Towing Issues: My car has been towed, and now its a problem., 2006 nissan murano, nissan murano

Question
First to start, I'm a resident of New York City and got my car towed in NYC. I drive a 2006 Nissan Murano SL AWD.

Last week, I've seen the time wrong and parked my car
in a NO STANDING zone and got it towed away.
On the same day, I got back the car from the tow pound,
and a day or two later I found my car making noises
and trembling at turns.

So, I've asked my brother to take it to a mechanic today
and gave me a call back telling me that the mechanic told
him that the damages were made from the towing process
because of 'forced tow'.

He didn't get the estimate of the price because the
mechanic was a good friend of his and tipped him that he
should take it to the dealer and get it fixed through the
extended warranty on the car.

I might have to call back the mechanic because my brother
didn't even find out what exactly was wrong with it. On top of that, nowhere in the tow receipt shows what technique was used to tow the car, and given the fact that
the mechanic assumed that the car was forcefully towed,
I guess they didn't remove the driveshaft before towing it.

As the mechanic told him, I'm planning to drop it off in
the dealer without telling them it has been towed before.

I'd like the least of hassle so if the dealer fixes with
no cost, I'm more than fine with that, but if they charge
me for the malfunctioning parts, would I be able to make
requests for reimbursement or file a small claim?

Thank you very much in advance for your concern.

Answer
First of all I have to say I am sorry that you live in NYC and got towed, because the Police Department runs the towing division and as such they tend to enjoy "relief from responsibility for damages" done while towing from what I have been able to determine and have heard...

In a nutshell that means they can generally tear things up and no one can touch them... I know that is not right, but it happens when dealing with the cities operations...

NOT TO SAY, that you can not take them to small claims court and win, but that is how it has to be done most of the time...

Now as to "forcefully towing" it should of been placed on "tow dollies" (The small wheels on the back end of the tow truck" but in a perfect world we all know how that works, its not perfect...

It does sound as if it was damaged during the tow and as such the City should be responsible for making it right.  At the end of the answer is a link to what an online towing recommendation place says about towing your vehicle.



As to the dealer repairing it under the extended warranty, I would like to hope that it is going to be covered, but tow damage does also show up to most trained mechanics due to things which get damaged...(I am not a transmission mechanic, but I have seen some pictures before of tow damage and its easy to see what happened)

I hope this helps, but good luck, who knows you might get the city to pay for the damage if you keep on them about what happened.






http://www.towspec.com/vehent/vehview.aspx?ID=2294