What's the logic?

Pass.

I've no experience of it on small vehicles, but I've worked on large commercials which could have the drive axle wrecked by being towed as few as ten miles without removing the halfshafts. I've never worked on small vehicle recovery, though.

Wrecking the automatic gearbox on a Routemaster could be achieved in fifteen miles or so.

You'd have to define long way, it's not very far before you can bugger a Cat, unlikely on a push start though.

Depends on the gearbox design, most are fine but some aren't happy with the drive coming from the wrong end for very long.

Makes you wonder about those motorhomes towing Smart cars and the like! The garage next to me showed me a Picanto with a wrecked engine and gearbox from being towed by a motor home. Seems the wife puts cars in first when parking! Got to admire the engineering though - it made nearly 50 miles before going bang!

Slatts

On an auto, the gears/bearings are usually below the oil level and are lubricated by a pump when the engine runs. With the pump not running, no lubrication. Some manual boxes also have an oil pump. But that's only a guess at their reasons.

Just been driving a Picanto as a loan car for the last few days, and as a 'large bodied fellow' I found it to be the most uncomfortable vehicle that I have ever driven in nearly fifty years of driving (and I drove early mini's for years) - limited seat adjustment, limited room, noisy engine, very audible road noise, stiff suspension - and the fuel economy also left a great deal to be desired for such a small car!

Would I buy one - NO! Would I have one as a gift - NO! Any good points - YES, free road tax and bloody easy to manoeuvre and park in small spaces.

Was I glad when I had my own car back after having a clutch renewal done - and that's a Kia Ceed, what a difference!

Woodworm

What did you pay for it please? Did it take a long time to find a good one? I've got a 96 1.0L, and it is nearing the end of its life, so would like a newer one.

Ta Alan.

Cars with cats all seem to say don't tow start. My guess would be that once the car is moving the ecu knows and starts to try to pump in extra fuel (since it is not reading any fuel from the lambda to match the movement, it will also be confused by the movement without any air flow from the maf sensor, etc. etc) Another question would be whether it would start the fuel pump without the starter circuit being used.

On a normal 2 wheel drive manual vehicle there should not be any problem with towing it (perhaps there were auto or 4 wd versions that use the same handbook?)

I have seen a manual box with an oil pump (old jags?) but I am pretty certain that yours does not have.

The SD1 has one - and that box continued in Range Rover etc up until recently. I just of assumed it was fairly common in newer designs too.

Didn't search for one at all. Wife has had a fancy for a van for a while and it was on the forecourt of the van dealer next door, a bit of an impulse buy. 41k miles, a year MOT, good tyres, £2k for cash which I thought was a pretty good deal. There are a few on eBay at the moment, slightly more expensive. Havn't driven it loaded, but it's pretty nippy when empty.

Have ordered a workshop manual: will check when it arrives. Aren't most SD1s and RRs autos?

Yes there are; good point.

Dunno the exact figures. I'd guess with early RR most were manual changing to mostly auto later on.