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[2BlindMice]

We were looking for a car to use as a toad as well as one to drive in the snow as we live in the Sierra Nevada's near Tahoe. We like the Subaru brand but Motorhome magazine did not list them as towable - even the manual shift. My husband thought that was crazy as long as the car was a manual shift, it should be towable. To make a long story shorter, we were in luck at a dealership in Fremont, CA; they were having a factory maintenance seminar. Our sales guy cornered the "expert" and he, along with my husband pulled up the computer drawings of the engine and claimed that yes, we could tow it 4 down as long as the key was in the ignition on A/C and all the electronics in the car were turned off. CAUTION: This process is not for the faint at heart.

90 hours later (and lots of nasty words) - we have a toad that works. Thankfully my husband is a crafty guy. It took 30 hours to install the Blue Ox base plate and tow bar which included holes drilled into the grill of the car (with only 100 miles on it), along with custom brackets to hold some of the other electronics involved in towing. Another 20 hours to install the brake lighting. (Why you ask?) The carpeting and seats; the interior side molding; the tire molding, etc. had to be removed for the wiring. Essentially, he gutted it. And like idiots that only read Motorhome magazine, we thought we needed brake assist. (Not so in good ole California). That cost us a bundle and 45 hours of work, but yes - we have brake assist.

The only lesson we learned in our trial runs is that the autolocking feature comes on at some certain speed, so a 2nd set of keys is necessary. If you like Subaru's and you are very mechanically / engineering minded, you can do it. Just practice those cuss words.