consumer law - who is responsible.

[queenrollo]

we bought a brand new vehicle from a dealership. It had a towbar fitted. This has rusted (haven't had the vehicle two years yet). When we brought this up with the dealership they said they weren't responsible for it, that the manufacturers were.
We haven't pursued this further yet.
My view is that our contract is with the dealership. They should deal with the towbar manufacturer and arrange replacement with a new one.
It's an additional extra which we paid for, so I expect it to last longer than a year before rusting.

So in a nutshell - should the dealership sort this out or do we have to go directly to the towbar manufacturer to try and sort it out?

You are correct - your contract is with the dealership, it's for them to deal with the manufacturer not you. That said, if you have all relevent paperwork showing the model, date of purchase etc of the towbar it might be worth you contacting the manufacturer and seeing if they will sort it out for you directly - they may not be prepared to do so but it could get things resolved more quickly for you if they are.