POLL - UK Breakdown/Recovery Providers

Poll Poll What is your prefered Breakdown provider

  • AA

    Votes: 3 18.8%

  • RAC

    Votes: 6 37.5%

  • Green Flag

    Votes: 1 6.3%

  • Other

    Votes: 6 37.5%
  • Total voters
    16
M

Mafoo

Veteran
 Cardiff
Hi All

With the winter quickly apporaching, I have been thinking of becoming a member of a Breakdown Recovery Provider.

My previous experiences have been from the dire (3 hours of Green Flag never turning up) to 4 good years with RAC giving excellent assistance (when called upon on 2 occasions).

I have been told that AA is OK but their staff are not as knowledgable as RAC and they tend to recover to nearby garages as opposed to fixing on the side of the road.

Who are you with and what are your views on which offers best service/value for money.
 
im with the RAC, only ever had to call them out twice in 5 years, but both times they have turned up within 30 minutes, which i would think is about as good as it gets.
 
Different experiences with Green Flag....called them three times to different cars and always turned up in acceptable timescales...biggest benefit though is that they would tow you home if it was 'out of hours', then come back for you the next day to take you to an appropriate garage. Much better than having your Zed dumped at a Dacia garage in the ass end of nowhere.... :o

Worth checking if they still do that though in these strained times :cry:
 
RAC's been good to me. Only called them out for trashed Jeeps after offroading, in no state to drive home and since I had them on tarmac they were more than happy to recover me home :thumbsup:
 
You've got some balls CJ, I'll give you that! I wouldn't have the nerve, but then unlike some of my oppos I regard offroading as a skill (which I guess rock-crawling has to be) rather than "hit it fast enough and you'll get through/over/under it" LOL
 
lacroupade said:
You've got some balls CJ, I'll give you that! I wouldn't have the nerve, but then unlike some of my oppos I regard offroading as a skill (which I guess rock-crawling has to be) rather than "hit it fast enough and you'll get through/over/under it" LOL
Click to expand...

It is a skill, but things can still break.

Hello RAC- I've broken down - can you recover me home?
We'll send a technician to get you going
'No' he won't be able to, just send the recovery truck
We get 90% fixed on site
You won't I've broken the propshaft off
How do you know it's broken?
It's on the passenger seat
Argh - we''ll send a truck. BTW - were you off roading
'No' greenlaning
OK - that's fine. See you in 30 minutes Sir :)

Drove me 140 miles home (and saved me the cost of the fuel thta's more than annual membership)

Still not as bad as my buddy who was recovered from Northern Sweden and given a car to continue his 'holiday' while they took it home for him :rofl: :rofl:
 
Got a warranty on my car (extended it for another year yesterday) and make use of the BMW Breakdown thing (Europe-wide) that comes with it.
 
Aebous said:
Is RAC Europe wide or just in the UK?
Click to expand...

You can get it to cover Europe as well with RAC by the looks. Handy as im planning a roadtrip next year (which happens to take in a Grand Prix (not told the other half of this part of the holiday yet !!!)
 
Aebous

The 2 main providers int he UK are the AA and RAC. They have most trucks, widest networks, etc. Behind them is Greenflag that run a pretty decent service and others (insurance companies, supermarkets, etc.) that sell plans that use national networks of independant recovery companies.

If you check out the RAC and AA you'll see you can get a variety of levels of cover ranging from roadside assistance to towing to a local garage withing a few miles, right through to continuation of journey, overnight hotels, home start, etc. You can with most also cover the car or driver, so if the driver it's any car you are driving or a passenger in.

Euro cover is an extra in all cases and usually taken on a trip basis as an extra. AA is widely considered the best and I take that when going to Europe.

I went RAC driver and added my wife so we are covered in all our cars and anyone we travel with.

Bound to have missed somethign but hope this helps.
 
It helped a lot thanks. I'm going with RAC. Hopefully I'll never need them, but it's nice having that piece of mind in case something does happen.
 
Seems like RAC is the most popular (as I was hoping). Of the others, im assuming that these are either non UK (bit of a crap poll in that respect for us Brits) or BMW assist.

Which leads me onto a further question. Can I join up to BMW assist or is it only for newer cars/cars that are BMW Approved ?
 
I've got told I'll get the BMW recovery with AUC. Thankfully I haven't had to try this out yet :)

I;m assuming this is correct?? Dont fancy being stranded on cold winter day
 
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