Declare your tow bars…? !

[Johnson897210]

Quite sobering reading!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs...

https://archive.ph/brzKu

Pls disregard if already posted..

[Moodyman1]

Requires subscription. Maybe you could paste the text here.

[Plyphon]

Good to see they got a resolution.

Though I can see the argument - fitting a tow bar could be anything from a professional installation to my mate Dave with a TIG welder on a Sunday. But I can forgive someone for not thinking something as benign as a tow bar is in the same bucket as bodykits and bean can exhausts.

Really the rules/wording should be clearer - anything that didn't leave the factory on the car counts as a modification. (Note I've not looked at how MSS words this so could already be similarly positioned - and I look forward to someone pointing out "does changing tyres count as a modification" etc)

[Dog Star]

In my experience fitting a towbar adds no cost to insurance and in some cases brings it down - Hastings gave me £26 back.

[mac96]

Plyphon said:

Good to see they got a resolution.

Though I can see the argument - fitting a tow bar could be anything from a professional installation to my mate Dave with a TIG welder on a Sunday. But I can forgive someone for not thinking something as benign as a tow bar is in the same bucket as bodykits and bean can exhausts.

Really the rules/wording should be clearer - anything that didn't leave the factory on the car counts as a modification. (Note I've not looked at how MSS words this so could already be similarly positioned - and I look forward to someone pointing out "does changing tyres count as a modification" etc)

Trouble is that definition sounds good but doesn't always work.
My last car, a 2016 Mustang, left the factory in the USA, then (in common with every UK bound Mustang at the time) had work done on it at the European importers and then had catalogue options which if chosen could be added in the UK by the dealer. All to produce the car as shown at the time in the Ford catalogue.
I am sure other cars have similar complicated processes, of which most buyers will be unaware. I only knew from Mustang forums full of people with a new Mustang on order and following their car's progress.

[essayer]

Discussed here
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Pica-Pica]

I imagine an insurer would believe that, by fitting a tow bar, you intend to tow. Driving an articulated combination is an additional skill that has to be learnt, therefore there is an additional financial risk for the insurance company.

[Evanivitch]

Pica-Pica said:

I imagine an insurer would believe that, by fitting a tow bar, you intend to tow. Driving an articulated combination is an additional skill that has to be learnt, therefore there is an additional financial risk for the insurance company.

Probably not as valid as an assumption when many are just used to mount bike racks.

[Rushjob]

You think you've got problems over there.... Here in sunny Spain we have to get it fitted by a professional who provides an installation certificate, provide a certificate of conformity specifically for the bar on that vehicle and then take it to an ITV ( MOT equivalent) centre and pay to have it tested there and then entered on the Ficha Tecnica ( vehicle technical report ) before it's legal to use it!