European breakdown cover suggestions sought

[fearofweapons]

So we are taking our 1989 110 2.5TD to France ( Lille ) and South-East Belgium this summer. I have been looking at breakdown cover for the 10 days or so we are abroad. For some of the quotes I could buy a reasonable TD5 110 !

So I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations please?

I am currently covered by the RAC and while I thought their initial quote was expensive ( <> £100 ) I'm starting to think it might not be.

Many thanks for any advice offered.

regards,

Richard

[Early90]

First check with the RAC that the £100 covers you abroad in a vehicle over 15 yrs old and that they will recover it home for you...if the answer is "yes" then bite their arm off for it....if the answer is "no" the best deal is A.D.A.C.

Google it or search on here, everything you need to know about ADAC on here and many other forum.

[Arjan]

What the man said..

You Brits have many problems with this and coverage often doesn't cover what you think it does..

On the Continent, we do not seem to have these problems as recovery is usu. included or, like ADAC or ANWB, you and any vehicle you're driving, is covered..

Get the coverage in writing. And make sure the stuff on the roofrack is included...

[Yostumpy]

ADAC here. IIRC it's about £90 for me and swmbo, (personally) in any vehicle, in the whole of Europe, including uk, (they have an arrangement with AA. So total Europe covered for less than UK alone. No brainer really.

[zoltan]

ADAC here too. Added advantage is the monthly magazine I don't understand a word of

[fearofweapons]

many thanks all who replied. I'll go and take a look at ADAC and hope my two years of schoolboy German are up to it! ;-)

cheers,

Rich T

[reb78]

I'm with adac at the moment, but the cost of German calls is a bit of a pain to be honest. Plus, they messed my payment details up - I had paid, but they kept sending me demands for payment (in German) and saying that I wasn't covered. They eventually admitted their mistake and had lost details of my payment.

Check your bank account doesn't cover you if you upgrade to a paid account. If I took out flexplus with nationwide, it's £10 a month, same breakdown cover as adac, so includes the UK (but UK call centres), but phone insurance and travel insurance on top. I only found this out after I had taken the policy with adac earlier this year, but I will be changing to the flexplus cover with nationwide next year.

Be aware that for both of these, recovery home isn't a simple case of saying I want to go home, the car has to be deemed non repairable at a local garage of their choosing within 3 days I think. So whereas with RAC, you can say bring a flatbed and take me home, I don't think you have this option with either adac or the nationwide option above. The others will correct me if I have got this bit wrong. You already have RAC cover so since this won't be your sole cover, you should be ok in there UK with this bit.

Quick question for the others on here as well, how do you cancel an adac policy? I think I've read somewhere that you have to send them written notice and the chase you if you just don't pay. Is that correct, or do you just not pay and in effect that cancels the policy?

[V8 Freak]

Rich....

I had payment issues, they kept sending details in German and couldn't resolve things when I called and spoke to an English speaking person.

Ultimately this all led to me not bothering to pay and the membership lapsed. Nice German club magazines stopped arriving too.

I have AA cover with my bank but it's not got Relay included.

Just had to recover our Golf due to dead injector... Was stuck in Redhill, Surrey.

Thankfully I have the 90 and hired a trailer for £72... Cost of Diesel £50ish and a few hours of my time.

If the 90 had died I might have needed to hire a flatbed or services with a Flatbed....

AA wanted over £100 to upgrade to Relay and then £3 per mile.. (90 miles from home)

First failure of the Golf in 100k miles....

Only time I've been dead on the roadside with the 90 was a fuel pump failing.... Topped up with Diesel and the higher level in the tank got me home... (I thought I'd run out of fuel)

When I tour abroad I take out cover for the period.. Not the cheap solution but at around £130 for the trip it's not too bad.

Thus far, not paying for a UK recovery service has paid for itself....

Neil

[UdderlyOffroad]

Just a tale of caution re ADAC:
If you break down in the UK, cover is handled by the AA, as alluded to above. However, the AA insist that you call ADAC who then contact the AA on your behalf. I've found that between the ADAC and the AA messages can get "lost". This isn’t really an issue, but if SWMBO is stuck on the side of the road (maybe with the young-uns in the car), the acceptable level of faff might be too high. Let me give you a more detailed example.

Recently, my disco 2 (TD5) decided to eat its serpentine belt on the M4 (dragon side of the bridge).

I’d saved the AA's number on my phone, like a good boy scout. After listening to an interminable pre-recorded message about only phoning from a place of safety. "Hello I'm with one of your ARC Europe partners…"

"You’ll have to phone them sir."

“You’re kidding me right? I’m on the hard shoulder of a busy motorway”

<click>

So dial the number on the back of my ADAC card. No stupid pre-recorded message, straight through to an efficient German chap. Forgot the German for ‘Serpentine Belt’ (No, not Schlangengurt). Asked relevant questions, understood immediately that it was permanent four wheel drive and flat-bed would be required (ok I know this isn’t strictly the case…).

Gets call back from the AA nearly 40minutes later.

