If my FWD Manual car got towed and dragged in 1st what would happen?

Question

This morning I caught the tow company towing my car away and luckily they stopped and dropped my car and let me go. (I parked in the leasing office area during business hours, but it was only 10 minutes after open, so it was pretty crappy they were having me towed). Anyways, it's a FWD manual car and I had the e-brake up and it was in 1st. They were dragging the car by the rear allowing the front wheels to spin on the road. Couldn't that cause potentially bad damage to the vehicle? What could have happened?

Answer 1

By dragging it backwards it sure wouldn't do it any good but by the sounds of it they didn't drag it that far so it is probably ok. It doesn't matter if it was only 10 minutes after they opened you were illegally parked so you also share part of the blame if the car is messed up. People are missing the point. The car is in first and they are dragging it backwards so that means the motor is spinning over in the wrong direction.

Answer 2

Yes, that would be bad.

Next time there's a chance of a tow. park the other way around.

And leave the e-brake off. Let the back wheels spin.

Answer 3

depends on how fast they went, it just cranks the engine, thats how you push start manuals... if they got up to like 20+ mph chances are your gearbox got pretty warm and could have gotten stripped or damaged.