Car Breakdown Discussion

rufford155

Jeandez : You need to be careful that the breakdown cover included with your insurance quotes is the same as you are currently getting and need with the AA. For example - with the RAC we have personal cover for two of us in ANY car as driver and passenger, home start, breakdown and recovery. But cover included with insurance quotes, albeit apparently cheaper, is nowhere near as comprehensive.

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82065500#Comment_82065500

can you cancel your existing breakdown cover?

shaftthemarket

I have been with AutoAid for several years and found them over that time to provide a good service, including on one occasion a complex recovery when the blasted electronic parking brake locked on and would not release with my car in my garage. They had to use something that looked like it belonged to a bomb disposal team to get it out, a sort of remote control low level fork lift device that lifted it from underneath. There was no extra charge for this, and I assumed it was all part of normal cover.

My renewal is due in November, and I recently had the AutoAid renewal documents sent to me. No special mentions of changes or anything like that, just a (small) increase in premium. However, I was aware from another thread on this forum that some of the cheaper breakdown cover services have started to exclude cover for 'specialist equipment', the term they use for any extra equipment over and above what the recovery truck normally carries. You will get caught out on this if your car is in certain locations eg multi-storey car parks and/or immobile with the wheels locked (as mine was).

I thought I had better check AutoAid haven't added the exclusion - and sure enough they have! No mention of it in last year's policy documentation, but they have added some rather vaguely worded definitions and exclusions to this years policy document:

General Exclusion 7: The cost of any parts, components, Specialist Equipment or materials used to repair or remobilise the vehicle.

Definitions: Specialist Equipment Non-standard apparatus or recovery vehicles which, in the opinion of the Recovery Agent, are required to safely recover the insured vehicle. Specialist equipment includes, but is not limited to, winches, skates, sliders, dolly wheels, donor wheels and crane lifts.

The chief vagueness is in General Exclusion 7 - it doesn't mention vehicle recovery, but does mention remobilisation. But isn't that what the repairing garage do (which I would not expect breakdown cover to pay for) after the recovery service has recovered the vehicle to the garage?

I sought clarification by email. After the usual auto-responder botmails about you can find the answers on our website and a no more use possibly human response or maybe on reflection AI answer and then more chasing up I finally got an answer:

Specialist equipment and service is not covered.

Bye bye AutoAid!

In fact, it turns out this exclusion is quite widespread. AutoAid just sneaked it in this year, without highlighting a change in the renewal documents that could costs the policyholder hundreds of pounds. Read the small print!

MSE team: if you read this, might be worth adding a note about this on your main Breakdown Cover page?