How to Find Your Vehicle’s Towing Capacity

Understanding your vehicle’s towing capacity is essential for safety, legal compliance, and insurance purposes. Whether you’re towing a caravan, trailer, or horsebox, it’s vital to know exactly how much your specific vehicle is approved to tow.

Many drivers ask, “How much can my car tow?”—but the answer depends on your individual vehicle, not just its make or model.

The only reliable way to check is by reading the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) Plate, which shows the precise towing limit set by the manufacturer for your specific vehicle.

VIN Plates

The VIN plate can usually be found under the bonnet or on a door pillar and details of the location will be in the owner’s handbook. The plate will be either an alloy plate riveted to the body or a sticker.

Once you have located your VIN plate it will look similar to the images below. It will display either 3 or 4 lines with weights, it is these weights that the authorities use to determine whether your vehicle is over-laden.

This first image shows a VIN plate from a vehicle that is homologated (Approved) to tow:

It has 4 lines of numbers:

2505kg - Gross vehicle weight, the Maximum Allowable Mass (MAM)
of the vehicle including occupants, fuel and payload.

4200kg - Gross train weight, the Combined Maximum Allowable
Mass of the vehicle and trailer.

1250kg & 1300kg - Maximum axle loads front and rear respectively.

The manufacturer's recommended maximum towing capacity for your vehicle is the gross vehicle weight subtracted from gross train weight.

In this case 4200kg - 2505kg = 1695kg.
So the vehicle identification plate detailed in the above picture has a towing capacity of 1695kg.

Vehicles not homologated (Approved) to tow.

Certain high performance cars, hybrid and city-car models or similar variants of standard models are not homologated to tow, this means that the vehicle manufacturer has deemed that the model is unsuitable for use as a tow vehicle. With this type of vehicle the towing capacity will equate to zero or a gross train weight will not be displayed.

The image below is from an Audi S3, which is not homologated (Approved) to tow, the Gross Train Weight is shown as 0000 kg. Some manufacturers simply leave this line blank. If you are unsure if your car is allowed to tow, you need to check this line on the VIN plate.