What happens if you break down abroad?

[vit4]

Planning day trip to France, but car's only worth a few hundred quid. Would I be able to get breakdown cover for that? Or better off just taking spanners, duct tape, a wing and a few prayers?

[Wedg1e]

Most policies won't cover if the car's older than a certain age. Don't just dump it and leave it as the French Police will (so I'm told) go to some lengths to track you down and send you a bill for removal - though how they force you to pay I have no idea.

Stay off the toll roads as far as possible, then you have more chance of the car surviving, and of being near civilisation if you do break down. The Autoroute Securite will tow you off as a last resort but I'm pretty sure they charge you for the privilege.

[steve_bmw]

if your car is only worth a couple of hundred, take a few tools, play it by ear, if it breaks down to the point of no repair, get a train or a plane home.

[vit4]

I didn't think they would

As it goes, I wouldn't want to leave the car there. Just wondering if it did break down and couldn't be repaired at the roadside how much would it cost to get it back to the UK? Would be within 30 miles of Calais so not hundreds of miles.

[kwk]

They will cover you on older cars but you need to contact the different companies for the best price. I broke down in the south of France a few years ago in an old XR4i when, I don't know how, but the starter fell out. It was fixed and I was on my way in about 2 hours,

[aw51 121565]

RAC cover foreign breakdown recovery costs "up to the value of the car" - or it did in 2008 when I last looked. Tooling around within 30 miles of Calais, I wouldn't worry - but on a Banger Rally to Bella Napoli it gets a bit worrying when a front wheel bearing collapses on a Swiss Pass on the way out ! We kept hammering the hub nut tight with a screwdriver and jack every hour - tiresome and inconvenient but it got us out of a hole, and to Naples and back to the UK!

Being sensible, I'd suggest maybe the cutoff is a couple of hundred miles into France - but some people speak of old vehicles recovered back to the UK from the South of France and "hang the cost" by the recovery people.

You'll be fine, just take a basic toolkit and some water .

[boredofmyoldname]

vit4 said:

I didn't think they would

As it goes, I wouldn't want to leave the car there. Just wondering if it did break down and couldn't be repaired at the roadside how much would it cost to get it back to the UK? Would be within 30 miles of Calais so not hundreds of miles.

Won't be cheap to get back to Calais most will have a standard call out fee (to give an example my friend runs a recovery truck over here and charges a minimum of 150 for any call out), and some (not all) French recovery drivers are very grumpy and do not speak any English at all if you don't at least have a decent stab at French.

You also have the issue of getting a dead car onto a Ferry and off again. Why not look at going as a foot passenger and hiring a car, or if you intend to bring booze and stuff back drive over, leave your car near the hire place, do French stuff then collect your car.

[Wedg1e]

aw51 121565 said:

I wouldn't worry - but on a Banger Rally to Bella Napoli it gets a bit worrying when a front wheel bearing collapses on a Swiss Pass on the way out ! We kept hammering the hub nut tight with a screwdriver and jack every hour - tiresome and inconvenient but it got us out of a hole, and to Naples and back to the UK!

Pah, that's nowt... when we did Home 2 Rome in '08 we were constantly irritated by a clanking from the front end that repeated grovelling underneath failed to locate. Eventually, up a pass behind Menton, on the WRC rally route, we realised the front subframe bolts were loose, so out came the socket set. And sheared two of the bolts. So we did the rest of the run with the subframe held in by a ratchet strap around the chassis rail... and then one of the guys decided the car was too good to scrap so he drove it all the way back again by himself while ther rest of us flew home!
We still have that car, the ratchet strap's still in place...

[vit4]

boredofmyoldname said:

vit4 said:

I didn't think they would

As it goes, I wouldn't want to leave the car there. Just wondering if it did break down and couldn't be repaired at the roadside how much would it cost to get it back to the UK? Would be within 30 miles of Calais so not hundreds of miles.

Won't be cheap to get back to Calais most will have a standard call out fee (to give an example my friend runs a recovery truck over here and charges a minimum of 150 for any call out), and some (not all) French recovery drivers are very grumpy and do not speak any English at all if you don't at least have a decent stab at French.

You also have the issue of getting a dead car onto a Ferry and off again. Why not look at going as a foot passenger and hiring a car, or if you intend to bring booze and stuff back drive over, leave your car near the hire place, do French stuff then collect your car.

Suspected this would be the case. To be honest, I have every faith in the car, it's just that niggling doubt in the back of my mind that if it's going to go, sod's law says it will indeed die abroad

Stuff more than likely will be brought over, although that's not a bad idea leaving it near the port. Too young to afford any kind of hire car and doing it on a budget, sadly Otherwise this would be ideal.

[aw51 121565]

Staples2Naples2005, we came a cropper in Chur - but we first had the unearthly clunks and vibration under heavy braking on the Autoroute near Metz, and it didn't get any better... When the ongoing vibrations caused the inevitable stop on the Chur garage forecourt, we checked for play at all 4 wheels - and found about 5cm at the rim of the nearside front, plus that axle's outer cv joint could be waggled up and down and back-and-forth by about 1cm... The hub nut was hanging off the cv joint outer member thread, and the splines didn't strip thankfully!

Tie down straps holding major bits on, I can deal with - it's the rotating bits, like hub nuts, that don't respond to this treatment and therefore scare me on a 3,500 trek to Naples and back again, when they keep coming loose .

Definitely character-building - especially when the co-driver says "yes, that hub nut was loose when I changed the brake pads last week!" ... For Pete's sake!!!

If anything, I have even itchier feet to go continental touring in old Bangers; an itch that has been scratched once plus a tour in a new 'un.