Breakdown cover

The paper clip trick works on petrol Astras but not diesels. A cheap gizmo from China paid for itself immediately as the first thing I did was programme a new key and immobilser.

I had to call the AA out, a few months ago, and the driver said that his main stock of spares consists of small batteries. “You’d be surprised how many drivers keep the spare battery, for their locking/unlocking device, in the glove compartment, and lock themselves out due to a flat battery,” he said.

Friend went hiking in the Cairngorms and it started to snow heavily, him and his mate knocked it on the head and headed back to the isolated car park, arriving there the car wouldn’t open, locks frozen and remote inop, so they called out the AA who turfed up about 30 mins later, explaining the problem the AA man walked up to the car and wiped the snow build up off the screen, try now, they did and it opened, apparently the sensor was in the corner of the screen and the snow build up prevented it from seeing the remote 😀 he said he felt a right fool.

I am disabled and a blue badge holder. I am with the RAC. What I get for £14.60 a month is the following,

Home Start, Absolute priority for my wife and I if I breakdown,relay to a garage of my choosing for the car if needed, a free car to get me home,a private ambulance if I am unwell at the breakdown and some other stuff I forget.

My car failed to start and they were with me in 14 minutes diagnosed the fault(dirty contacts on the immobiliser) and had me going within 35 minutes of my call to them.

As to the paperclip trick that works on my Lexus Soarer and Honda Prelude. All you need to know is which pins to short and count the long and short flashes and a print out of the problem thrown up by this method. No need for fancy gizmo’s. My suggestion is join a forum for your make and model car and you probably have all the above information and more.

I’d never had breakdown insurance in 40 years until last year when I was distracted at the pump and put petrol in my diesel car. I was only a few miles from home, a mate towed me back and there were no obvious after effects but with modern pumps it seems problems can take a while to appear so insurance seemed a good idea.

I’d never had it so hadn’t a clue about terms, options, anything. The main thing I discovered was read the small print carefully. A lot of policies would take you home or where you were going, at their option, and a few more would only take you to your original destination. Some would take you to a garage of their choice for repairs to be carried out, at your expense obviously. None of those were any good for me as a new diesel pump for my car, fitted, is the thick end of £3,000 which is more than the car’s worth. At home, I’ve got a chance of getting and fitting a secondhand one, so the last thing I want is the car taking further away.

In short, the one that gave me the choices, rather than them, and the best price was Autonational. I’d never heard of them but as that applies to most of the ones I found that doesn’t mean much.

Mine does, and it’s only 18 months old, and as well as the remote key, you can also use the key to gain entry, through the door lock.

Could it be one of those new cars, whereby the owner has only to be “Near” the car, and it automaticaly unlocks?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

I had to call the AA out, a few months ago, and the driver said that his main stock of spares consists of small batteries. “You’d be surprised how many drivers keep the spare battery, for their locking/unlocking device, in the glove compartment, and lock themselves out due to a flat battery,” he said.

Don’t modern cars have a physical key you can unlock the car with manually anymore? 😮

I had to call the AA out, a few months ago, and the driver said that his main stock of spares consists of small batteries. “You’d be surprised how many drivers keep the spare battery, for their locking/unlocking device, in the glove compartment, and lock themselves out due to a flat battery,” he said.

Never heard of them but certainly an idea.

I wonder how much a recovery really costs? I guess it is varied on time,location.

Hello Baz,

Breakdown cover is, as has been previously said, simply an insurance policy and the cheapest way to buy this cover is to do what I do and pay £39 to: http://www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/ The reason that it is so cheap is that you have to pay for the recovery service yourself and then you recover the costs from the Autoaid policy.

Yup, you can pick an Audi Vag reader up off eBay for about £30. My old MR2 was built in, you shorted two pins and the engine management light would flash a sequence to tell you the faults.

Yes, they can no longer void warranty for non-franchise servicing, even in the initial years, so restricting the computer information would be a way of doing this by the back door and they would be in deep doos if they tried.

Moggy

Breakdown companies are not there to repair your car, just get you going. Normally they just tow you to a garage.

I do wonder now with modern cars and all the electronics with it whether it is now out of the reach /capability of the roadside mechanics to fix anything unless it is just a simple thing.
Are the Car manufacturers obliged to give up their computer codes for diagnoses to non franchised places?

No it’s an add on that covers repairs.

www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/breakdown-repair-cover.jsp

I’m with the AA, I also have breakdown insurance with them, if my car breaks down it is covered up to £500 and three claims a year

HOWEVER

Driving to work my TT engine management light came on (yellow one) so I stopped and called them out…. As the manual says it has a fault and has gone into limp mode, take it to Audi… the AA do NOT recognise that as a breakdown so ended up forking out a couple of hundred quid to get the O2 sensor replaced.

Breakdown companies are not there to repair your car, just get you going. Normally they just tow you to a garage.

I use Tesco premium breakdown cover for £89 per year.
Only called them out once. They either call Green Flag or a local garage. Service seemed good enough.

Anyone who stays with an insurance company and doesn’t shop around is loosing money and doesn’t understand how the industry works. Even if you don’t move shop around and see who’s charging what. The industry is based on `churn` i.e geared up to winning people who shop around. The industry doesn’t care about existing customers. They only make money on winning new business. Why should they. If you are too lazy then you get charged the maximum.

I was with the AA for 4 or 5 years. One year they increased my payments from £80 to £150. So I cancelled. When I rang them they offered me £85 to renew. Needless to say I’ve never used the AA since.

To be honest apart from the AA, RAC and Greenflag most are just brokers. They use local garages or Green Flag.

One year I cancelled Tesco. After shopping around I realised they were still the cheapest and rejoined. Not only did I get the same deal I got a £10 new customer voucher.

I also changed my contents and buildings saving £10pcm and my Pet Insurance saving about £5. I saved about £20 on my annual car insurance. The only thing I’ve never changed is my electric and gas. Just can’t seem to get a better deal.

Tony, My wife recently lost a gold necklace, which was covered by the house Insurance. They sent out an asesser, and asked if I/we had had the clasp checked by a jeweler in the last 2 yrs, well, we hadn’t, but hidden away in the very small print in the Policy, it stated this had to be done.

Seems like they cover their ars** to make it watertight so they don’t have to pay anything.
Next time, I will ask for a copy of the Policy to read, prior to committing myself with parting with my dosh.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

I’m with the AA, I also have breakdown insurance with them, if my car breaks down it is covered up to £500 and three claims a year

HOWEVER

Driving to work my TT engine management light came on (yellow one) so I stopped and called them out…. As the manual says it has a fault and has gone into limp mode, take it to Audi… the AA do NOT recognise that as a breakdown so ended up forking out a couple of hundred quid to get the O2 sensor replaced.

“Green Flag” anyone?. Oft advertised, but never had any feedback from anyone.
Good or bad?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Just wondering, do any of you “Flash” your light to oncoming traffic if they are heading towards a speed trap?.

Chas, Yup, it was true, they did.:)

Jim.
Lincoln .7

Linc – nice post! I had always heard the stories but never knew if true or apocryphal. Sounds as though might have been true!:)