Quick question vaguely relevant : is it OK for a private vehicle to give another a tow here, same as in UK?
Oh dear that doesn’t sound good Karen, but we live next to a busy departmental road and often see private cars towing.
Obviously doesn’t mean it’s legit, but seems OK.
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I think you need a towing bar to be attached to towing points on both cars not chains or ropes
You’ve been watching the “London Dashcam” YouTube channel. 
His favourite phrase is “always an Audi”…
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Yes, but as @Wozza says, only with a rigid towing bar. Not for the faint hearted, the bar is less than 2 m long and added fun if there’s an offset in the towing eye positions (I kid you not😬).
Indeed, I had exactly that problem helping a neighbour take his wifes car to the garage, me being towed behind with quite a big offset on the bar. The offset was to the right and he almost put me in a ditch. I had to press the horn until be stopped to ask him to drive further away from the road edge.
Hum. Not sure my potential towee would have a towing bar. For sure the vehicle I would be borrowing to do the towing, won’t. Do towing bars come with vehicles or are they a separately findable generic item? It sounds like just like decent jump leads, a towing bar would be good to have around if interchangeable between vehicles.
It’s a generic thing and not car specific. Something like this. Amazon.co.uk
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In Belgium, they teach learners to go all around the outside. I suspect it might be the same here.
You can get them in any car accessory shop - Norauto, Roady etc or brico sheds, they cost about €20 (mine did about 10 years ago). Not vehicle specific, you just need towing eyes which should come with the car.
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Thanks JohnH I’ll have a look as this looks a useful bit of kit. Guessing longer is better.
Thanks also Mark I was not aware this kind of thing was available for non-professional use.
A far cry from being trained by boyfriend as a young gel, to gently apply the brake to keep the rope taut.
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A word of caution. Please check your vehicle handbook to make sure that it is fitted with actual towing eyes and not ‘strap down’ eyes. Strapdown eyes can easily be confused with towing eyes but their purpose is to make it easier to secure your vehicle onto the bed of a breakdown truck or car transporter. Strapdown eyes are NOT suitable for towing as they are designed to take vertical load rather than horizontal strain.
Also, if a rigid bar between two vehicles is not as straight as possible, then some very interesting / alarming / or downright dangerous situations can occur, especially if the lead vehicle has to brake firmly for some reason.
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Have followed up your suggestions and looked around online at fixed towing bars.
Is this type as good as it looks? I like the spring, and that it could tow heavier if needed. Sold under many brands, all look like same item out of same Chinese factory (which could be deceptive).
I’ve no experience of the spring type, mine was much cheaper and used to get a small Citroën to a breakers yard, and a friends ford thing to a garage.
It looks OK though 
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I find Audi drivers to be amongst the worst. Often conceited, frequently aggressive and generally poor drivers.
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You would probably enjoy the London Dashcam YouTube channel. He is a private hire driver based in Sutton who posts his dashcam footage, and his most commonly used complaint is “always an Audi!”
(Note - he does use bad language quite a lot)…
https://www.youtube.com/@thelondondashcam
Sorry just realised I have mentioned this channel twice in this thread. I am not on commission, I just have a memory like a sieve!!
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I feel the need to say I am “fed up” with threads/headlines/whatever which say “The French”… “The English”… etc etc…
I wish people would say “Many” or, at a pinch “Most”… but just lumping a whole nation together in these discussions … is daft (in my opinion…)
mini rant over and done with… normal service resumes forthwith… 
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Ahem
Do be careful that you don’t inadvertently give offense.
Bad driving is not unique to owners of Audis, BMWs or any other marque for that matter.
GoCompare claims to have some data which, overall, shows that Vauxhauls are most likely to be involved in an accident (I appreciate that this is not *quite* the same as overall bad driving but the two are linked) BMW is down in 10th place and Audi on the next screen in 16th place overall.
Admittedly if you look at specific make and model BMW 330 and 530 diesels seem to rate highly but even they are pipped by the Prius in 1st and Saxo in 2nd place. Audi doesn’t get a look in until 11th place with th S3 (oops, guilty as charged). I’m tempted to wonder whether that’s because the Prius is often chosen by taxi drivers (whatever our London cabbie claims if I were to suggest that a specific group have an over abundance of bad drivers I’d offer up private hire drivers as the worst).
The biggest risk facto is being a young and inexperienced driver (20% of all accidents accounted for by drivers aged 16-25 and a whopping 24% by drivers aged 26-35).
Other factors which increase your chance of being involved in an accident are (not surprisingly) living in population/traffic dense areas such as London.
Tony (London Dashcam) is equally scathing about other private hire drivers - he features their bad behaviour regularly and calls them “Sadiq Khan’s Assassins”.