Have been with the AA for more years than I care to remember. I like the personal cover as it covers me for my bikes as well as the car and van.
You have to haggle at renewal these days to keep the cost down as it has become very expensive.------------------------------
"Ruby"
Rimini Red 06MY TDV6 S
Xenons, Bright Pack, Climate Pack,
BAS Magic Box and Remap
ITG Air Filter
ERG's Blanked (Woody32)
Huge Permagrin
Member Since: 19 Nov 2013
Location: Bures, Essex
Posts: 69
Been an AA member for 20 years and they have been great for me.
I broke down with a van at 3am on a Sunday morning, 200 miles from Calais and a ferry. They arranged a (admittedly grumpy driver at 4am) french tow vehicle and they put us on the ferry and took us off the other end and back home with very little fuss. I caught wind of what the french tow company was going to charge for the Sunday towing - it would have paid for all 20 years on my membership so far!!
The other major time I broke down was towing 2 tonnes of chestnut fencing and they got me and the fencing back home with a great service.
Worth it just for those two incidents alone.MegaSTUPID BREXIT
D4 XS MY12 Orkney Grey - nice!
996 turbo cab - a dream come true
VXR220 - Epic Track Car
D2 - V8 - Agricultural bankruptcy but what fun! - Long gone but missed
14th Jan 2016 8:56 am
RandomKamikaze
Member Since: 10 Dec 2014
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 448
Also looking at breakdown cover ATM and after doing some research saw that GEM Motoring Assist came out on top.
Anyone any experience or feedback on them?Disco gone
14th Jan 2016 9:50 am
Slate8
Member Since: 20 Oct 2015
Location: Surrey
Posts: 16
https://www.autoaidbreakdown.co.uk/ comes out top on Money Saving Expert so I signed up with them this year. Time will tell if they are any good but hopefully I won't need them
14th Jan 2016 10:47 am
CliffordAE
Member Since: 23 Jul 2015
Location: Cambridgeshire
Posts: 14
Been with the RAC for 6 years. Had to use them 4 times in 2014 (my Audi A4's warranty had expired and it wanted to make sure I was aware, I think) and they were great every time. They recovered me from Fort William to King's Lynn after getting to me in 30 minutes.
These days I pay for national recovery and home assistance (sixty-eight quid) for my Disco. I get basic level personal assistance free through my bank account so that covers me for driving work cars or whatever else.
AntAnt
2005 D3 SE, Zambezi Silver
Auto lights/wipers
Memory seats (which are getting a bit forgetful)
Heated front & rear seats
Alpine roof
Hi-Line audio
Premium Sat Nav
Off Road Nav
4x4 info
Last edited by CliffordAE on 14th Jan 2016 11:39 am. Edited 1 time in total
14th Jan 2016 11:18 am
Davethegeo
Member Since: 01 Oct 2015
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 912
I've tried them all - AA, RAC, ETA, GreenFlag - and it boils down to who you get coming to help you at 2am. I usually seem to get a local garage who have been subcontracted. I would say that when you get the real McCoy AA or RAC chap they have generally been good. ETA just use local garages and I might give them a miss at renewal time just for that reason.D1 300Tdi - gone
D2 Td5 ES (Alive remapped...mmm) - sadly gone
D4 2012 SDV6 XS - Stolen
D4 2014 SDV6 HSE - Shiny
14th Jan 2016 11:36 am
LT
Member Since: 31 Dec 2005
Location: South West
Posts: 23823
Breakdown cover for all vehicles that either I or my family own or are travelling in is included in my bank account. Comparable service to Greenflag in that they use local agents. Had to be recovered once in the D3 and a flat battery call out. No complaints.2006 D3 HSE (Original & still the best)-GONE
2010 D4 HSE (A bit bling)-GONE
2014 D4 HSE (Almost too bling)-GONE
2015 D4 HSE (A heated what?)-GONE
2016 D4 Landmark (Written Off)-GONE
2016 D4 Landmark (Surely the last!) PD1881 rims-GONE
2017 FFRR SDV8 Autobiography (now semi-retired)
14th Jan 2016 1:36 pm
armalites
Member Since: 17 Aug 2013
Location: Herefordshire
Posts: 1918
Davethegeo wrote:
I've tried them all - AA, RAC, ETA, GreenFlag - and it boils down to who you get coming to help you at 2am. I usually seem to get a local garage who have been subcontracted. I would say that when you get the real McCoy AA or RAC chap they have generally been good. ETA just use local garages and I might give them a miss at renewal time just for that reason.
