Recovering Car From France... Cost?

[V8 Disco]

Hi, just back from a short trip to France and although all went well, I noticed that there's a clause in my European Breakdown cover that says something along the lines of 'if the car cannot be repaired locally and the cost of repatriating the car is greater than the value of the car, we reserve the right to say no to repatriation'. This probably not an issue in most cases but my aging jap wagon is probably only worth £2-3k on a good day - can anyone please tell me what the cost of recovery would likely be? Want to make sure I understand before I go back next year...

[Pet Troll]

Get better break down cover.

I use ADAC at a cost of roughly £75 per year, that covers me in any car. They will repatriate your car regardless of value. I know this because in the summer I was in Germany with some friends and a chap in an old battered metro broke down (the diff imploded) and the car was recovered back to the UK free of charge under his ADAC cover.

[SEE YA]

That is why for next years LeMans trip I am going with AA. I am a member of the RAC however, they want £250 EXCESS to bring you back. The AA cost works out £144 for everything and you car back to the U/K which is my main concern if the worse happens.

[Pet Troll]

SEE YA said:

That is why for next years LeMans trip I am going with AA. I am a member of the RAC however, they want £250 EXCESS to bring you back. The AA cost works out £144 for everything and you car back to the U/K which is my main concern if the worse happens.

Why not go with adac which is 79 euro for a years menbership with no extra cost to bring your car back to the uk? They are the biggest breakdown co outside of the usa for a reason!

[KaraK]

Another vote for ADAC here.. make sure you go for the slightly higher level of cover (which I think is the 79 euro one) and it removes the age restriction on the repatriation.

[surveyor]

I thought that this clause normally says if the cost of recovery is below market value they can just pay out market value instead?

ETA - I think I'm wrong. Coincidently for the chap with the AA

WHAT WE WILL NOT COVER
1. Recovery of Your Vehicle if We calculate it to be beyond commercial economic repair. We will
never pay more than the value of the vehicle to bring it Home. If We advise You that Your Vehicle
is beyond commercial economic repair, We will give You up to eight (8) weeks after the original
incident to agree suitable alternative arrangements with Us for the recovery or disposal of Your
Vehicle. If We have no agreement after eight (8) weeks, We will consider You have authorised Us to
dispose of Your Vehicle.

Edited by surveyor on Thursday 12th December 15:02

[KTF]

Details on how to join ADAC, etc here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=135...

[surveyor]

for those pushing ADAC, have you read the terms and conditions. Would not surprised for these to be the same?

[KaraK]

surveyor said:

for those pushing ADAC, have you read the terms and conditions. Would not surprised for these to be the same?

If you mean about the recovery vs market value then I haven't read the T&C's but did have the conversation with them when I joined and they said that situation applied on cars over a certain age but that knocking the cover up a level removed it. Might still be there I suppose!

[Pet Troll]

surveyor said:

for those pushing ADAC, have you read the terms and conditions. Would not surprised for these to be the same?

From personal experience a friend had an old metro (1991 or something) with very little value recovered back to the uk from germany at no extra cost. That was earlier this year.

[Exige77]

Another ADAC user here.

The XX were very very very very very poor when I had a problem a couple of years back.

They damaged my car in several different ways and would not help.

They said they were only the broker and I would have to follow up with the vaious "Unknown" subbies.

They also said that this part of the XX was registered in Gibralta just in case you wanted to take some legal action.

Even with the help of a well known PHer who is well versed in this kind of thing got nowhere.

[DJP]

surveyor said:

I thought that this clause normally says if the cost of recovery is below market value they can just pay out market value instead?

ETA - I think I'm wrong. Coincidently for the chap with the AA

WHAT WE WILL NOT COVER
1. Recovery of Your Vehicle if We calculate it to be beyond commercial economic repair. We will
never pay more than the value of the vehicle to bring it Home. If We advise You that Your Vehicle
is beyond commercial economic repair, We will give You up to eight (8) weeks after the original
incident to agree suitable alternative arrangements with Us for the recovery or disposal of Your
Vehicle. If We have no agreement after eight (8) weeks, We will consider You have authorised Us to
dispose of Your Vehicle.

