I thought this was a limit set for warranty liability if you started
spraying parts and oil all over the road.

Leanne - who tows a Suzuki Grand Vitara 4-down

They probably have money to burn and don't care if they shorten the life of
the toad.

Probably not but, in this day and age with a hungry lawyer on every street
corner, the toad manufacturers are probably just covering their @$$ with the
limitation.

Ya know...  It's like those stupid disclaimers on the TV commercials:  
Professional driver on a closed course - do not attempt.

One can just HEAR the howling when warranty coverage is denied for a fried
transmission:  But the owner's manual didn't say NOT to drag the little car at
95 MPH!

With gas over $3/gal, anyone towing or driving a RECREATIONAL vehicle over 65
mph has money to burn anyway - and probably not a lot of smarts.

The speed limits usually reflect the maximum speed the manufacturer's used
in testing or arbitrarily selected for warranty purposes. AFAIK there is no
way for the manufacturer to track the speeds but who knows with the newer
onbaord computers? That said there may be very good reasons for limiting
one's speed but that's never fully explained so many people ignore the
limits, often with the salesperson's encouragement (as happened when I was
pricing a Chev Tracker). Unfortunately vehicles don't have "speed fuses"
that prevent such things but in reality nothing will happen immediately. The
damage may be done but probably won't manifest itself until much later. In
the case of Honda it may be that these folks are headed for serious
problems. For several years all AT Hondas except the Odyssey have been
towable by following their specific procedure. This ensures adequate fluid
in all parts of the tranny to provide the 8-hour drain down time (not 8
hours of towing, just 8 hours) when the procedure must be repeated.

In either 2006 or 2007 Honda is delisting everything but the CR-V for flat
towing. Apparently they've had significant AT problems evidenced by their
unannounced warranty extensions and "new" pre-towing instructions put out a
few year back. Another piece of evidence is Remco now offers AT insurance
for Honda's modified for towing. Personally the issue of speed and time
restrictions led us to buy a Jeep Cherokee.

CruzMastr