Car breakdown insurance

shrinkwrap · January 2018

The weirdest thing about breakdown cover is that I used it twice in the last ten years and both times I was parked in the same street, near the Tate gallery on a weekend. I don't live near by and I don't go to the Tate often.
One time the radiator hose had burst, the other time, on another car, the battery decided to die.
So yep very useful to have - mine is also via Barclays.

ESBlonde · January 2018

These days a lot of cars require at least a diagnostic handset to trouble shoot and even then you'd be hard pressed to get anything much done on the mechanicals. Simple electrical faults can be sorted given time and a multimeter or probe tester. the biggest downside with modern cars is the complete lack of a spare wheel which is substituted for a bottle of gunk and a pump. Now often the hole seems too big for the gunk to work properly but by then you've ruined the tyre for sure and pissed off the quick fitter that now has to clean the rim of the sticky gunk before he can charge you a fortune for a new tyre.
Punctures don't seem to be getting less for me, if anything I get more these days and since they are all branded tyres a puncture works out expensive what ever 'cover' you had. You might get home on a recovery vehicle late at night but in the morning you are at home with a flat tyre!

Moe_Zambeek · January 2018

AutoAid. I've been with them for a number of years and had 1 or 2 call outs, handled well. They do use local contractors so your experience may vary, but IME the local folks have been better than the dedicated breakdown companies, who to be fair always did what they promised but usually took a very long time to do it.

ICBM · January 2018

ESBlonde said:

the biggest downside with modern cars is the complete lack of a spare wheel which is substituted for a bottle of gunk and a pump. Now often the hole seems too big for the gunk to work properly but by then you've ruined the tyre for sure and pissed off the quick fitter that now has to clean the rim of the sticky gunk before he can charge you a fortune for a new tyre.

I won't buy a car with that. A 50mph 'space saver' spare wheel is acceptable, since most cars don't have the room to carry the size of wheel you normally find on anything bigger than a 1-litre shopping trolley now.

EricTheWeary · January 2018

I started looking at ETA but their exclusions are different than Brittania’s and they wouldn’t cover my camper. Although Green Flag ( using a similar local network) would.
So, probably staying where I am but worth looking at the small print sometimes.

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