Genuine Towbar

[Cabansail]

My 24 Month service is due soon. I have also been looking at fitting a Towbar. While I am ok with some accessories being non-genuine I feel that a Towbar can be quite intrusive and has the potential for impacts on warranty. So I rang the local dealer to get a quote. They gave me a price for the parts, which is about the same as the non genuine bars (AU$790) but the fitting they said would be between AU$1000 and AU$1200 as it is very difficult to install and would take most of the day to complete. I said from my research there is a socket in the car and the new loom is connected to that, then the Trailer Socket is mounted. The actual bar bolts in but the rear bumper plastic needs a section cut to fit. One company will supply the whole lot with links to a fitting video guide. They say it takes about 2 hours to do the job at home with basic tools. They still insisted the fitting is complex and requires extensive modification to the rear wiring loom.

I rang another dealer, about 100km away, who sold the car to the previous owner. They gave me to same price for the genuine bar and said that MG recommends allowing two hours labour to fit. The whole job will be about AU$1100. They emailed me a quote for the part and asked I give at least a week notice to allow them to get in the parts. I guess I will go there instead.

 

[mg4]

I got the tow bar 2 years ago. I paid for it together with the car. It then cost 1295 EUR for the total package, not just the parts.

I had to wait few monts for the towbar to be fitted, apparenlty my model was part of some batch with faulty electric box/controller for the towbar. It meant that the turn signals get crossed amongst the list of other defects.

So my MG dealer (in the Netherlands) had to wait for the box and find a day to fix it plus install the towbar. The box i did not need to pay for, it was under warranty.

So, just really double check that your turn signals do work correctly no matter which installer you go with.