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A cautionary tale. 

People may or may not be aware that when purchasing a new German car complete with a factory fitted towbar it will not (in all likelihood) be wired up to UK specification for caravan towing.  We purchased a new BMW X3 in September, with factory fitted towbar.  We are currently waiting for delivery of our new caravan, and have just discovered that BMW only set up the wiring for towing a trailer.  Without now paying out extra for retrofitting the additional wiring we cannot charge our leisure battery, power our fridge or power the Al-ko ATC whilst towing. 

I’m not happy about this, and OH has spoken to the dealership, as no mention of this shortcoming of the BMW Towbar was made when we ordered it as an extra.  The excuse given – German market doesn’t require it – so they don’t do it.  Well if you follow that argument to its’ logical conclusion then why bother moving the steering wheel – it works OK in Germany!! Grrhh

On doing research online it appears that this problem isn’t confined to BMW as VW owners have also discovered. 

So – if ordering a factory fitted towbar that you want to use to tow a caravan ensure you confirm with the dealer that it will be specced up accordingly.

Very clear in the sales brochure when I ordered my new car, factory fit towbars only include wiring for trailer road lighting; if needed for towing a caravan then purchase a dealer fit towbar, which I did and no problems.

I also ordered factory tow bar preparation, wiring for trailer lighting put in at time of build to rear of car and ECU and canbus was set up at the same time, fitter just plugged in for lighting and put in extra wires for caravan fridge, battery charging etc.

Unfortunately it was not mentioned by the salesman at our local BMW Dealership or any mention of it in the sales brochures, as believe me OH went over the various options for months before deciding to buy.  At the end he knew more about the car than their own so called "Product Genius" - yes a genuine job title!  

I did do a quick search on here to see if it had already been raised, but couldn't find anything obvious without reading every topic with the word "towbar" in it, hence my reason for posting - to try an avoid anyone else having the same issue.   

Glad it's OK - seems that VW have sorted this :) 

We've done more investigation on our towbar with OH testing the current through the pins and it now seems that everything will work except the fridge when towing.  If this is the case I can live with that - it'll take a long time for us to spoil £500 worth of food, which is the discounted price quoted for retrofitting.