boot lid. Also if it has been used for a trailer it could mean that the interior of the boot is in better nick as all the dirty stuff going to the tip has been in the trailer rather than the boot.
When we last changed our car I made sure the new one has a tow bar, best dessision we made.

One thing to check is that cars used to automatically get rated (not quite sure on correct technical term) for having a towbar. Sometime over the last few years this has changed and manufacturers don't have to get the car rated for a towbar now, so for some cars they didn't bother. From what I can see this was mostly on small sports cars. For instance most MX5 mk1 can have a towbar retro fitted but not the very lates ones or any of the mk2, mk3 etc. Rather anoying as this would be the easiest way to attach a bike rack.

I don't think that estate cars should be effected, but might be worth a double check just in case.

In reply to tradmania: Thats nonsense. If a car has been used to tow a caravan it will probably have been serviced regularly, driven slowly and carefully and been well looked after. When your towing something as heavy as a caravan your car needs to be in tip top condition.

In reply to Tiberius:

Well to me, that would mean everything "wrong" about it:

- short runs from cold so the engine and lubricants etc never get up to proper operating temperature

- local driving, lots of gear changes, braking etc so more wear and tear per 1000 miles than a car that's done good long motorway runs

- kept in garage after short runs....probably lots of condensation problems...brake disks rusting and pitting for example

- service history likely to be full but infrequent...people who rarely use their cars tend to go by the mileage interval requirements rather than adapting them due to low mileage...ie if oil changes recommended at 10,000 miles and it takes 2 years to reach 10k miles, the oil only gets changed every 2 years.

I'd NEVER buy a low mileage, used-around-town car with one careful elderly owner. I've tended to buy cars at around 3 years old with around 20-25k per annum mileage and good service histories. Usually ex fleet cars. I've generally been very happy with them and they've gone on to well over 250,000 on the clock (last 3 I've had).

In reply to tatty112:


Cars used for towing boats (to/from sea, up/down slipways) are often more corroded underneath.

In reply to MaxWilliam: I tow a trailer and a caravan. The white electric socket is just to power the vans internal electrics, nothing to do with towing. Most of my tow cars have had single black electrics only.
Think about it logically. How often do people actually tow? Not very often, even if they are keen caravaners. Mostly they tow to a site and back again. Not whilst there.
When I'm looking for a new car (3yrs old) I always consider a fitted towbar a bonus, as then I don't have to buy one.
I've never had a towing related problem with a car in over 25 years. Service history, and regular use with a reasonable driving distance so it's running at proper operating temperatures are more important than towbars.

In reply to MaxWilliam:

I don't know about your experiences but friends of mine who have had boats big enough to need the car to be in the water have always had the underside of their cars waxoiled.

In reply to winhill:
"Knackered rear shocks means four new shocks"
Why would you replace 4 if only the rears are gone? I know you should always change brakes and shocks across an axle but never heard of doing the lot in one go if only one axle is affected.
And anyhow, shocks are relatively cheap to replace and fit compared to the other obvious wear points from towing as described above. Modern diesel= dual mass flywheel=£300 part + new clutch + possible concentric slave cylinder + 3-4 hrs labour= bloody big dent in wallet.