Breakdown - do you get what you pay for?

egyptiancotton

I'm currently with AutoAid for my breakdown cover. Before I took out the policy with AutoAid, I read into people's experiences with other breakdown companies such as RAC, AA and Green Flag. Some experiences were good and some were bad. Although most of the experiences of AutoAid were good.

When it comes to breakdown cover is it a case of you get what you pay for, like with the AA?

hgotsparkle

Had to call up Green Flag this morning as my car wouldn't start. I thought home start was covered as I'm sure I remember that being something they said when I changed my address with them - turns out nope, and would have been £180 call out charge otherwise. Said no and went knocking on my neighbours door. Turns out it was 'fuel starvation' or something, so luckily I didn't agree to the call out!Yes, you do get what you pay for as I now believe that home start cover generally costs more because of the risk of a car being left for long periods of time. Thats my theory, anyway.

scotsbob

Well if you are with Autoaid you have everything, homestart, roadside, relay for both you and partner and any vehicle. What more can another organisation offer you?

egyptiancotton

scotsbob wrote: »

Well if you are with Autoaid you have everything, homestart, roadside, relay for both you and partner and any vehicle. What more can another organisation offer you?

That's a very fair point I was querying the general consensus of whether paying more for breakdown cover with AA/RAC/Green Flag would be worth it.

forgotmyname

At least with the AA, RAC and Green Flag you know who is going to come to you.

How does it work with autoaid? closest garage?

When you read the bad reports quite often its people expecting too much.

Buy the basic package that takes you to the cloest garage or 5 miles. Then moan because you broke down 200 miles from home and they wouldnt take you there.

Or they failed to diagnose a fault in terrible road or weather conditions.

scotsbob

forgotmyname wrote: »

At least with the AA, RAC and Green Flag you know who is going to come to you.

How does it work with autoaid? closest garage?

You don't always know who is going to come to you. In many rural areas you don't get an AA/RAC/GF breakdown van. You get their nearest approved contractor, which is usually the nearest garage.

Autoaid works by you having a choice. If your car can't be fixed at the roadside you can choose to be towed to nearest garage or your destination.

http://www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/autoaid/breakdown_services.jsp

Vicmeldrew

forgotmyname wrote: »

At least with the AA, RAC and Green Flag you know who is going to come to you.

How does it work with autoaid? closest garage?

When you read the bad reports quite often its people expecting too much.

Buy the basic package that takes you to the cloest garage or 5 miles. Then moan because you broke down 200 miles from home and they wouldnt take you there.

Or they failed to diagnose a fault in terrible road or weather conditions.

Yep, my Dad is with the AA and was recovered home by Autoaid.


At least you know who is going to come to you ;-)

egyptiancotton

Vicmeldrew wrote: »

Yep, my Dad is with the AA and was recovered home by Autoaid.


At least you know who is going to come to you ;-)

Sounds like the AA aren't so reliable after all!

InsideInsurance

Greenflag dont have any of their own vans, they have however paid some local companies to have their vans painted in the greenflag livery.


Havent looked at autoaid much before but notice:

AutoAid's home cover only includes £65 of charges which they admit is the normal call out fee and so effectively wouldnt cover a recovery to a garage of your choice.

With strict application of their terms they only cover saloon, hatchback, estate cars and so in theory could decline a claim for a roadster or other car type. Doubt that would happen though.

Limit is mainland UK where as most others include islands.

Ultimately it is a cut down product but is probably suitable for most given the cost savings.

EdGasket

I am with AutoAid but wonder what happens if the cost of recovery way exceeds the value of the car e.g. 400 mile recovery home would probably cost well over £1,000 so if your car is only worth £500 it would not make economic sense. Are they still obliged to pay up in that circumstance? I guess so as I see no restriction on distance or age of car; just hope I don't need to put it to the test.

mad_rich

InsideInsurance wrote: »

AutoAid's home cover only includes £65 of charges which they admit is the normal call out fee and so effectively wouldnt cover a recovery to a garage of your choice.

I guess if you're getting home recovery, you'll more than likely want it towing to your usual garage, which tends to be close by.

Just checked CF Recovery, who are the guys they usually send round here. £45 + £1.20 per mile for recovery, so that would give you 16 miles to play with.

Fine for most city-dwellers, possibly not if you live out in the sticks.