Breakdown cover inc. recovery.

[Bob Meadows]

One of the other benefits that Auto Aid offer is that they do not discriminate against the older classic cars- as previously mentioned they don’t ask about car details as its you/wife that has the cover ---- any car you own or travel in is insured.
I changed to this company some years back as the previous one would no longer insure older vehicles but they would if you moved to a gold policy- more like a rip-off policy.
Moving over to Auto Aid has been a good financial move in terms of bringing costs down plus the level of service being excellent.

Trust it helps.
Bob.

[malbanc]

Originally Posted by derek vivian

What about the VOC's preferred insurer offered by Chris Knott? Details are in each Driver magazine. I am thinking of getting quotes for my V90 my wife's MG Magnette and our house building and contents when renewal quotes arrive. Any thoughts?

Just renewed with Chris Knott - £67 this time and includes all you would want. only a few call-outs in the past but excellent, swift service.

[Austin160]

Aopologies folks for not responding earlier to the helpful replies, but I have only just followed this up.

Green Flag have quoted a renewal of around £78 to cover mine and my wife’s cars, and although my car will be 16 years old this year, they will continue to cover it since it is the primary car on cover. Renewal is under consideration until it elapses in just under a month.

I then contacted Auto Aid since quite a few of the helpful replies suggested these were the ones to go for. Their website confuses, since the two sister companies are ‘advertising’ on their site - Auto Aid being the cheaper. This has the potential to confuse. I had read the mixed reviews before ringing, but take a reasonable viewpoint that those who receive substandard service are more likely to leave bad reviews than the likelihood of others leaving good reviews.
I made the call, and to be quite honest, I simply just didn’t gell with their representative, and found his approach to be just not-friendly.
Being of an age where I just want to do business with nice people, I have decided not to take out cover with them. Interestingly, some of the reviews mention rude and unhelpful responses at points where assistance is required, and I concluded that if the sales staff cannot be welcoming, then would I want to take on the risk of a similar response when I’m in difficulties.
So at the moment, I feel the add-on £30ish for Green Flag is probably the way I will go.
Many thanks again folks,
Kind regards,
Austin.

[Discombobulated]

I drive a breakdown truck for a company that subcontracts to many breakdown clubs including AA, RAC, Green Flag and a lot of smaller clubs but not AutoAid so I can’t comment on them but I personally have RAC cover because I think they give the best service to their members.
I might be wrong but I think it’s only the AA and RAC that have their own patrols and trucks and all the other breakdown clubs just use subcontractors so probably wouldn’t be much difference in the service you’d receive from the contractor.

[Scooser]

Originally Posted by Bob Meadows

One of the other benefits that Auto Aid offer is that they do not discriminate against the older classic cars- as previously mentioned they don’t ask about car details as its you/wife that has the cover ---- any car you own or travel in is insured.
I changed to this company some years back as the previous one would no longer insure older vehicles but they would if you moved to a gold policy- more like a rip-off policy.
Moving over to Auto Aid has been a good financial move in terms of bringing costs down plus the level of service being excellent.

Trust it helps.
Bob.

Just had to use Autoaid in anger - twice. Both times very efficient service and waited around 30 mins for a recovery truck. Based on this I will be renewing. Think is was about 40-odd quid for 15 months (they had an extra 3 months free) and this included home call-outs

[ITSv40]

I have been with Gem Recovery for the best part of 35 years and cannot praise them enough. I originally went with them as they were the only company that would offer recovery for my Silver Cloud - AA and RAC would only offer roadside assistance, not recovery.

Over the years I have had to use them around 3-4 times and had very good service. We are on pay and claim - which suits me fine - and covers 'er indoors and me in any car we are travelling in.

However, a few years ago they went above and beyond the call of duty. Our son had recently passed his test and decided to bin his Ka in a local ditch at 1.30am on Christmas day. Ditch so deep that the Ka was on its side and below the level of the verge, only way out was a HIAB crane and a flat bed lorry - on Christmas morning !!.

Son was not covered by breakdown insurance, but we rang Gem Recovery and explained the situation and asked if they could tell us who they would use if he was covered with themselves - pointing out that we were. At best we hoped for a response along the lines of 'give Billy Bloggs Recovery a call he will be able to help' but no, they offered to make the phone call and arrange and call us back.

Twenty minutes later, a call back with the update that a recovery truck was on its way, it would be about 40 mins, son would have to pay cash and by the way the cost is double as it is Christmas day. We could not have asked for anything more.

Three hours later the car had been recovered from the ditch and was sitting on our drive. Cost £750. It taught son a valuable lesson and not the best birthday he has had - he was born on Christmas day. Luckily for him he was uninjured, the car suffered two broken trim clips on the front bumper and it took a day of polishing the scratches out of the paint work.

Needless to say we have never forgotten that service and son signed up soon after and is still with them.

[Discombobulated]

Also thought I’d mention I find its good to haggle, RAC originally quoted me about £140 for a years cover (roadside and recovery, vehicle based, for the wife’s V60) and I shopped around and then went back to them saying I really want to join but you’ve got to get the price down more, and they got it down to £75. I got the same cover for my S60 with RAC with my insurance from Hastings for £60 a year. I know it might be cheaper as a joint policy but we renewed 6 months apart, we’ll look at that next year

[ThomasG]

Why, oh why, as soon as I saw thread title I started to think about Mater from "Cars" movie...

[IainG]

Hi
RAC 2 people personal cover, so both covered in any vehicle.
£129 / year
However they have done the cover for 15 months for the same price as I said I was considering leaving.
They inflate the price every year, so have to negotiate a reduction every year!

Iain

[bob12]

Just renewed the Comp cover, inc Legal and NC protection with 3K miles on my 29 year old 745 with Sainsbury's Bank Motor Insurance for a very reasonable £259 which price includes RAC Gold (Roadside/Recovery/Homestart £77). Plus, you get double Nectar Points on all the usual shop and fuel purchases for the next year. Got to be good value in my mind - Bob