The Honest Case for a Wheel-Lift Tow on a Tight Buffalo Street

Walk down a side street on the West Side on a winter night, cars parked nose to tail on both sides, a plow berm along the kerb, and ask where a flatbed would drop its deck. It would not. A flatbed needs a straight run behind the car, and on a lot of Buffalo streets that run does not exist. A wheel-lift needs a few feet. It backs up to the car, slides its yoke under the front wheels, lifts, and goes.

That is the first case for it. The second is the car. Most of what is parked in Erie County is front-wheel drive, and a front-wheel-drive car with its front wheels lifted rides on its rear wheels without any harm at all. The drivetrain is off the ground. Nothing turns that should not. For a dead battery in a driveway or a car that will not start outside a shop, it is simply the right tool.

The third case is speed. A wheel-lift hooks in a couple of minutes, which on a cold night matters to the person waiting. The cost is identical to a flatbed with us, $160 before mileage and $7 a mile after, so the choice is never about the bill. When the car is all-wheel drive, low, seized or wrecked, it goes on a deck and we will not pretend otherwise. Flatbed versus wheel-lift covers the line between them.