Well the Blue Ox base plate came in today. Impressive versus the other less expensive type base plates used for towing. Now these things are made to match up with existing holes on the underside of the front end of the car. There is no drilling its simply a bolt on. The stabilizer bar fits into the trough. So this thing is like having a heavy plate or bar across the front end underside. I can see where this would be good for rough roads and protection against underside damage. The plate looks to be made of 3/16\" steel and the place where the tow bar connects to is over 1/4\" steel. My VW mechanic pointed out to me that he advises putting a 100 lb bag of cement in the front truck of Super Beetles to add weight for better handling. This base plate weights 57 lbs. I believe and the tow bar weighs somewheres near 50 lbs. So together this should improve handling. However I had to buy this new because I couldn\'t find a used one and it ran just under $300 delivered.