Breakdown recovery company recommendations ?

[AJB Temple]

Yes I agree. For the basic service AA and RAC are cheap. We have the whole family covered, any vehicle including motorbikes, homestart, Europe cover etc etc and it is about £240 per annum. as we go back and forth to Netherlands and Germany a lot, this is pretty much essential insurance for us. Having been recovered to the UK twice after being a) hit by a rock bouncing off an alpine pass which smashed the oil cooler on a V12 and b) my wife having total transmission failure in the middle of the night with young offspring on board - it has been worth it for piece of mind. They recovered a motorbike from London to Guildford last year (electrical failure) and bikes are difficult to fox road side and need specialist transporting. I think it just depends what you need. Probably service is better in higher density places. A woman on her own or with small child generally gets pretty rapid service.

 

[Rorschach]

I use Startresuce, they are cheap and cheerful. In the very few occasions we have had a problem they have had someone to us within the hour. I'm not paying the insane prices charged by RAC and the AA, the money I have saved over the years has more than covered any trouble I might have in the future.

AA £99 per year incl home start / roadside recovery to a destination of your choice

£99 per year = 28 pence per day

INSANE PRICES!! (hammer)

I was quoted almost £200 by AA/RAC for that level of cover. My cover from Start rescue was under £30.
Approx £150 saving per year soon adds up.

 

[woodpig]

My wife and I both have car insurance with Marks & Spencer which includes free RAC cover.

 

[HappyHacker]

Been with the RAC for years and have had good or excellent experience. However last week they left my wife waiting in a dark car park at night for over 2 hours and it was a garage that came out, they did stay in touch and let her know what was happening. If I had known it was going to take so long I would have gone and fixed it my self (flat battery) but it was 30 miles away and I would have spent ages trying to find the jump leads having tidied the van out!

You have to phone them to get the price down after the first year quoting the AA price as they do try to get as much as possible from you.

 

[RobinBHM]

Breakdown cover is sold in the same fashion as insurance sadly, ie low pricing is used to attract new business and the costs covered by overcharging loyal long term customers.

It is an appalling marketing style for breakdown cover which really is a product where customers used to be extremely loyal, I can remember cars that had those AA yellow badges fitted to the front grill.

My guess about quality of service is that it is difficult to get a good picture from anecdotal feedback, I guess that the time to arrive to a breakdown all depends on availability at that time and location. I personally have had good service from the AA, they seem quite good at keeping in touch and they have an extensive database that logs all breakdowns so a great resource for the patrolmen to search and solutions to common problems for specific models can be found from a quick laptop search.

Of course breakdown has changed a lot in the last 2 decades, cars are now far more reliable, but now lots of models have no spare tyre and electrical problems could be software or computer issues not dodgy points or damp ht leads!

 

[Alexam]

All covered through Lloyds bank as well as full holiday insurance for us both to age 80 for at £17 pm