This sums it up ^^, if you get a proper AA or RAC man then they will often fix things at the side of the road,had a colleague a few years a go who broke down and the RAC man fitted a new brush pack to his alternator and got him going.
We have a friend locally whose car was made worse to point she can't use it and left her and her kids stranded by a firm contracted to the AA.
The AA have always been good for me.IID PRO
MSV Extreme
Nanocom One
14th Jan 2016 2:51 pm
A.J.M
Member Since: 31 Oct 2009
Location: Carluke
Posts: 2847
RAC member since 2007.
Have never had issues with them with the various family car's.
We have a family policy so It cover's the 5 cars in the house, plus home start, and it covers the person, not the car. So if i was in my mate's car and it broke down, i could get it taken home for them.
For the D3, when it's left me at the side of the M8, they sub it out to 911 recovery as 911 have transporters large enough to get the weight of a D3 off the motorway.
I was told, they don't try and fix car's at the motorway side, the put them on wagons and recover to a safer location and attempt fix or take home.
14th Jan 2016 3:12 pm
nearlee
Member Since: 15 Dec 2012
Location: where the sheep are scared
Posts: 1777
AA , rac small print refuse to recover a car that they suspect has been off road, so if your disco gets dirty then this is classed as off road apparently.
Used AA once in last 5 years and they where great.Just remember:-
Amateurs built the Ark
Professionals built the titanic
14th Jan 2016 6:01 pm
Chippy
Member Since: 05 Jan 2012
Location: Surrey
Posts: 520
Used to be with AA they are over priced, switched to Green Flag and never looked back.Transit Custom LWB
Transit Doublecab SWB
Transit LWB
Transit connect
New Ford Ranger
Renault kango LWB
Fuso Canter flatbed
Renault master
Caterpillar Fork Truck
AUSA Skiploader
1.5 Ton Volvo Digger
14th Jan 2016 7:11 pm
markynicholls
Member Since: 09 Sep 2015
Location: Alnwick
Posts: 63
Neither, Green Flag for me
14th Jan 2016 8:52 pm
CEZ1869
Member Since: 11 Apr 2015
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 322
AA, always have been, not used them on my D3 though, but used heavily for my previous P38 RR, had my compressor go so she went down to bump stops, because I have full cover it includes upto £500 parts & labour for most mechanical problems (check the small print for what isn't covered) + I had a courtesy car for 2 days (only a small new runabout) all in all, I only had to pay £25 excess fee for everything. That said though, they did have to come out in a van 1st to assess vehicle, then once deemed the car wasn't drivable (had to advise him I wasn't going to drive to my garage on the bump stops!) they then said we would recover & take to a garage of my choice.
Current: D3 2005 HSE
Previous: D2 2001 TD5
D2 4.0 V8
1998 P38 Rangie
15th Jan 2016 4:53 am
trainmanone
Member Since: 19 Dec 2014
Location: stockport
Posts: 366
AA every time ,been with them from 2007 before that rac ,
had faulty battery on an omega when with rac after telling them three times battery was faulty the said wasn't so went to aa called them out straight away they said battery fault so new battery and no probs . had ffrr before the disco and no end of probs with it died in inverness the aa got me a hire car and arranged for the heap to be recovered back to my address .imagine how much that would have cost me !!!!!!
just last sun the battery light lit on the disco ,didn't need it till Tuesday so called aa out 45 mins later had hire car and disco was having new alternator just £35 excess ( got the breakdown repair cover)
got disco back yesterday all good I pay £41 a month and just for the alternator have got that back ,so happy bunny
I'm a firm believer in any roadside assistance cover but think the AA is the better of the two main ones
15th Jan 2016 11:12 am
mz mini
Member Since: 02 Jul 2014
Location: Sunny Devon
Posts: 1759
I have had both over the years good and bad in AA/RAC what I will say is would not want to not have one or other ,one chap at work broke down on the Severn Bridge cost an eye watering £250 to get home Land Rover 90 - deceased
Discovery 3 - deceased
Discovery 4 2013
Mini Cooper S 1964 Mk1 - International Rally winner red & white
Mini Cooper s 1964 Mk1 - Road Rally champion green & white
Mini Cooper S 1971 Mk3 - original and unrestored
Porsche 911 997
Porsche Boxster 3.4S
VW Polo 1.2
Citroen Xsara Picasso - shed/run around
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