European breakdown cover

[Harryh87]

Has anybody got any reccomendations in terms of break down cover, this is the first time i will be driving my own car to le mans and want to make sure everything has been squared before we go, im in an '02 golf but i dont want to find myself stuck with no contingency plan if it decides to drop a bk, ive had a quote from RAC for £50 for the week and the cover sounds pretty good, has anyone had experience with these situations, i'm hopimg nobody has had to but im guessing a few have :-/.

Harry.

[E36GUY]

Just remember that most will only cover costs of recovering the car up to the value of the car so if you take a £1000 snotter with you it's unlikely to make it back to the UK. Should it break down, it could take a couple of weeks before it's repatriated as they will fill a transporter up and move several cars at a time so make sure your policy covers a rental car too.

[FraMac]

One of my colleagues has nothing but praise for green flag, who dealt with at least two claims on their Astra Van, one including repatriation. On the other occassion they included car hire in France and from Dover to Cheshire to get them back home, then paid for a flight to get one of them back to France to pick up the fixed van, Great advert for green flag, so worth a call?

[Nosynchro]

Check what you get e.g. AA will recover you home but if you breakdown on the way there thats not much use. One of our party last year got as far as Alencon and the options were take to the track or go home. In the end he got a local garage to take him to the camp site (the gate people are also a bit funny about being trailered on to the campsites so you need to do a bit of arguing)and the AA got him back apart from when you have to get on the ferry under your own steam using starter motor.

Fringe benefit was they could all start having a little drink on the way and in the end he was home an hour before us as they seem to let the breakdowns off the ferry first.

AA price seems to vary when I buy it in different wehicles so must change it according to some sort of formula - age of vehicle maybe?

[Dieter7S4]

Highly recommend RAC, my Lotus 7 broke down on the way back from the classic in 2010. Roadside assistance arrived within 45 mins, taken to local garage where it was deemed non repairable that day. RAC then arranged for hotel for the night, low loader transport to Le Havre following day, and transport meeting me & car at Portsmouth!

I'm going to the classic again, I will be using RAC cover!

[Harryh87]

Cheers for the replies guys, the RAC said that if we miss our ferry then its basically a case of "we will get you home and not bother with diagnosing it at a garage" and get you into a hotel with hire car, also seems nobody has had any bad experiences with them, green flag did have some good reviews but when you search for reviews on google you just get all the angry folk having a rant because there car broke down :-D

[cptsideways]

We just signed up with ADAC, annual policy, myself & my wife, covers any vehicle you are in, Europe wide with recovery. £104 for the year.

You need to ring them, as the website won't accept UK postcodes. They all speak English if your not handy mit ze German. Took 5 mins & covered from 24hours later. Just search ADAC on here & you'll find the link.

[cptsideways]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[jock mcsporran]

cptsideways said:

We just signed up with ADAC, annual policy, myself & my wife, covers any vehicle you are in, Europe wide with recovery. £104 for the year.

Silly question maybe but does ADAC have 'regional' numbers to call when you break down, i.e. if you are in the UK do you call a UK number or a German number.

[cptsideways]

jock mcsporran said:

cptsideways said:

We just signed up with ADAC, annual policy, myself & my wife, covers any vehicle you are in, Europe wide with recovery. £104 for the year.

Silly question maybe but does ADAC have 'regional' numbers to call when you break down, i.e. if you are in the UK do you call a UK number or a German number.

You have to call a German number, but they can call you back if its a long call. It's a minor issue for us as the cover you get (multi car) is far more extensive than anything you get in the UK for 3 times the cost.

[lost in espace]

When I was a member you had a uk no which connected to the AA. I was a member for a year, wasn't impressed for various reasons.

Autoaid in the UK for £39, plus http://www.europeanbreakdowncover.com/ perhaps?

[FraMac]

We've just tacked cover onto our ACO membership

[Camberwell]

OP You are lucky - RAC prices go up if your car is 11 years or older so an '02 Golf is fine but you might struggle next year.

I'm going to the classic and regular Le Mans this year I've got an older car but they way I got around it is I added European cover to my normal RAC membership - this cost about £80 plus I had to join the fekking caravan club (yeah i know) for an extra £25 - the RAC has an arrangement with this club whereby they waive the older car surcharge.

So bottom line I got RAC for the year for me and the wife with back to home cover UK and EU covering any car any age for about £220 which i think is a result

[blackcossiestu]

My cars are covered by the European recovery that comes with the car insurance (albeit classic car policies)....and the service they've provided so far has been faultless. Worth phoning your insurance provider to see if they can offer anything?

[The Quatt]

Bargain of the year, If you drive a VW, Audi or Skoda Group vehicle which is under 10 years old, you can have Roadside, At Home, Recovery ANYHERE in Europe, Hire cars or hotels and UNLIMITED call outs for £89 for a full year ! ! No Scam, just a deal we have with VWG.
PM me for details

[Herbie Hammer]

Just done a quote for short term cover - 96 Chimaera. AA - £76, Green Flag £37. Big difference in price so need to trawl the T&C's to see what I get for my extra money with the AA

HH

[frag68]

Last year my Westfield chucked it in Rouen on the home on the Sunday night. I took out European breakdown cover with Adrian Flux (£35 supplement as Le mans was planned)for the year when I insured that car and to be honest I wasnt impressed. It took 4 hours to get a breakdown truck to us and even then it only had a passenger seat. I had my son with me who was shoehorned over the engine cover with no restraints. We were dumped at Calais and the breakdown company had arranged P&O, who then wouldnt take us as the car had no towing eye. I then had to wait another 2 hours for a tow truck to pick me up at the docks, drive onto the ferry and then drop me at Dover. Was then picked up by another company and taken to their premises near Canterbury. From there I had to wait 6 hours before anyone made any contact with me despite ranting and raving about it. The recovery company then gave me a courtesy car which I drove home near Glasgow and the Westfield was brought up a few days later.

IIRC the breakdown company was ERS or ERA or something like that. Yes they got the car home, but only because of my constant phoning and ranting. It was a cheap add on and yes the car was repatriated, but was not a nice experience.

Whilst it was a cheap add on, it was not a nice experience as i was sold cover which was suited to my car. I know now it was just a generic policy which was not suited to the car. Shop around and read the small print.

In saying that I had to use them a few weeks ago when the clutch cable snapped in the Highlands of Scotland and they were excellent.

[Zelda Pinwheel]

We took out cover with ADAC last year for a trip to Morocco in our 1991 Land Rover 130. Think it was under £100 and included Morocco.

Thank feck we did as the gearbox started disintegrating in southern Morocco and we nursed it back to Malaga using only 4th gear and a lot of "interesting" driving. Called ADAC from the safety of our hotel and they had a recovery truck to us within 2hrs. It was a little bit small for a 130, there was a lot of landy hanging off the back, but 2 weeks and a European tour later the vehicle was delivered back to our garage of choice. ADAC booked us tickets on the next Easyjet flight from Malaga and we flew home next day.

The only minor niggle was dealing with the local Spanish office - some language & translation difficulties, but otherwise they were completely brilliant.

We need to renew cover for this year's Le Mans - will be interesting to see how much they'll increase the quote after all that!

[BeeGT]

..and don't forget that you may already have cover with your bank account. Barclays Additions Plus (£15 per month) offers my wife and I (joint account, only one fee) RAC breakdown cover for UK and Europe for cars less than 11 years old, it also includes worldwide travel insurance for the whole family so all in all it is very good value.

[AlanQ]

Norton Heritage are pretty good, £34.50 for the Le Mans trip for any age car with decent level of cover inc hire car etc. You don't have to have an existing policy with them.