Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

To AA or not to AA! Or maybe RACe to RAC! :pp


Ok, I'm buying a new car and need to get some breakdown cover for it.

Who do you recommend?

It's on a 53 plate so don't need the full works...just roadside assitance and take home/garage if I breakdown.

The AA quote the basic package as £41 for the Option 100

The RAC quote £34 for their Single cover - roadside


Which do you recommend, do you have? :)

Any others I could try?

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

What happens in the (unlikely I know) event that the car doesn't start at home?

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

Try your car insurance provider. I get Green Flag with home start, recovery and european cover for about £70. I think if i just had roadside its leass than £30.

The proof in the pudding is calling them out, i had a brake failure and got them to take my car to the garage as its illegal for the breakdown company to do roadside repairs to brakes. I must admit they did miss the one hour deadline so i got the £10 payment they make but i was at home so wasnt bothered. I dont think id be as happy if i was on the side of the road in winter, but then again it might have been an exception to the norm.

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

push it around the corner :D :D , there is a limit of how close you can be to your property , i am not sure what it is though :(

myself i have had the rac and aa , prefer the rac :)

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

I've got More Than breakdown insurance that costs me £6.90 a month for cover at Home, Roadside and European (although I do pay slightly more because of using Direct Debit instead of one annual payment :( ).

They've been very good, especially when my petrol tank fell of at my parents and they got me, my girlfriend and the car back to Grimsby :tu:

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

What sort of car is it m8... nearly all cars come with breakdown cover from new which is valid for at least a year. :)

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

Be annoyed :( and do the below!

1/4 of a mile ;)


It's 53 plate (reg'd last Sept 03) New Vectra 2.2 SRi

I've just spoken to Vauxhall and becuase it's <12months old it's still got the Vauxhall Assistance, well 6months left, on it :D

So that's a wrap, cheers guys :)


p.s. Vauxhall Assistance is the full AA package AFIAK.

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

Nice one. :D

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

oh and it's Silver! :D

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

Ahhh you've given it a name already....
And you bought it on credit using the Loan Arranger? :D

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

AVOID the RAC like the plague! They ripped my g/f off more than once with claims of this is wrong, that is wrong, this needs replacing .. that'll be 60 quid please. As I recall there was a fairly lengthy bit on Watchdog about them forcing new batteries (at inflated prices) on gullible customers.

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

LOL, but no... :)

I'm buying it using sweet, tears and tons of elbow grease! :pp :D :)


More commonly known and Beg, Steal or Borrow! ;) :pp

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

yes i saw that programme , cant remember what it was called though , mind you there is good and bad in all companies , bit like ntl really :D :D :D

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

We've used the AA for 10 years no. So far they have been very good.

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

On a 53 plate the Mfrs cover should still be in place. When that expires you can usually get a good deal for the cover to be extended.

Green flag have always been good / fast IMHO, Direct lines cover is provided by them. My car is currenly AA (part of the extended wwty), they were great when it died completely (needed new direct injection casette), original driver took me to the airport for the loan car, pickup truck waited until we returned (car cannot be towed apparantly), all sorted nicely.

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

We have cover thru Direct Line as they do my wife's car insurance, so we got a good deal ... I just put some invented details for you thru their online quote system and got £33 from them for their most basic package, so that puts them on a par with the RAC.

If you want to get a proper quote based on your true details, go to http://uk.directline.com/rescue/welcome.htm

I had RAC cover personally from when I first moved away from home to Uni and realised I couldn't just phone my dad if I broke down, until I sold my last private car and got a company one; now I have RAC cover through the company. I've had them out at least half a dozen times over the last 12 years and each time bar one they've been great, if a little slow once or twice.

The only real problem was the first time, while I was away at Uni in the sleepy rural West Wales town of Lampeter. The car just wouldn't start; it turned out eventually to be a blown fuse but the RAC man 'checked' the fusebox and didn't spot it (he apparently misread the fuse diagram and checked the spares rather than any of the live ones). He determined that it was the elctronic ignition unit and was on the point of asking me to run round some of the local garages asking for helop when he decided to check the fuses again, this time spotting the error. Problem fixed, after waiting an hour for him to turn up and 45 minutes in the rain for him to arrive at a solution. I think the real problem here was that the local RAC man was more used to fixing the battered 20-year-old land rovers and Nissan Sunnies that live in muddy farmyards than relatively new Rover Metros.

Despite all this I would totally recommend them. Any car of any age can have a serious breakdown and a tow over any distance can be expensive. I had a recovery back to the Wirral from Birmingham once, which didn't cost me a penny as it was covered by my RAC membership.

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

This is what happened to me with the petrol tank issue :mad: . I'd been in Birmingham for my brothers wedding and, when we saw the spreading pool of petrol on my parents drive :eek: , we thought it probably wouldn't be wise to drive it. One call to More Than, and they arranged for a mechanic to come out and, when they couldn't do anything, a recovery van arrived the next morning to get us back to Grimsby (140 miles-ish). Same thing - all it cost was my £6.90 premium (mind you, I did have to fork out 200 quid for a new petrol tank :mad: :mad:

Re: Motoring Breakdown, choices?
 

How about that, I was at a wedding too ... fortunately in my case it was just a blocked carburettor. Simple clean-out job for the mechanic at the local garage the day after I got towed home. He said I was probably unlucky and got the dregs from the service station's underground petrol tank when I filled up. Amazingly Ford Orions of that age had no fuel filter in their system ... he very helpfully inserted one in my fuel line for me at the same time.

I ought to mention that the RAC tried to clear the blockage at the roadside a couple of days earlier, apparently fixing the problem, and despite my worries that they wouldn't attend the same problem twice, didn't quibble at all.