Re: Tow rating of a VW Jetta TDI wagon?
Snapping Turtle....... I remember the TUV being far tougher than the local state inspections........ I imagine the polizei would be mumbling verrucht
I keep our cars in as new condition as I possible can, and I still shake in my shoes, everytime I go to the German TUV (Safety Inspectors).
One small problem, one false word, and they pull your car off the road and take your plates. I just got my 13 year old car through it again “ohne Mangel” (no problems), it tested as new, from a safety, structural, and emissions standpoint. A week before I had already prepared myself for selling (giving it away) it to eastern Europe if it didn't pass.
The Polizei (Police) set up mobile weigh stations on the Autobahn (highway) all the time, and pull vacationers over to check their vehicles, papers, and trailers. If all is not perfect, you don't move it from the spot.
People here tow with these vehicles because they have no other choice. Not because it is a good idea.
The versions sold here also have bigger brakes, larger radiators, oil coolers, heavy duty suspensions, other computer/black box programming. The list of differences just goes on and on. This is all because of the no speed limit Autobahns.
People here drive at very high speeds for hours at a time, this requires the vehicles to be set up to different standards when compared to the same models sold in America. At 110mph you are running in the middle lane of a three lane highway, with the fast lane reserved for those pushing at times upwards of 150mph, and the right lane reserved for trucks & cars with trailers.
Even when taking all these differences into consideration, these vehicles are just not made for towing anything but small trailers. People have these small trailers because they can't have pick-ups.
They are nice vehicles, but they all have specific functions they were designed to do, and at the moment, there is not a non-commercial vehicle on the German market that was designed as a towing vehicle.