Edited by surveyor on Thursday 12th December 15:02

I can't understand these clauses. If I pay the same price for the cover, what does it matter to the Breakdown Co what the value of my car is?

So if I own a Bentley worth £100k, for example, and I pay £100 for breakdown cover, they'll recover it. But if I pay the same £100 for cover on a low value car then they won't.

Sorry, but the difference to them is what, exactly?

It's madness.

[TooMany2cvs]

surveyor said:

for those pushing ADAC, have you read the terms and conditions. Would not surprised for these to be the same?

I'm an ADAC member. They definitely DO have a clause about vehicle value being lower than the repatriation cost.

(As suggested above, you do need to buy the more expensive ADAC+ membership, assuming you don't want just-in-Germany cover...)

[surveyor]

DJP said:

I can't understand these clauses. If I pay the same price for the cover, what does it matter to the Breakdown Co what the value of my car is?

So if I own a Bentley worth £100k, for example, and I pay £100 for breakdown cover, they'll recover it. But if I pay the same £100 for cover on a low value car then they won't.

Sorry, but the difference to them is what, exactly?

It's madness.

I can kind of see their point. But I do think that they should be paying out market value, if they can't be bothered to fetch the car so that their is no 'loss'.

[surveyor]

TooMany2cvs said:

surveyor said:

for those pushing ADAC, have you read the terms and conditions. Would not surprised for these to be the same?

I'm an ADAC member. They definitely DO have a clause about vehicle value being lower than the repatriation cost.

(As suggested above, you do need to buy the more expensive ADAC+ membership, assuming you don't want just-in-Germany cover...)

Sorry - to be clear what does the clause say?

[DocArbathnot]

DJP said:

I can't understand these clauses. If I pay the same price for the cover, what does it matter to the Breakdown Co what the value of my car is?

So if I own a Bentley worth £100k, for example, and I pay £100 for breakdown cover, they'll recover it. But if I pay the same £100 for cover on a low value car then they won't.

Sorry, but the difference to them is what, exactly?

It's madness.

It's insurance based, the same thing as writing off a vehicle instead of repairing it really.

Years ago I had to leave a damaged VW Derby in France for this reason.

[surveyor]

DocArbathnot said:

It's insurance based, the same thing as writing off a vehicle instead of repairing it really.

Years ago I had to leave a damaged VW Derby in France for this reason.

But its not the same. An insurance company who can't be bothered to repair your car reimburses market value. these seem to just shrug their shoulders and say it's not worth it.

[DocArbathnot]

surveyor said:

But its not the same. An insurance company who can't be bothered to repair your car reimburses market value. these seem to just shrug their shoulders and say it's not worth it.

Mine paid me market value of the car instead of repatriation. It was a while ago though.

[VladD]

SEE YA said:

That is why for next years LeMans trip I am going with AA. I am a member of the RAC however, they want £250 EXCESS to bring you back. The AA cost works out £144 for everything and you car back to the U/K which is my main concern if the worse happens.

I got recovered back from Le Mans classic last year for no cost. I had to leave the car in Arnage for a week to get repaired. The RAC paid for a hire car to get us back home and then the following weekend a flight to Rennes, a TGV to Le Mans, a hotel room for the night, a taxi to the garage in the morning and the ferry crossing back. The couldn't have been more helpful which amazed me as I was expecting the whole experience to be an absolute nightmare. The best thing was getting to do a few laps of the track (not the Bugatti circuit) the weekend after when it was quiet.

[DJP]

DocArbathnot said:

It's insurance based, the same thing as writing off a vehicle instead of repairing it really.

Years ago I had to leave a damaged VW Derby in France for this reason.

OK, I think I'm seeing it. So their flowchart works like this:

1) Repair locally (default)
2) If local repair costs more than repatriation, repatriate it
3) If repatriation costs more than it's worth, scrap it and pay the book value

Which is kind of OK, except that in many cases they charge the same premium regardless of what car it is.

So Mr Bentley gets his car repatriated, whereas Mr 10-year-old-VW-Polo gets told: "Here's £800, now ps off and find your own way home."

Hmmmm....