Steve 96C4S

So I went to a Thai Restaurant I've been dying to try in Arlington VA today and I pulled into this shopping center where I thought the restaurant was. I saw my friend in the lot, waving me in so I parked. It took 2 minutes or so to walk to the restaurant, and it turns out it was next to the shopping strip, not IN the shopping strip. I walked in and asked them if it's ok to park there and they immediately looked freaked and said NOOOOOO, you could get towed. I ran out of the place as did my friend and the car was gone! Now keep in mind, it was only 4 minutes or so since I left my car and walked back to it and it was gone. I was sooooo pi**ed.

I called this company and they said it's right down the street in their lot and it's a $100 to get it out. I told them my car has to be towed on a flat bed truck to tow it correctly and they said, "untrue".

Do you think they could have done any damage towing it like this so quickly? I picked it up and can't tell if anything's wrong with it. It seems fine. I asked them if towing it without a flatbed could have hurt it in any way and I caught the actual driver that towed it and he said they tow 100 cars a day and never had a problem. Yeah right.

Has this ever happened to you? You go to a store, are there for less than 10 minutes and your car is gone? It feels like such a violation. You know how we baby our cars and don't let anyone mess with them, and then something like this happens. I'm just glad it was a "legal" tow truck and not a car-jacking or outright theft, though towing a car after you've been parked for just a few minutes does feel like a theft of sorts. I talked to a guy sitting there in his Verizon truck and he said he saw the whole thing. He said the second I walked off the shopping center's property into the restaurant next door, a guy came from out of nowhere and towed the car away. He said the tow truck driver sits waiting, hidden behind the shopping center until someone walks off. He's seen it before there all the time. Ughhhh.

The only good part of this day other than the great Thai food we had after all this, was that my buddy who I met there (who wasn't towed even though he parked by mistake there for 20 minutes before me) took me into the Pentagon today for a tour. It was really cool being there for the first time. We were in the Secretary Of Defense's office area when the Deputy Director of Defence walked right past us with a small entourage to a meeting in a very busy looking office. Thoroughly enjoyed the 9/11 Pentagon memorial stuff in the hallways that kids and other people had done as well as the many historical exhibits throughout this "largest office building in the world."
Steve R

RallyJon

How far is right down the street? If it's more than 1/4 mile they owe you a new viscous coupling.

Take it to a dealer (for credibility) ASAP and have them do the test and verify if it's fried.

black ice

Sooooo - can you ask the Deputy Director to, you know, "take care of" this rogue tow company? Say, a 500 pounder from an f-16?

AOW162435

Steve,
That is annoying to say the least. I would be amazed if your 993 came away unscathed under either or both of the bumpers. Can you jack the car up and take a look-see?

As for the AWD system - not touching that with a very long pole....


Andreas

Steve 96C4S

This distance was a 2-4 miles, as it took us about 10+ minutes in really bad city traffic to get there. I don't know what this is - viscous coupling, but if you think it's worth $130 for a hour for them to check it out, maybe I will. Why would towing my car have messed this up? Why would they risk towing a 993 if they could be sued for damaging the car? Heck, they could have just towed my buddy's Toyota Echo. Arghhhh.

Shi*!!!

Steve

AOW162435

Fluid-filled 'connection' between your transmission and your front drive train. Without it, you have a C2.

I'm sure it's expensive....


A pic for you:




Andreas

Steve 96C4S

Man, you guys are starting to scare me. I only looked under the front bumper and it looked scraped up a tiny bit the whole way across it (just had it repainted last year) but it seems slight, unnoticeable from standing right in front of it and it could have happened in a parking garage on one of those cement things at another time... I'll look under the rear bumper again but I didn't see anything today when I looked under it after picking it up.

By the way, since the car was in first gear and the emergency brake was on when it was towed, could that have screwed up anything? Typically when I've had cars towed I thought they told me to put the car in neutral...

Steve

AOW162435

Plenty.


Andreas

Steve 96C4S

But I wonder what responsibility they have at this point to fix my car if they've screwed it up... any? Or none? Will they simply say "Tough shi*... them's the brakes. You park illegally in this shopping center and walk off even if it's only for 2 minutes, you're screwed?"

Man, this blows... Why oh why would they tow an all wheel drive 911 if it could get screwed up?

Steve

jimbo3

Look in your owners manual with regards to proper towing methods of 4WD. Make copy and give it to them so that they may pay for inspection plus any resulting damage. Alternately, look for TSB's or contact Porsche for information on towing your specific model, especially noting that the car was in gear with the hand brake on. If you have a case and get no response from the tow operator, you may sue both the tow truck operator as well as the parking lot owner who contracted the tow truck firm in small claims

Many tow truck operators think they know far more than they actually do.

RallyJon

Pelican says $834.75.

Improperly towing an AWD car is a BIG deal.

ltc

^ + 1.

WHB Porsche

Your viscous coupling is what transmits power from front to back and visa versa when either is slipping. If your rear wheels are turning (by contact with the ground) and front are stationary, the VC (viscous coupler, not Charlie) is trying to transmit power to the front CONSTANTLY. The coupler is quite possibly fried. It was silly to post what you did, as that's discoverable in a lawsuit. I would've said you were going into the Thai place to make a reservation before going to the shoping center. However, if you can prove a history of people in good faith mistakenly parking in that lot and being towed, you can probably make the case that they did not exercise due diligence in determining that you were actually parking in that lot.

I don't know what could've happened to the engine/tranny from being towed in 1st.

WHB Porsche

a. Because they don't give a ****.

b. Because they most likely didn't know it was AWD.

davesnothere

+1

Whatever "wrong" you may have committed by parking illegally, this does not absolve them of their wrong in mishandling your car. You wouldn't have any problem (other than annoyance) if they had towed your car properly with a flatbed, right? IANAL, but this seems like easy negligence on their part. I would seek legal advice, print the materials already suggested, and see if you can find any witnesses in any of the shops in the shopping center.

Aggressive towing companies who lie in wait like this is bad enough, but disrespect for the car ... unforgivable!

- Dave