Towing is the one capability that does not follow from anything else on a spec sheet. Not size, not price, not drivetrain, not even body style. Two three-row luxury SUVs of the same footprint can sit on opposite sides of the line.
Across the 1,107 models in our catalogue carrying factory specification data, 28% have a tow rating. The other 72% are rated to pull nothing.
| Brand | Models rated to tow | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Land Rover | 14 of 14 | 100% |
| Jeep | 15 of 19 | 79% |
| GMC | 12 of 17 | 71% |
| Isuzu | 9 of 15 | 60% |
| Lincoln | 9 of 17 | 53% |
| Ford | 22 of 46 | 48% |
| Honda | 9 of 21 | 43% |
| Subaru | 8 of 19 | 42% |
| Aston Martin | 2 of 16 | 12% |
| BMW | 7 of 101 | 7% |
| Ferrari | 1 of 55 | 2% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 0 of 35 | 0% |
Land Rover and Mercedes are the same size of company
Both build large, heavy, expensive vehicles with powerful engines and permanent four-wheel drive. One rates every single model to tow. The other rates none.
That is not an engineering difference. A GLE has the mass, the torque and the cooling capacity to pull a trailer, and in European markets Mercedes rates the same vehicles to do exactly that.
What differs is the US market decision. A tow rating creates a liability trail and a warranty exposure, and a manufacturer that expects its American customers to never tow can decline to certify the capability rather than defend it.
Land Rover sells the opposite promise. Its entire brand argument is that the vehicle will do difficult things, and a tow rating on every model is part of the pitch.
What the rating actually covers
This is the part that makes the number worth taking seriously rather than treating as paperwork.
A tow rating is not a statement about engine power. It certifies the whole system under sustained load: whether the cooling system holds temperature on a long climb with weight behind it, whether the transmission fluid stays inside its thermal window, whether the brakes stop the combined mass, and whether the structure takes the load at the mounting points.
Any car will move a trailer on flat ground. What the rating tells you is whether it will do so repeatedly without cooking something expensive.
The failure is delayed, which is why people get away with it
Towing with an unrated vehicle does not produce a dramatic event. The transmission runs twenty degrees hotter than designed, the fluid degrades faster, and the clutch packs wear at several times the normal rate.
Nothing happens on the first trip, or the tenth. It shows up as a slipping gearbox eighteen months later, on a car the owner did not connect to the caravan they borrowed last summer — and the repair costs more than the trailer.
This is also why buying a used vehicle that has towed matters more than the rating itself. A rated truck that spent five years pulling at capacity has consumed a lot of its transmission and brake life, and neither shows on the odometer.
What to check
If you plan to tow, the rating is a hard filter rather than a preference — check it for the specific model year and drivetrain, since ratings differ between two-wheel and four-wheel versions of the same vehicle.
If you are buying used, the question runs the other way: has this one been towing? A hitch receiver with wear marks, a transmission cooler that was not standard equipment, and brake discs replaced early are the visible signs.
The service and title record fills in the rest, and a free VIN check is where that sits.
Frequently asked questions
What share of cars can tow?
28% of the 1,107 models in our catalogue that carry factory specification data have a tow rating. The rest are not rated to pull anything, which is a manufacturer decision rather than a physical limit.
Which brands rate all their models for towing?
Land Rover, at 100% — all 14 models in our data are rated to tow. Jeep follows at 79%, GMC at 71% and Isuzu at 60%. These are brands whose entire range is built on body-on-frame or reinforced unibody platforms.
Why can't a Mercedes tow?
In the US market, most of the range simply is not rated for it — our data shows zero of 35 Mercedes-Benz models with a tow rating, and BMW manages 7% of 101. The same vehicles are frequently rated to tow in Europe, so this is a market and liability decision rather than an engineering limit.
Does an unrated car physically fail if you tow with it?
Not immediately, and that is what makes it dangerous. The rating covers the whole system: cooling capacity, transmission thermal load, brakes, structure at the mounting points. Towing on an unrated vehicle usually shows up as a cooked transmission months later rather than a failure on the first trip.
Denis Kataev is a serial solopreneur and the founder of ForCar. With 15+ years in software engineering and 10 years in SEO, he builds data-driven products end to end — backed by a sharp eye for design. At ForCar he mines proprietary vehicle datasets, turning raw numbers into buying advice you can actually trust.
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