Posted 4 January 2024

Breakdown cover confusion

My car has recently "broken down" from a flashing check engine light, and it turned out to be a small issue of ignition coil so I swapped one of the 3 on my volkswagen fox 2010 and it worked fine. Then it happened again and I decided to swap the other two which fixed the issue and it hasn't happened again. The question is, now I am scared of anything else going wrong and being stuck again and want to get breakdown cover but the options seem confusing and I see mixed reviews.

I travel between a town named bedford, Coventry and Leicester. I live in Bedford but during the week I am in Coventry or Leicester.

I am looking for the best value for money policy that would actually help me if I broke down? I see a lot of policies only cover 20 miles or something so how is that national recovery??

Can anyone suggest a good breakdown cover incase I was to breakdown in say Coventry and needed to get my car recovered maybe 60-70 miles to back home or from Leicester 50 miles ish.

Where can I look at polices like this and has anyone found out which are the cheapest?

Thank you for reading
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  1. Just.Wondering's avatar
    Autoaid have been great for us, cheap, cover mine and the misses cars, full breakdown cover around £59 for the year, my car is over 10 years old, so they charge a bit extra for older cars. (edited)
  2. Gollywood's avatar
    You're right! That was confusing
    Mariusz4813's avatar
    Author
    What, breakdown cover or my badly written paragraph
  3. AndyRoyd's avatar
    On the assumption OP has recovery preference:
    it may be worth identifying the services that permit the customer to decide if recovery to the customer's preferred address shall override any service provider's preference to dump the vehicle at nearest garage regardless of time of day.
    Example of service provider dictating local repair prior to recovery consideration, especially if late-night breakdown:
    ...if the repairs cannot be completed by a local garage within the same working day (or following working day if the garage is closed), we will either:
    • Recover you, your vehicle and your passengers to your home or original destination,
    whichever is closest
    • (do other stuff of our choice)

    Then there are other unmentioned but possible scenarios (not?) requiring cover, such as:
    lost keys
    misfuelling
    inclusive (rather than chargeable) recovery after RTA
    recovery after vandalism or theft
    etc

    Summary:
    do not assume inclusions. Read specific policy / t&c to see what is and what is not included and critically:
    who makes the choice of what preferred solution shall be performed.
    Mariusz4813's avatar
    Author
    This is exactly the thing I was also thinking about, the weird terms and that's exactly something I wouldn't wanna do, get stuck with my car and or with family/friends just to find out they want to send my car to a local garage when I want to get it recovered back home. Thank you for the comment
  4. Yolofknell's avatar
    Try AutoAid. Been with them a few years back, never had any issues when I had to call them out for my Car or Bike.
    Mariusz4813's avatar
    Author
    I'll give it a search thank any experience with national recovery?
  5. dickypreston's avatar
    use rescuemycar myself they are pretty cheap never had to call them out yet though so cant say how good they actually are. (edited)
    AndyRoyd's avatar
    rescuemycar does not permit the policyholder to dictate recovery rather than local same/next day repair,
    so no interest to OP.
  6. AMaky's avatar
    20 miles applies to how far from where you broke down the recovery truck will drive you to, I.e. nearest garage.
    So if you are in Scotland for holidays, they won't drive you all the way to Cornwall if you lived there, basically.
    My policy is via my bank account benefits. (edited)
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