Car towed from downtown street today....how 'careful' are these towers??

[joey3k]

Well, I never thought it would happen to me but my vehicle got towed this evening in downtown Toronto.

I'll probably never forget this date as I walked out of my place of work, looked across the street and surprise...no vehicle.
My first assumption was stolen, but then reality set in about 5 seconds later when I realized no one in this world would even bother stealing my car (it's a piece of crap, but I love it to death)

Anyway, called around and found out 'A-Towing' had taken it.

My concern is that I drive a vehicle that has ALL WHEEL DRIVE.
Also my hand-brake was on. Do you think the towing company would have atleast put it on a dolly or used a flatbed truck?

When I went to pick it up from the pound, I asked the guy: 'how did you tow it?' and he looked at me like I was from a different planet.
No answer.

I drove it home...it seemed ok...but you never know...
what do you guys think?


ps. due to construction in the area, they only had one sign up saying no stopping betweeen 4pm-6pm, and it was about 8 pole's down from where I parked.
The sign on my pole simply said: "1-hour parking from 10am-4pm," which I interpreted as meaning that I could only park the car for 1 hour between 10am and 4pm, but after 4pm I was ok to leave it longer than an hour.

meh. $60 city of to parking ticket on top of the tow charge ($114)

bad way to start weekend.

[VorteC]

Unfortunately, I do see AWD cars being towed, rather than flatbedded. But you should call them and ask what kind of tow trucks they use, and if there was an issue that comes up in the future you can blame them..

[evolution921]

Sorry to say many of them don't give a crap when they tow the cars. At least that's the impression I get from watching them do their job. Hopefully everything is ok with your car, i'm sure if your parking brake works fine, then you don't have too much to worry about.

[mudmojo]

Is your car an MT or AT?

[joey3k]

It's an AT

[majesus]

Oh crappy news. Sounds like something that would happen to me. I'd park, get out of my car, look around and I see a sign. One hour parking. Sweet, I'm ok.! Long and behold, it turns out 6 poles down, it was a tow zone. That's awful, I feel for you!

On another note, I hate those tow companies. They drive really fast to pick up a car that's illegally park, so they can rape you with their fees. Here in Vancouver, they are always just plowing down the road, to get there quickly before that illegally parked car is gone. Just today, one of them cutted me off and I'm on my scooter. Take it easy on the little guy. I don't want to be bug wash.

[DragonZealot]

Sorry about your bad experience.

I've seen them using dolly and I've seen them not using dolly. I think if they saw your parking brakes are on they will use dolly.

If you come downtown on a regular basis you should have the instinct that major roads are towing zones during rush hour. Just watch out next time.

Check your owners manual on towing. I think it can still be towed for short distance on rear wheels. (I think).

Edit: Check the towing invoice it may say if they used a dolly cause its an extra charge

[nolimtzel]

say bye to your differential. when u get it back check the diff oil, if its black and crusty with flakes ur fcked.

[DragonZealot]

say bye to your differential. when u get it back check the diff oil, if its black and crusty with flakes ur fcked.

Why woud this cause a problem to the differential?

I thought it would only cause a problem on the AWD transfer case.

[Jin-n-Juice]

I was a Kew Beach last year, and I watched a Benz, Rav4 and another SUV get towed, as they were all illegally parked. They used a dolly on all 3 vehicles.

The tow trucks came pretty quick. I saw the parking enforcement guy come, put in a call, put tickets on all three vehicles, and tow trucks were there in like 5 minutes. Under 10 minutes later, all three cars were gone.

EDIT: I found a pic (The Benz was left of the pic)

[gman]

Careful? Probably not.

However, they do use dolly to lift the rear wheels. It is easier, safer and more fuel efficient for them to tow that way.

[nano]

they dont care they pickup the car and move it

[DaVibe]

They want to get the tow, you think they're going to roll out dollies in downtown Toronto?
Please.

I see how "careful" they are at Yonge & Finch at 4PM all the time ... you can't park on Yonge from 4-6PM, they wait until 4 on the dot and start ticketing and towing ...
They don't care.

[EL820]

This happened to me years ago....

I had my rear-drive Oldsmobile towed by Diamonds. Buddy lifted the front wheels and dragged the rear.

It didn't occur to me at the time that he should be putting up the rear wheels (I was a young driver at the time). Needless to say the transmission was gone the next day. Of course the tow driver denied everything.

I will never ever use Diamonds again!!!

[rayner55]

Is there any legal actions that can be taken if they did in fact screw up someone's AWD?