Absolutely. The US towing limits for identical cars are invariably lower for no good technical reason. I have a Sportwagen TDI that's good for 3,000 lbs in Germany and 1,000 lbs in the US (if you can actually get VW to put it in writing - it's in a "supplemental" manual that I had to request seperately).


On Wednesday, October 3, 2012 8:41:31 PM UTC-4, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Tue, 2 Oct 2012 20:14:11 -0700 (PDT), son_of_flubber

wrote:





I actually have a VW TDI with DSG. VW USA says the Golf will only tow 1000 lbs gross weight, (though the same car can tow 3000 lbs in Great Britain!)

Glider in trailer is 1800+ lbs..



Hmmmm.... I had a Golf IV Variant in Germany, and it also had that

1.000 lbs limitation - but only if the trailer did not have brakes.



The limit for a trailer with brakes was the mentioned 3.000 lbs limit.





Could you check again if you are reading your car's manual correctly,

please? I find it hard to believe that VW is limiting its cars in such

a drastic way.



On the other hand:

Reading the criteria that seem to make a good tow vehicle in the US

(heavy and a biiiiiiiig engine) I wouldn't be surprised if the 1.000

lbs limitation only is VW's way to get out oif the way of some

over-enthusiastic US lawyers...





Cheers from Germany

Andreas



whose current VW Passat Diesel tows a loaded Duo Discus trailer with

43 mpg at 55 mph, unfortunately for the price of $5.70 per gallon...