MANUFACTURERS F.A.Q.S
Why Was The 94/20/EC Type Approval For Towbars Introduced
Directive 94/20/EC was introduced as part of European Whole Vehicle Type Approval to provide a common standard throughout the European Community, thus creating an open market. Irrespective of where a towbar has been manufactured, providing it has been Type Approved, a customer will know that it has been manufactured to a known technical and quality Standard.
Will My Warranty be Invalidated
94/20/EC was introduced to create a free trade. If you have any of our supplied Type Approved Towbars fitted it will not invalidate your vehicles warranty. Under EC Block Exemption Rules a motor vehicle manufacturer cannot prevent a franchised outlet from supplying or fitting components deemed to be of equal quality to that supplied by the vehicle manufacturee - such as a Type Approved Towbar.
Universal Towbar Wiring
In order to protect the warranty on a new vehicle, the manufacturer and their dealership network would insist that any towbar wiring must be equivalent to that supplied by themselves. Universal aftermarket wiring would not meet their requirements, so to protect the warranty on a new car, strictly speaking you do have to have Vehicle Specific Towbar Wiring installed. However, to clarify, the warranty can only be affected on those parts of the car directly affected by the towbar wiring, so for example if you have aftermarket towbar wiring installed, and your gearbox fails, the warranty on the gearbox would not be affected. In reality, so long as towbar wiring is professionally installed, it is very rare to get a problem arising from aftermarket universal towbar wiring.
Vehicle Specific Wiring
In order to protect the warranty on a new vehicle, the manufacturer and their dealership network would insist that any towbar wiring must be equivalent to that supplied by themselves. Vehicle specific wiring complies with this requirement so any warranty on your car would not be affected at all by the towbar wiring installation.