How much roughly would it be to have a tow bar and electrics fitted to my new shape Honda Accord estate?

Not a ball one but one to fit a plate like this

Ta

100 ish. Local place in cullompton devon fits em for that.

Been quoted £250 plus by a few places in Newcastle for towbar on my 2009 Fiesta..

.. £70 alone for the interface lead so no cables are cut on the car.

Would love to find it somewhere cheaper as towbar racks are the best way to carry bikes on a car

100ish would be massive bargain to say the least. 150 on my mondeo last year but that has simple wiring. 175 on an octavia last week with can bus wiring and a bypass relay needed.

@paul78, have you tried indespension in shiremoor? seem fairly reasonable when i was looking

seanodav, cheers give them a call tomorrow… only 5 minutes from my house.

I’d do it yourself, there’ll be electric kits on ebay that will sort you out even if it’s Can Bus? I got one for about £20. You can get the tow-bar kits on Ebay too, abut £80, not difficult to fit at all.

cheapest i found were just tow
http://www.just-tow.co.uk/

cost me £105 for the full kit for a berlingo, and came with everything needed including instructions

Fitting towbars to many cars is very easy. If you can do follow simple instructions, you’re laughing.
However, it depends on the car. Look at the instructions online before you buy and you should be OK. I’ve always fitted my own and have done a couple of pals too.

TroutWrestler – Are you in the North West? Today (I only got chance to phone one company) I was quoted £260 FFS….

£250ish for a detachable one for our 4×4. Dealer fit was £450 for the same make (Witter)!!

paul78 – or Stanley Towbars. Actually in Chester le St but did my Passat estate for £160

Go hacking into the wiring on a new car you’ll probably void the warranty, so a dedicated kit might be the only (re: expensive) option. The mechanical bits are mostly easy, as mounting holes etc, are already in place. Removing trim can be a nightmare.
I’ve DIY’ed the last few of ours. Mondeo I did last was a doddle. They usually recomend a by-pass relay, & if you’ve can-bus type wiring its essential; but if its conventional wiring, & its just for a lighting board, it should be ok unless it has a very sensitive bulb failure circuit.

Fitted one to my van, quite simple as no bumper cuts required. Biggest problem I had was trying to lift the thing into place whilst lying underneath, must weigh about 30kg, it is rated to tow 3500kg though 🙂

I was quoted nearly £700 for a new shape Audi A4 ffs

seems the one I have doesn’t have the sensor on the electric brake for trailers 🙁

Audi only part of course

If it’s a car in warranty then it’s probably Can Bus, so hacking about with the wiring is only going to break things. You could of course check to see whether you simply have to buy the right connector and plug it into the tow bar socket on one of the ECUs?

Even if your car isn’t Can Bus cutting into a few wires might invalidate the warranty on those wires, the rear lights at a push, but if the engine explodes they’re still going to sort it out! You can only invalidate the warranty if what you’ve done to the car has caused the problem in question.

Seriously, just look on ebay, there’ll be a kit on there for your car that won’t void your warranty.

Audi A4 08 onwards wiring kit:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/7-Pin-Specific-towbar-Wiring-Fits-Audi-A4-Avant-08-/230498939631?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item35aaceb2ef

Bear in mind some towbar electrics come with fancy electronics for trailer stability, some don’t, which is why the prices can vary so much.

I paid £200 for the electrics alone on my Passat because I wanted the trailer stability.

Towbarexpress.com – they were excellent and cheap, and they come to your house.

£350 for a Volvo S60 – includes towbar, electric loom extender cable and tailboard (number plate and repeater lights).

I got a roof rack instead – Thule. A lot less f***ing about.

Older cars = cheap and easy. New cars = expensive and faffy, especially if there are deep body-coloured bumpers that need holes cutting in them.

cheers paulrocklife for the link.

I’ll bear that in mind for my next one in a years time.

I’m not going to bother with this one as molgrips’ experience my current A4 needs some extra electronics as it has an electric handbrake and it needs modifing to update for a towbar as mine was one of the first delivered. Later models this feature is standard which is really annoying.

I’m using roofbars/racks at the momonent but would really like to get a bar to mount a rear rack or pull a custom camping/bike trailer of sorts 😉

Oh I should add – my car (2006 Passat with electronic handbrake) didn’t NEED the fancy electronics. You could save a couple of hundred by not having it. You could fit a bypass relay.

I just opted for the fancy electronics because I wanted them.

Yes I know the tow bar place I was dealing with wanted me to sign a document saying I wouldn’t put anything more than a bike rack on the bar – but I know I would be tempted to hook up a trailer from time to time so didn’t bother.

If you’re carrying bikes on a rear rack then it needs a light board & the towing electrics.
We were coming out of Ambleside on Friday and a Fiesta with rear mounted rack had no light board. It was soon pretty obvious that out of three possible brake lights on the car, only the left hand one worked, but was obscured by the wheels of the bikes. From the positioning of the bikes I had a feeling that the driver possibly thought his right hand light was visible – it was, it just didn’t work.

Avoid main dealers for towbars, they often sub contract anyway. Make sure the fitter knows the e;ectrics are only needed for a light board, as it is the caravan electrics that need relays to power fridges & battery chargers and that pushes prices up a lot. Most dealer bars will be a rebadged Brink or Witter, so if ringing around for prices and comparing main dealer with an independent, ask the independent what make of bar they will be fitting.
You need to ask for a flange type towbar, that is the type that will allow you to fit the back plate for your carrier.

I’ve paid £300 on two cars including buying witter tow bar & electrics off towbarman on ebay.

I was quoted £1200 by a VW dealer to put one on a 2005 Golf!!.

They said they needed to remove carpets etc to put the wiring in.

I was about £250 for a detachable one think it was about £180 ish for a non removable one.

The detachable one i’ve only taken off once so if i was doing it again would just get the non removable one and save a bit of money

They said they needed to remove carpets etc to put the wiring in.

I was amazed at how much of the car interior they removed to put the electrics in mine. They were running late as it had been much more complicated than they’d anticipated on my car and they told me they don’t normally like people coming in at that stage as some people are a bit horrified when they see how much of the inside of their car is outside 🙂

It totally depends on the car;

– dealer fit on my last company car (Vectra), was £250
– current old shape 5 series was £290 by my friendly mechanic
– dealer fit for a detachable one on my wifes’ Freelander should have been £470

Towbar didn’t remove anything to do the wiring on mine. They had to run a wire up to the fuse box in the front of the car, but they just tucked it under the trim. A brilliant way of doing it, which I followed when installing my multi-function stereo gizmo machine. There are now wires stuffed all over the place hidden from view 🙂