Car breakdown services - plaudits or brickbats

[KneesUp]

That was what Auto-aid used to be, I only ever wanted it as a get me home, not to the nearest garage, if it won't start at home I'd jump it off another, if I was only 10-15 miles away son/wife somebody would bring the tools, it's only a major breakdown I need cover for, like when we were 200 miles away with a caravan on the back & the gearbox would only let me select 5th gear. I drove it the last 40 miles to the caravan site with only that gear & then had them recover me home.

Impressive. I know someone who lost third whilst towing a caravan in north Yorkshire and that sounded fairly difficult to deal with - not sure how one would get on with just fifth - not ever stopping or slowing down I suppose!

 

[Dave7]

Old resurrection I know, but last year my Autoaid went up from £39 to £41.95, this year it's gone up to £59.99 almost 50% so I'll be looking for a new company.

I am with Greenflag and they responded well when I needed them. Then they wacked the price up because I had had the cheek to actually call them out. I asked "are you going to reduce it when I dont call you out"??
Anyway, I cancelled, went on line and joined again at the old price.

 

[Profpointy]

I've used green flag for nearly 10 years. Price was initially competitive and they haven't yet done the jack-the-price up trick. I have called them out - 2 x recovery once blown-engine clearly terminal, and once blown water hose sadly not road-side fixable though bloke gave it a good go. Also a couple of dozy locked-ourselves-out incidents. Also covers the motorbike which hasn't yet needed a call-out. All pretty good thus far.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Impressive. I know someone who lost third whilst towing a caravan in north Yorkshire and that sounded fairly difficult to deal with - not sure how one would get on with just fifth - not ever stopping or slowing down I suppose!

LOL had to stop at a couple of roundabout, traffic lights but did try to judge most so I didn't, just high rev's & a lot of clutch slipping, it smelt horrible, but as I knew the box had to come off it didn't matter if I burnt it out.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I am with Greenflag and they responded well when I needed them.

I've used green flag for nearly 10 years.

They want £90 & TBH it's not as good as Autoaid for £59.99 as with them both my wife & I are covered on any car we're driving or in.

 

[swee'pea99]

We've been with a bunch called First Call for about ten years and they've been fine the few times we've needed them. With one caveat:

once blown-engine clearly terminal

When that happened to us, they charged us £140. They said - and they proved to be quite right - that their Ts&Cs state clearly that if the car can't be returned to health, you're not covered for that final tow. At first I was fair grumpy about it, but then I took into account that they continued to cover us, with no price increase, right up to 20 years old - I've heard many other organisations wouldn't. So I guess it's swings & roundabouts: they'll cover 'high risk' vehicles, but they avoid that final hit if - and only if - it dies. Overall...well, we're still with them on our new car, so...

 

[Drago]

It can be returned to health. It's not your fault the tech wasn't equipped to do a full engine rebuild

 

[Profpointy]

We've been with a bunch called First Call for about ten years and they've been fine the few times we've needed them. With one caveat:



When that happened to us, they charged us £140. They said - and they proved to be quite right - that their Ts&Cs state clearly that if the car can't be returned to health, you're not covered for that final tow. At first I was fair grumpy about it, but then I took into account that they continued to cover us, with no price increase, right up to 20 years old - I've heard many other organisations wouldn't. So I guess it's swings & roundabouts: they'll cover 'high risk' vehicles, but they avoid that final hit if - and only if - it dies. Overall...well, we're still with them on our new car, so...

As it happened, my car was returned to health. Cost me roughly what I paid for the car 9 or 10 years previously. ie the problem was indeed "terminal" to the engine, but not the car as a whole

 

[Levo-Lon]

Talking of breakdown cover..
A week in Cornwall.
I drove about 850 miles this week with no problems, derv in cornwall £1.27!! Brilliant


I saw a zafira parked in the middle of 5 lanes Exeter services area M5
An Audi parked in the middle of 5 lanes Bristol M5

And about 5-6 landrover Discovery and Range Rovers on tow trucks plus 2 freelanders and an Evoque
A fiat 500 bonnet up and a vw Caddy and a few crashed cars.

There may have been a few others but I wouldn't ever invest in a breakdown marque like Land rover.. Terrible
I'd love a to see a stat of miles per breakdown for these things, its not like there 2a penny on our roads unless you live in Chelsea