These Are Your Worst Tow Truck Experiences

You never want to see your cars at the end of a hook or on a flat-bed trailer. We asked our readers earlier this week for their worst tow truck experiences. While we received our fair share of misadventures that led to costly tow bills, the majority of comments groaned about the bad behavior of towing companies and individual drivers, from towed cars being held for ransom to drivers undervaluing the importance of race ramps. Without further ado, here are your most frustrating anecdotes:

I had a towing company put my 993 onto a flatbed. The car was lowered a bit, and I just had the front splitter painted three days before. I told the guy we needed race ramps so the paint doesn’t scratch, which he immediately dismissed. I then watched him pull the car up to the flatbed and scratch the paint. I told him to let off and noted that the paint was scratched. He proceeded to get angry, saying that I had accused him of the act, and the scratch was clearly already there. I was furious. If you’re in Orange County, CA, and need a tow, avoid the towing company that starts with H.

Submitted by: Kevin Capo

Worst (not me – but I was involved in the accident) – tow truck tried to tow a Tesla by hooking/lifting the front, letting rear wheels roll… Tire smoke all over the highway and the car was swinging wildly behind him. To be fair, he’d already loaded another car on the bed, but still.. Not sure if the Tesla owner didn’t put it in Neutral, or if Teslas don’t have a Neutral mode for towing, and since they’re either AWD or RWD, have to be towed on a flatbed.

Submitted by: TurboAWD

I have a worst and a best. TL;DR – I got towed, sued, won, didn’t get paid, 15 years later I pursued collection in court, I won with 15 years of 12% compound interest. The tow company got to eat it. 🙂

Longer: A friend and I both got towed. We missed the signage that was ten feet up in a tree. The tow company also damaged my Subaru Outback Sport (my first new car!). So I took them to court (both vehicles) for improper tow since the signage did not meet city ordinance requirements. I won the towing fees, but lost the damage (I had no photos, the tow company owner lady lied and said there was rust). She was to pay me $280 for the two car tows plus fees. She didn’t pay. The statute of limitations is 15 years, with a 12% interest compounded annually. I pursued collecting at the 11th hour. In court, “I don’t keep records for 15 years!” she said. The judge did not care, nor did he believe her. 🙂

Submitted by: FredSchwartz

Mine’s more of a best or at least a silver lining: I was about four blocks from home when the distributor in my ’91 240SX just…expired, died, ceased distributing. So that was a $60 trip of less than a half-mile, but after unloading at home, the driver found a bolt on the flatbed that happened to be for the knock sensor that I had dropped and lost to the depths of the engine abyss. IDK if there was any karmic interplay with my distributor dying and running without a knock sensor temporarily but I did get it put back on, without removing the intake manifold even, which is usually necessary.

Submitted by: Karl F Suhr

I blew a rear tire on my ’94 Supra in BFE South Carolina around 2 am on a Sunday during a road trip with my gf at the time (no spare). I thought, given the time and location, we would surely be hosed until at least 9 am. To my surprise, a dispatch was able to confirm someone to come out then & I told them to make sure they had wood to get the car on the flatbed as it was low. Tow truck showed up an hour later, & I kid you not, the clown that got out of it’s name was “Gator”. Gator might as well have brought two twigs with him for wood to get on the truck. About halfway of pulling it on the wood, one snapped in half, & the car dropped. I told him thanks, but we’re done here and to unhook it because I had already had the Supra’s front bumper torn off before by another incompetent tow truck driver. At this point, Gator decides to threaten us, and tries to start forcefully pull the car onto his truck. After an almost physical altercation, I unhooked the car myself & sent the clown on his way. I called back dispatch to report Gator and fully accepted that we would be chilling till the morning, but surprisingly, they said they had someone else who could come. He called himself & said he wouldn’t be there for a couple hours, but he had towed exotics before (literally a new at the time Murci SV & Phantom the day before). Around 5, he showed up & it was probably the best tow I’ve ever received. Not only did he get it on with ease, he wrapped the whole car in a protective film, ending the nightmare.

Submitted by: Crashed Lambo

On some PA highways, there are only a select number of tow operators that are allowed to work; these companies are not all quality businesses. I was rear-ended on I-476 and though the car was technically drivable (it was totaled), I wasn’t going to complete my drive home without a working seatbelt for all passengers, so the car was towed. The tow company that took it hid the car in some lot of theirs while my insurance company was trying to recover the vehicle for nearly a month. I had to take time off work, the tow company threatened myself, the insurance reps and the insurance tower to be charged with trespassing while we were getting the PA State Police involved so that we could recover the vehicle. I am not sure what my insurance company did about the storage/hostage fees but I believe that it probably started with “Our lawyers will be in touch”.

Submitted by: Cluck

Battery died in my Audi 200 at the grocery store, it was like five miles from my house and I didn’t take my phone with me. It was about two hours from closing time when I made the initial call, when they told it me it would be around an hour and a half before they got there. Of course, since I had no phone, they couldn’t call me.

Two hours later, they haven’t shown up; employees are leaving the store. So I walk to a pay phone across the street and ask them where the tow truck is. They reply he already came and didn’t see me, so he left. I know I didn’t see the tow truck come, so I tell them I’ve been there the entire time. I tell them that I’ll be easy to find now since I’m the only car in the lot. They get there in another hour.

Submitted by: Jumbojeepman

Nürburgring. I money-shifted my E36 rental race car at Flugplatz. Short shifter, car I had never driven, hit 3rd instead of 5th from the top of 4th gear. Didn’t even have the clutch all the way out when I realized I wasn’t in 5th, but the motor had already hit 8,000rpm and the valves didn’t enjoy those sorts of speeds.

Anyhow, I was able to pull off to a safe spot just in time to see a GT3 crash in a spectacular manner just behind me. That car was toast, and the driver left in an ambulance, but I later found out from the YouTube video that he was ok (car not so much). So that ended up being quite the wait since clearing the wreck was obviously the top priority and it shut down the track for a couple hours. A few hours later, the surly tow driver arrives. They do not allow you to ride in the tow truck, which meant I had to ride with the track marshals off the track. That would have been fine, except the rental place was a couple miles from the track and I had no ride to get back and settle up with the rental company. Ended bumming one.

Of course, I expected a big bill for the motor, but I was shocked to see a fee of over $600 US just for a sub-10-mile tow. It was explained that the tow company has a monopoly and they can basically charge whatever. Moral of the story: breaking things at the ring is very expensive.

Submitted by: Neal Richards