“Oh hello sir my name is Traceeeeee, a patrol will be along to recover you to a place of safety in about an hour”

“I told ADAC that my serpentine belt had snapped, and they would send a flat bed to recover me home. You’re not telling me your patrol vans carry spare serpentine belts for a TD5?”

“I have to send a patrol first sir”

“I see, so instead of loading me straight onto a flatbed, you’re going to make a patrol tow me on a pole off the motorway, and then make me wait for a flat bed, you’re just wasting everybody’s time”

“I have to send a patrol first sir. And you’re not covered for home recovery”

“I am, check with ADAC, they should have informed you of this”

“You’ll have to phone them sir”.
….
And so it went on. All of this stood on the hard should for 2+ hours as it got dark.

Eventually, after another 2 calls to ADAC, and countless ‘call backs’ from the AA, they acknowledged that I was indeed covered to be taken home, and that sending a patrol wasn’t going to be a fruitful endeavour.

As it happens the (contractor) flat-bed driver was a fellow enthusiast, and we spent most of the ride home discussing which mods do and don’t work on a 110 or Disco…

As you can probably tell, I lay the blame squarely with the AA for this. The ADAC call centre person read back to me all the details he was going to pass on to the AA on the first call, and the AA totally ignored all of them. Your mileage may vary of course, but I'm definitely reconsidering renewing my membership unless I know I'm going to be doing trips to Europe...

Matt

[Arjan]

I never quite understand why it is all so complicated in the UK and insurance + recovery. It can't be because you pay so little for the insurance - you do not.. But you have to be very, very careful as you guys show they'll try anything to get away from helping you..

Most Continental insurance companies include domestic recovery in their car insurance - or for a small fee like € 20 a year - and some include European coverage for that money aswell. This works fine.

Needed the Ninety, after the timing belt went on the motorway in dark rural France, recovered and the French "Depanneur" arrived withing 20 mins. 2 days later the insurance company called that the "Garagist" wanted € 4k to fix the engine. I explained that I could do it at home for about € 100 so they were taking a p..s

We agreed and they paid the Depanneur to deliver the Ninety to my house. Solved.

Happy hunting..

[fearofweapons]

All,

many thanks for the insights.

I have RAC membership via the Camping and Caravanning Club as this includes taking us back to the campsite so we can load the car and then taking us home. As most probably know usually when you get picked up they take you to one place and one place only. Having broken down once while camping with the, then much younger, family this was one thing we wanted cover for. And having a young family I have always been sure to have full breakdown cover.

On the plus side the RAC have agreed to cover me in Europe for a smidgen over £101 for 10 days - so colour me happy! :-)

Once again many thanks.

regards,

Rich T

[Arjan]

Well Done - enjoy

Feel free to come by in the Auvergne for some awesome Greenlaning, Stunning Nature and real Peace & Quiet..

[fearofweapons]

So back from France and Belgium ( via a week camping in a very wet North Wales). The 110 performed very well indeed with no hiccups worth mentioning.

Also saw lots of other landies, mostly 110s with NL registrations. The, Dutch, camp site owner had a very nice expedition ready TDCi 110 he had bought for a song in Spain a few years ago when Spain was having an economic downturn. We got to do a couple of lanes through woods all very pretty indeed.

The only minor challenge was the right front indicator stopped working after a few days. Thinking - "well at least I have a full set of spares" - I set about replacing it. Removing the lens cover the bulb dropped into my hand. Re-seating and testing it worked fine. :-)

Now I just need to fix the intermittent lack of right turn indicator on the trailer board for the bike rack. What does anyone, if they do, use to protect the trailer socket at the rear and keep the contacts clean? I'm sure that is part of the problem.

cheers,

Rich

[keithjh]

I used to run in convoys into Bosnia, anyway AA European cover does include ALL of Europe many only cover EU countries. Anyway I never had to use them but a couple of others did never had a problem with the AA including recovering a Disco with a goosed gearbox from Mostar. Also check on a yearly policy as against a one trip they are not much dearer as an example I pay £112 per year for yearly cover with the AA, plus I can change the vehicle covered up to 3 times a year at no extra cost, so for me it covers a 1994 110, 2002 Disco and a 2010 car.

The European Breakdown offered by the NFU is also excellent had a friend burst a radiator in Spain a few years ago, all sorted out collected repaired and provided a hire car for the few days it took them to source parts required, but I think you have to be insured with the NFU to get this.

Regards

Keith

[Peaklander]

Hi all,

I took cover with LV=Britannia Rescue for our recent trip in a 1996 110 CSW.

We were away for almost nine weeks and drove through EU and none-EU countries, to and from Greece. The premium was £130 for a year and cover included Albania, Montenegro, Serbia etc.

We didn't need to call them as we had a trouble-free ~6,000 miles.

[zoltan]

Dredging up an old thread, one thing to be aware of if you have a big vehicle with ADAC is that they have a 300 Euro towing limit so that doesn't go anywhere if you have something big This was a 35km journey to a place of repair and was 920 Euros. I got 300 back from ADAC.