Sister broke down outside working hours- RAC

[Sump]

She's coming over to visit me. Car started to overheat so she pulled over.

RAC chap says the water is coming out as it's being poured in, needs towing.

He says to tow it to the garage ( obviously closed ) and the garage to tow it to is a locked industrial unit off an NSL road so it can't be left in a yard or anything.

RAC chap said RAC won't tow it tomorrow morning or it will come at an extra charge.

Am I right in thinking this is rubbish and nothing has changed as in the olden days you just carried on the "2nd half" of your journey the following morning for it to be towed to the garage.

I am aware there used to be a 10 mile limit though.

[Steffan]

Sump said:

She's coming over to visit me. Car started to overheat so she pulled over.

RAC chap says the water is coming out as it's being poured in, needs towing.

He says to tow it to the garage ( obviously closed ) and the garage to tow it to is a locked industrial unit off an NSL road so it can't be left in a yard or anything.

RAC chap said RAC won't tow it tomorrow morning or it will come at an extra charge.

Am I right in thinking this is rubbish and nothing has changed as in the olden days you just carried on the "2nd half" of your journey the following morning for it to be towed to the garage.

I am aware there used to be a 10 mile limit though.

What do the RAC customer services say. Is the RAC man actually employed or a garage rep they are using? Sounds odd to me but surely the RAC are you best point of call?

[poing]

Doesn't it rather depend on the level of cover you have purchased?

[Steffan]

poing said:

Doesn't it rather depend on the level of cover you have purchased?

Hence my question re what did the RAC say. Terms and conditions are critical. RAC are likely to have all the detail.

[Sump]

I'm not with her, only spoke to the bloke on the phone who said they don't do second part journeys. Its a limit of one recovery per breakdown..

[poing]

If she took it through her insurance or similar it will likely be a basic level of cover. They do normally let you pay the extra to upgrade though and that would give her more options. The restriction quoted sounds reasonable though, 1 per breakdown is fairly normal.

[Steffan]

poing said:

If she took it through her insurance or similar it will likely be a basic level of cover. They do normally let you pay the extra to upgrade though and that would give her more options. The restriction quoted sounds reasonable though, 1 per breakdown is fairly normal.

Good advice and I would follow the upgrade possibilities. I have recovery policies with all three recovery groups RAC, AA, Green Flag. Never had a problem with any of them. I use the full services because I drive a lot of old classic (less reliable) cars and kit cars (even less reliable) all year round. You and your sister need to communicate and decide. Good Luck.

[Sump]

Thought I'd update this. She arrived at my house on a flat bed. Indeed there was a good leak at the bottom of the radiator.

She was booked in for a timing belt change on Saturday morning.

I found radweld at a 24hr Shell and sorted the leak out. We managed to drive it to the garage on Saturday morning. Told the chap what had happened, he was charging £40 for the labour on the timing belt change on the Corolla. I managed to source a radiator at Andrew Page who delivered it to the garage for £95. Garage charged an extra £20 to fit the radiator.

Car was all sorted and back on the road by 3pm on Saturday

Not bad for an issue to rise on Friday 10pm and be ready to drive on Saturday in around 15 hours. Checked it over today and all is good and running well!