Hello All,

My family’s never had trucks – we’ve always had cars that were rated to tow a small utility trailer full of pine straw, load to the dump, or whatnot a couple times a year. I’m not talking about a jalopy dragging a mobile home with one frayed bungee cord – rather a good car with a good trailer behind a professionally installed hitch driven by someone who’s done plenty of towing over the decades.

It’s getting harder to find cars that are rated by the manufacturer to tow anything, and I’ve been digging into this a little. I’ve got family in Germany, and I’ve spent time over there and seen all sorts of cars towing all sorts of trailers, and they get along fine and the continent of Europe miraculously seems to exist without SUVs the size of Panzers.

In America, however, there seems to be a prejudice that nothing smaller than an Excursion has any business towing a jetski, to use a little hyperbole.

One of the common reasons I hear being bantered about is that the engines or transmissions are different. But, for example, when I compare the humble Canadian Yaris (rated to tow 700 pounds - http://www.toyota.ca/cgi-bin/WebObjects/WWW.woa/16/wo/
Home.Vehicles.Go.YarisHatchback-lgxvpnVVtZh7EkmjwkIKyg/
5.11?v124040e%2ehtml) and the American Yaris (rated to tow nothing, http://www.toyota.com/yaris/specs.html) all the hardware looks the same. The British Yaris is rated to tow more than 1200 pounds, even with its smallest gas engine (http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyo...editorial.jsp?
BV_SessionID=@@@@1319304561.1224440165@@@@&BV_ Engi neID=
cccgadefhhgmlfjcfngcfkmdfkidffh.0&deepLink=YA3 _Spe cification_new&
nodiv=TRUE&fullwidth=TRUE&edname=specSheet _YA3&car Model=Yaris&img
Name=bv/CarChapter/YA3/Imagery/YA3_spec.jpg&zone=Zone%20YARIS).

I contacted Toyota USA and they said they couldn’t comment on what Toyota’s branches in other nations did. I contacted Toyota Canada and they said they couldn’t comment on what Toyota’s branches in other nations did.

I'm going to withhold some of the comments that come to mind praising customer service and cue cards.

So what’s the deal here? Is the Yaris sold in Buffalo really that different from the one sold in Toronto? Is it the distances involved in the countries (umm… Canada’s pretty big)? Or the hardware (I haven’t crawled all over them, but the websites make them look like genetic twins except for some slick marketing)? Environmental (since when are we more environmentally tight than the Germans)? Personally, I hate to be cynical, but I’m wondering if the real factor in play is how many SUVs and trucks the companies think they can sell in each nation (No, your Prius can't tow a kayak. May we interest you in a Land Cruiser?).

And that’s part of where I wind up caring. Do we have a lot of folks driving around in vehicles they don’t need? If you put a hitch on your Camry anyways, will someone say the warranty was voided?

What’s the deal?[/align]

 

It does seem the US is reluctant to offer smaller cars. One issue may be selling smaller cars results in smaller profits. There may also be issues with passing the US crash and emissions tests.

Not sure why the same car is rated for towing in one country and not another. Suggest checking trailer hitch sites such as www.etrailer.com to determine if a hitch is offered. Toyota may not recommend towing on a car but this does not mean it can not be done. Although you may have to install the hitch and not a shop for liability issues.

The Camry does have a tow rating. Something like 1000 lbs which can be easily towed.

Apparently the Ford Fiesta is coming back to the US thus Detroit is learning.

 

here's the ford festiva. N/A in the U.S.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradv...ot-the-us.html

 

Very interesting.

As I understand it, tow ratings are based on how much can be towed without critical bits overheating. So, the key bits are:
radiator size (and maximum ambient temphigher in southern US than in Canada or UK)
oil coolerhave one?
transmission coolerhave one?

Fitting a transmission cooler to a tow vehicle without one is always a good idea. I believe that the transmission is generally the weak link. This assumes that the transmission is an automatic. Cars with manual transmissions can have lower tow ratings.

 

I believe it has more to do with laws and insurance than it has to do with the car itself. Which is why you get the answers you do from Toyota, they have no control over what laws the countries enforce on vehicles.

 

State laws can limit towing capacity, when trailer brakes are required, etc. In this state a hitch dealer cannot install a hitch on a vehicle that does not have a tow rating. Yet, the owner can install or make their own hitch and be legal.

The auto companies decide what tow capacity a car has. They do this based on safety, gross vehicle weight, type of vehicle. It would not help them if the pickup or SUV they sold had a very low tow rating yet most buyers of sedans rarely tow and may not need a high towing capacity

From a liability standpoint the Toyota dealer can only state info provided by Toyota.