So it's never a good idea to drive a car that's making a noise to the dealership, even if a dealership is only a few minutes away? As in Las Vegas. And in your own example you cited a $4000 repair caused by a tow. In all due respect, I don't think one can ever make blanket statements regarding decision making. No two situations are exactly alike. One must consider each situation's unique facts and all of the risks associated with the various courses of action..
It is less risk to tow a vehicle with the engine making noise than to drive it. That is a blanket statement. The key condition is the engine is making the noise. You changed it to "car".
So far thank goodness no engine of any car I have owned has made any noise from inside the engine.
A few times while the noise was coming from the engine compartment but not from the engine I elected to drive the car.
A car of mine developed a dry bearing sound. To my ears and to those of a person who owned a similar car we both agreed the noise was coming from the accessory drive system not from inside the engine. I elected to turn around -- I was in Tehachapi CA -- and head home around 200 miles away vs. pressing on west through AZ and NM and in doing so being quite a distance from a dealer. (Oh, car was a Porsche.) In turning around I would remain in reasonable proximity to a dealer. One in Fresno, another in Sacramento, and about 5 or 6 in the SF Bay Area to which I was headed.
I made it home ok. The car made it ok. But I was prepared at any time to pull over and shut off the engine should the noise develop into a more serious symptom.
But another time with another car I diagnosed the noise coming from the water pump. In this case I knew 2nd hand of other owners who had continued to drive on with a noisy pump only to have the water pump impeller contact the engine block from the excessive bearing play. The impeller being plastic shredded itself and while the impeller continued to spin it was not pumping any coolant. To make matters worse the impeller debris had to be removed by back flushing the cooling system.
The nearest dealer was 25+ miles away. I elected to have the vehicle flat bedded rather than risk a drive and possibly shredding the water pump impeller.
Same car but another time the car developed a noise upon an engine restart after only being off for a few minutes. Did a check of vitals and all looked good. The engine being located mid ships was not readily accessible. Most of the work is done from under the car and I had no way to get the car in the air. I drove a block or two to the office. Went to work. But thought about the noise.
Went back to the car. Started the engine. Noise still present and not quite like any noise I had heard before. Arranged to have the car flat bedded to the 30 mile distant dealer. At the dealer upon unloading the car from the flat bed and starting the engine the noise was gone. Senior techs and SA all said they had encountered this before. Something -- piece of plastic probably -- got blown up and ended up in the accessory drive system. The 30 mile ride on the back of the flat bed tow truck apparently blew whatever it was out of the accessory drive system. Tech took the car and lifted it up and looked underneath the car at the accessory drive system. He found no problems. At his request I took the car out on a test drive and brought it back up to full operating temperature. Car/engine remained noise/symptom free.
I stand by my recommendation. Any car with its engine making noise should be towed to help not driven. The key is the engine making noise.
If the noise is not coming from the engine the car might be ok to drive -- might be -- but the driver may not be the best person to judge if this is the case. Better to err on the side of caution. Yeah, there was that $4000+ repair bill because the tow truck operator didn't know his cars and refused to listen to the owner of the car. But I'd rather risk that than driving the car and having the noise turn into something more serious.
In the case of any warranty claim it may be denied if the car was driven and the problem got worse. OTOH, a car damaged by an improper tow is the responsibility of the towing company and there is a good chance to get made whole again if the car suffers from an improper tow.
If the car is out of warranty it is bad enough to face for example a water pump R&R. But to possibly run the engine to the point the engine experiences overheating due to the water pump impeller not pumping water then to have to deal with the collateral damage arising from the impeller debris getting distributed throughout the car's cooling system all of which could have been avoided by having the car flat bedded in, well, a tow vs. driving is the choice every time.
