Sad story for everyone
Just witnessed a hard breaking situation.

New Lancer SE AWD owner had 3 flat tires, full of nails. Now if that wasnt enough bad luck, when he called CAA, they came to tow the vehicle and towed it the 2wd way and not on a flat bed.

Warning to all new Lancer owners of the SE AWD trim level. make sure you put stickers everywhere saying the car is "All wheel drive" All wheel control was not understood by the tow truck driver.

 

=( sad stuff

maybe cuz it's so new? but that's what i hear, tow truck drivers dont care about whether your car is awd or not or whatever

 

by by center diff good new is the tow company should pay for the replacement!

 

What kind of damage would this cause? I havent driven a AWD car before but i do know they cant be towed.

 

Same thing happened to my evo. It doesnt destroy the center diff it just drastically wears the friction plates. I'm still driving on it 35k miles later..

Oh and I asked the towing about replacing it and they laughed, so good luck with that.

 

I have one of these on my windshield right above my VIN. All my previous vehicles had one as well in the same location.



The owner should have known better than to let the tow truck driver do that. There are loads of warnings in the owners manual and the dealership should have notified the buyer of the potential issues of two wheel towing as well.

It does remind me of this story though.

http://jalopnik.com/5619674/the-nypd...-a-nissan-gt+r

 

AWD cars CAN be towed, but they need either to be put on a flat bed, or on dolly wheels. Because of the way that all the wheels want to turn together, if you have one end locked up on a truck, and the other rolling on the ground, it is just causing strain (at minimum) or breakage (at worst) to the center diff, or other parts. If you read the manual in the AWD cars, it even says that using a donut spare is bad, due to its smaller diameter, and thats just one wheel spinning differently than the rest, not 2 forcing passed a locked drivetrain.


I'm a little surprised by the incompetance of the tow driver. Most that I have seen will lift one end really high and take a peek underneath to make sure they have the drive wheels off the ground. Sounds like this tow operator just ASSumed.

 

- It's a sad thing, but stickers or no stickers:
1. The car owner has the owner manual at hand and should have read through it when the car was delivered. Wouldn't any of you do this???. I actually keep mine in the car in glove compartment and not at home.
2. You can request a flat bed truck when you call up for tow.

I would not trust a tow truck driver to know the right way to tow my car untill it is verified and agreed upon by both, owner and the truck driver.

The owner is as responsible for possible damages to transmission and diff as the tow truck driver: 50/50.

 

That's really sucks but more than likely the towing company will simply refuse to pay it because the owner didn't request a flat bed and for the simple fact that most companies will claim no fault for any physical or mechanical damage done to a vehicle while towing it.

Years back my fathers van needed to be towed and some how the tow driver managed to damage the rear rockers trying to pick up the van and when my dad *****ed at him about it he had claimed that on the paper work it states they take no responsibility. It was only a work van but still it's the fact these scum bags cover their backs when they screw up.