Breakdown Cover

[Athena]

Hi All

I hope you are all ok and well

I recently posted on the forum an bad experance with my breakdown company, the breakdown company dose not cover any repair that may fail.

So I would like any recomendations for a good breakdown cover company, I have searched the net but before I hand over my money your words of wisdom would be great

Cheers

Dan

[Guest]

Hi All

I hope you are all ok and well

I recently posted on the forum an bad experance with my breakdown company, the breakdown company dose not cover any repair that may fail.

So I would like any recomendations for a good breakdown cover company, I have searched the net but before I hand over my money your words of wisdom would be great

Cheers

Dan

I have been a member of the AA for years now first under my mothers cover which I must say I used lots as you do when you are 17 and then on my own they have always been fair with me although not used them for a few years now the last time I called upon them was when the head gasket went on my MGTF (dam K series engine) when it went I knew what had gone wrong so I told the call centre she had a little problem in being told what the problem was and that I would need recovery and not just a little van to tell me what I knew but after a little persuasion 20 minuets later, the AA Relay truck arrived it took me to the local MG garage and then waited and gave me a lift back to a car hire company. I know that they are not the cheapest but you pay for what you get, also you are the member not the car which is handy if you use a lot of cars like me.

[Paul90]

I've just taken out cover with AutoAid.

£38 for the year covers both me and the wife in any car, any age.

Green Flag and many others don't like cars over 10 or 15 years old.

AutoAid is different in that you have to pay for recovery and then claim it back.

But do some searches on the internet and the reviews are good and they pay out quickly.

You have the choice to call the emergency number and they will call out someone local.

Or you can choose who to call out and claim it back.

I've got a lot of cars and bikes and it covers them all for one payment.

I travel all over the uk and one recovery home could come to more than some of my vehicles are worth.

There's always the chance you could pay out and then have hassle claiming it back but as I said the reviews so far seem good.

You need to be clear what you want though.

Some people want "breakdown cover" to cover the cost of parts and labour - more like a warrantee.

I don't want that, I'll fix it myself but might need someone to recover the vehicle several hundred miles to get it home to my workshop.

Paul

[Range Rover Blues]

Join the Caravan Club, take out their Mayday recovery service. Job done. The price of memebership of both is about the same as RAC cover. Unlike the other breakdown services they will come out even if the trailer breaks down. They will cover a trailer up to 26 feet or more (19 feet with the RAC IIRC) I also get double journey cover, they will take me on holiday and bring me back if I can't get it fixed. If they bring you home at 2.00am they will come back the following day to take you to a garage.

Oh, and when I ring up to say "head gasket, Range Rover Classic" they send out the appropriate flatbed within half an hour of the call, the RAC left me for an hour before a noddy car turns up and said "you're right, head gasket, I'll get a towtruck" and left me for another hour.

For £120 I can cover both of us with personal cover, the car and caravan (double trip) and get 24 hours hire car to fetch the dogs home with, all in.

Can you imagine the size of recovery truck it takes to fetch a RRC and 2 tonnes of caravan back form Norfolk? glad I wasn't paying that's for sure but it was all in the standard cover, oh and they don't care how old the car is.

The only complaint I have (and it's with with any of them these days) is that they won't allow my dogs in the cab. The same motoring organisation that advocates breaking into parked cars to rescue dogs would gladly leave them in the back of the car for 6 hours during a recovery. If they are so worried about unrestrained "livestock" being thrown around the cab in an accident (don't crash, it works for me) then surely they would provide enough seatbelts to secure both the child seats? Hence this year I'm upgrading to the free hire car.

Had to be philasophical though, the hire car last summer cost the same as a tank of petrol

[FridgeFreezer]

Britannia have always been very understanding with me, they generally just send out the nearest local flatbed taxi (won't try and repair it like the AA/RAC) but have hauled me home more than a few times with car & trailer combos that many would sniff at, and never cared about the age of the vehicle or what I'd been doing with it.

[orangebean]

I find the AA pretty good myself. As posted above, they're a little pricey, but cover the whole family fleet of truck, campervan, 2 cars and motorbike all of which have enjoyed the fuel saving long distance Relay service at one time or another. My pic says it all really

[v8bertha]

We had our "fleet" covered by Britannia and I have to say it was worth every penny.

The policy covered both me and SWMBO in any car we were the driver of. One nominated car (Camel 110) had European cover.

Trailers weren't a problem and neither was the age of the "nominated" vehicle.

I think I called them out a couple of times and each time the call centre knew that a LR needed a flatbed taxi and couldn't be towed by one of those dolly/wheel lift tow trucks. So as Fridge says, they just call up the nearest local company to come out and rescue you.

I guess it depends what you want... All I'm interested in is a recovery to my choice of destination, be it home or garage.

[Snagger]

I have generally been very pleased with the AA, though the aforementioned policy of sending the standard patrol vehicle before sending a recovery truck even when you have already diagnosed a failure that is irreparable by the road side is pretty annoying. I had this happen when my Chavalier blew its head gasket (in fact, it was so bad that the patrol man reckoned it had broken two pistons as well, but I was able to repair it at home with just the gasket), and one of their patrol men diagnosed a complete clutch failure when Helena wanted to pick me up in the 109 from Heathrow, but it was just the overdrive selected in neutral (H didn't know how to use the 109 back then).

Then again, when my Fairey OD failed on the way to the airport, the patrol man was happy to book a time for when I finished work and swap the standard transfer box part back in under my direction (had them in the car, but no tools or gash clothes) and said how much he'd enjoyed learning something new and doing something more challenging than recharging flat batteries or filling up and empty fuel tank, and they have repaired broken throttle and clutch cables in moments.

So, a couple of unimpressive moments, but generally I think they're good.

[UdderlyOffroad]

FWIW, I’ve had similar experiences with the RAC, I.e. they will insist on setting a patrol first, even when it’s clear that it’s a not a road-side-repair (in my case for a prematurely snapped cam-belt on a previous Euro-box) which adds (say) an unnecessary hour and a half or so to a the recovery home process.

I should add I've yet to break down in the 110!

Will definitely look at Britannia come renewal time though. I know it’s irrational, but I haven’t gone with the AA for a while because of their ‘fourth emergency service’ advertising tagline they had a couple of years ago. Clearly advertising execs have never heard of the Coastguard, Mountain Rescue teams, Royal Navy and RAF search and rescue, Army/Navy/RAF bomb disposal teams…etc etc. (rant)

Incidentally, has anyone ever broken down and been recovered whilst towing their Sankey? How did you get it home? During my (admittedly) brief career building recovery vehicles for a coachbuilder I can’t ever recalling fitting anything other than a ball hitch to anything but the largest trucks. And you would need a large flatbed to fit a 110 and Sankey combo onto the back!

[nicksmelly]

ADAC Recovery