Tow Bar for the Tiguan

[IsDon]

I heard the same thing but I haven't read anything officially confirming that it's the case. My understanding is that it doesn't meet Australian Standards. Australian standards are pretty strict, a lot more conservative to Europe.

Half correct.

First part correct. The reason we aren't allowed to fit the retractable towbar is because the Australian Standards Association say we can't.

Second part incorrect. Australian standards aren't necessarily strict, they're just different. The reason for them being different is to keep this worthless bureaucratic organisation alive. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a government body. It is a private company. It gets oxygen through bureaucratic delay.

Purporting to be the overseer of Standards, it's actually just a self perpetuating impediment to common sense that we are all paying for through increased red tape. By dictating a different standard than the rest of the planet we pay more for everything we buy, and are refused access to better designed and more practical solutions, not because they're unsafe, but because the ASA hasn't gotten around to testing it yet. To just sign off on something engineered in Germany would show the country that they are actually irrelevant.

This tow bar is just one example. Isofix car seats are another glaring example. The rest of the world has had Isofix car seats available to them since 1997. They are a vastly better car seat. ISO stands for International Standards Organisation (loosely). You would think anything that has been deemed to comply with an international standard would be ok here. Not so.

Up until very recently, last couple of years, it has been illegal to fit an Isofix car seat. If you did, and a copper saw it, you could be fined. Worse still, if your child was injured in an Isofix car seat, they would not be third party insured. Instead we were forced to feed seat belts through the back of the ASA approved seat, sometimes propping them up on towels to cater for the design of the seat itself. It was so convoluted that it was common knowledge a majority of these seats were fitted incorrectly. How many children's lives have been lost through this is undetermined.

Now you would think the ASA would just test Isofix seats and then give them the tick, not so, that would be too easy and open them up to criticism as to why it had taken them so long to get off their bloated arses and approve a better seat. Instead they mandated that Isofix seats were approved, as long as they also had a top tether. Small problem, no other country had adopted this standard and there were actually no seats sold on the planet that met this standard. The seat manufacturers had to tool up to produce these seats specifically designed to meet the Australian Standard. You can buy them now, finally, but you pay a huge premium for them. As a result most parents fit inferior seats because they can't afford to pay for these niche market seats. It's a travesty.

[Hole46]

I've asked a local tow bar manufacturer, and they said they can make me one that is completely out of sight instead of the ugly square sticking out that Volkswagen Australia and New Zealand are offering.

I've asked Westfalia, but they are too lazy to respond, even after their CEO told me he'd make sure I'd get a response...

I had a Westfalia bar fitted to my R-line, just over $1500 fitted, looks much better than the one VW fitted to my neighbour's Comfortline.


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[Gladbach]

Could you post a photo?

[Hole46]

Could you post a photo?

Can't take a photo for a couple of days, but there is a large collection of photos on European Car Upgrades Facebook site.


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[SNOBUM]

Definitely recommend the Westfalia - best towbar out there.

Just wanting to know if we get the Trailer Park Assist feature in NZ/OZ if the factory trailer electrics module is installed?? My R-Line knows when a trailer is plugged in, but says the park assist is unavailable - was hoping that the dealer has just not coded fully, but suspect this feature only available in UK/Euro.

[IsDon]

Definitely recommend the Westfalia - best towbar out there.

Just wanting to know if we get the Trailer Park Assist feature in NZ/OZ if the factory trailer electrics module is installed?? My R-Line knows when a trailer is plugged in, but says the park assist is unavailable - was hoping that the dealer has just not coded fully, but suspect this feature only available in UK/Euro.

My guess is that the trailer module is coded correctly if the dealer has fitted the bar. That said, if you have the driver assistance pack then you have park assist. If you have park assist then the car should have all the necessary hardware for Trailer Park Assist to work. VCDS should be able to enable this. Be interested to know if our Kiwi cousins across the ditch have this options available to them. If so it should be able to be coded.

[marcuskmt]

My guess is that the trailer module is coded correctly if the dealer has fitted the bar.

That is a good point.

How do you know if a tow bar is installed correctly?

None of the tow bar installers near me have installed a 2017 Westfalia tow bar yet.

[IsDon]

If the towing module is installed without it being coded you will know.

For a start the lights won't work. The car will also recognise a new module is fitted but not coded which will show up as a fault message on the dash. Depending on the model, you will probably have other warning messages as well. Suspension faults, ABS faults etc.

The factory coding will probably not enable Trailer Park Assist as I don't think this is a factory option in Australia. That's not to say that it can't be activated later with VCDS. It's just a matter of comparing the coding to the same vehicle from an overseas market that has Trailer Park Assist and changing the coding to match. This usually enables the functionality.

I fitted the Westfalia bar to my C7 A6 Allroad when I first bought the car I was faced with the same problems. Like the Tiguan now, it was also a new model that nobody had seen the coding for. It took quite a few weeks of fiddling about to work out what needed to be coded. Luckily, I received lots of help from Westfalia both here and in Germany, and Ross-Tech. In the end I needed to code about a dozen modules. I suspect the tow bar installers here are faced with the same problems. They use a coding tool which will update the coding in your car when they fit the towbar. Like everyone though, they are in the dark until the model has been out for a while.

I suspect VW, like Audi, aren't in a hurry to make the codes available to anyone. They would rather sell you an inferior bar at an inflated price.


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[SNOBUM]

Spot on IsDon - I rang three other VW service agents after having the OEM electrics fitted, and they all said they just use a coding tool, so whatever is on there is what you get I guess - was hoping they had a coding Guru that could enable it (not that I can't back a trailer!).
If anyone has the code, please post it.

[IsDon]

Yes mate that's correct,

If VW are anything like Audi, they use an online system, they don't physically change each module. They just plug the car in, tell the computer in Germany that they've just fitted a tow bar, it then updates the configuration of your specific vehicle, based on its VIN, and downloads the required changes to your car. It's not done by changing individual module coding like you would do with VCDS.

Which brings me to another point. If you code the car yourself, or have a towbar installer code it for you, this obviously doesn't update the master in Germany. If you then have a firmware update done by a dealer, there is a possibility they will overwrite your coding and put it back to what VW thinks it should be. Always keep a list of the coding you have done in case this happens.


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