Towing Issues: 4wd car towed, lift tow, audi s4

Question
I got my car towed last night. First off i had the pass in the window but not stuck onto my car. My car is a 2000 audi s4. This car is 4wd and lowed 1.5" in the front. Earls towing towed me and i believe they do nt have any flatbed trucks. When I looked on towspec.com it said "Ground Clearance Warning": Vehicle may require dollies or extra ramping for safe towing or loading.Bridle-Oil Pan Warning: Do not use a bridle that would allow a turnbuckle or hook to contact the oil pan. Bridle should be at least 40" or longer. I am almost positive they would not use dollies. I also had my hand break on and my steering wheel was locked.
Is it possible for him to tow me with my car safely?
and if he towed me from the front w/o dollies the front bumper will scrape on everything, I just got it back from the body shop a week ago where they repainted the bumper. would i be able to charge him for that if it is damaged?

Answer
Man I love questions like this, as they are so hard to do...

I have no idea what kind of equipment "EARLS TOWING" has, and if they have flatbeds or not, they can tow vehicles with or without dollies.

As a side note, think about this, if your car was parked illegally and it was towed using a flatbed and it was either front wheel drive or in your case all wheel drive, just how do you think that it got up on the flatbed and then off the flatbed ????

Its called dragging it, or in the cases of a lot of smart and equipped operators, they would have skates or go-jacks where they can slide or roll the vehicle up onto the flatbed.

Now a standard wheel lift tow truck will reach out and using the lift assembly "PICK THE TIRES STRAIGHT UP" which they are hooked to.  And if they are using dollies (those are the little wheels you seen on the back of the tow truck, then they are hooked under the tires using cross bars for the tires to rest on and then they are "flipped over" and the vehicle is lifted straight up on that end.  

As to being positive that they did not use dollies, well in your vehicles case they would be "DRAGGING" the vehicle down the road leaving nice dark tire marks where the tires where not rolling.

And most every tow company does not try to damage vehicles, but at times things do happen or go wrong and damage occurs...


As to scrapes on the bumper, I am wondering how if the vehicle was lifted from the front as you mentioned, then how would the bumper scrape on everything ???

Lowered vehicles, do suffer damage from speed bumps, driveways, and parking lot dividers on a regular basis and as such have damage - scrapes on the bottom of the bumpers.  I wonder what the reason was that you had the bumper repainted ????

So can you charge him for the damage, sure if you can prove that he did the damage in a court then you most likely can charge him for it. But remember you have to prove it legally, not just you say it happened.


Hope this helps