Had to tow a Triumph TR3 from southern Indiana to Chicago yesterday. Had a tow hitch installed Tuesday on my 96 850 wagon. Told the guy not to do the electrical--I would do that myself (I hate it when people go willy-nilly, cutting and splicing wires).

I remembered, when I once had one of the rear, floor panels off the car, that there was a big connector in the left floor that looked like all the rear lighting connected to. Thought it was probably a trailer connector and, on Tuesday night, I confirmed its existance, actually a black connector with a big blue terminator with some internal circuitry. On the way down to Indiana I stopped by a very large Volvo dealer and asked the parts guy for the trailer interconnect. He said, sorry, there is no such simple connection. He said that the trailer lighting kit involved rewiring the rear-half of the wagon and he looked up the part, had it in stock, and brought it forward. It was all dusty, but there must have been six miles of wire in that bag, and it cost $200.

I was floored. Here we have a connector with all the needed interfaces and instead of interfacing to that connector, Volvo forces you to rewire half the car.

Yeah, I could have spliced and crimped wires to get what I needed, but that's how shorts start, that's how wiring deteriorates, that's how your car starts descending into a sloppy mess.

I wanted. plain and simple, unplug a connector, plug in another connector, and you're done.

Did I just get a moron parts guy, or is this another case of Volvo over-engineering.