Have had (and used) both AA & RAC in the past - couldn’t say which was better…
Have got AA mechanical breakdown warranty on other car - bloody marvellous service! (Already saved us £800+ for dual mass flywheel failure on the Mondeo).
I’d consider cheaper alternates too ~ Green Flag, etc…
Continuing from my earlier post… I lost my battle with the RAC over whether bio diesel mixed with ordinary diesel is “contaminated fuel” which invalidates the cover.
I shall take the matter up with AON but will certainly NOT be using thye RAC for anything in the future. If you are with them and have to call them out - keep shtum and let them get on with it!
Regards
Jim
I would recommend GEM. I have been with them for years and it is a very flexible system. You can arrange recovery through GEM direct or arrange your own pay and then claim from GEM. Covers the situation when you have a big problem right next to a garage. Saves waiting, sometimes hours, for the AA or RAC. It is member based, so you can use it with any car you are driving or when with another who has no cover. Oh, and it is only about £45-£80, depending on level. Only neg is you need a reasonably clean ticket to be a member. Have a look if you have not taken the plunge yet.
i just joined AA with a great discount as my wife had free cover with her car last year so this year they offered 75%dis on renewal so we are both covered on all cars we are in now home start, relay+ ,roadside ,ect normally £171, i think and i payed,after discount £44 for joint membership great value
Great news. It will need a review though, I assume next year, when you would need to pay the full fee, so don’t forget to look at it then. The same joint cover with GEM this year would have been £81 with the offer they have at the moment, normally £106. Even family membership is only £106 with up to 4 members, as long as they are at the same address. Also do not forget this includes any vehical you are driving so even if you borrow a car or driving with a friend you have the cover, this is great when car sharing etc. athough technically you need to be the driver! They also use a large number of recovery services so waiting time can be far less, particularly at busy periods.
http://www.motoringassist.com/Breakdown-Cover/Recovery-Extra
Also if you go for the same cover but you pay, and then reclaim from GEM thus saving admin costs it would only cost £62…[:)] for joint and individual. It is also possible to get a discount on this though recommendation to others, so can be even better value. I personally have only used them a couple of times for recover, once to recover after a major suspension failure when I ended upside down in a field. Now this was an old car I was using temporarily. In a field means off-road. Some recovery services will not attend a vehical which is off road, not quite sure about the AA or RAC. In this case I just called my local garage, they recovered it to their/my garage, I paid the bill and claimed it back from GEM. This was all done and dusted in just 2 hours and it was a 1 hour round trip for the garage. Also, I was not in attendance at the car. I just got a taxi and continued on my trip to work. Some require you to be in attendance but because my garage knows me this was not necessay. So easy and all covered by GEM. The other was I flat battery, on my second car which had been out in the cold for a week without use. Called my garage, there in 5 mins. Sorted and away and later just claimed the cost back from GEM. AA & RAC waiting time would have been a real hassle factor here.
As a member of GEM there is free legal advise and free accident management and lots more. I would recommend them to anyone. I changed to them many years back after I had used the AA relay. On this occation, one man comes in his van after more than an hour of waiting because it has to be assessed as needing relay. You cannot just ask and get, even if you know it needs full relay. I then had to wait a further 2 hours for relay to arrive. On the relay, because of the distance, I was dumped at a service station because we hit the boundary of the first relay vehical, thus then wait a further hour for the second relay to arrive to complete journey. This was, as you can imagine a real ordeal[8o|]. This was a good while back and they may well have improved on this but this was enough for me to look at other options. Cost is only one factor and there are cheaper options even than GEM, but they are pure breakdown insurance without the benefits of being a member of a motoring organisation such as GEM.
So, don’t forget to review come next year.[Y]
I’ve been with both over the years and am currently a personal member with the RAC whilst using the AA for work vehicles. I’ve found the quality of the roadside service provided by the badged guys generally far better than the sub contractors used in some areas. Round here it would be RAC any day and AA a poor second, when I lived up north it was the other way around.
Being a paramedic who has waited in excess of 5 hours for the ‘fourth emergency service’ to turn out to a stranded ambulance may have coloured my judgement slightly.
Been with AA for about 15 years. Usually arrive within hour.
About 10 years ago ahd a cam belt break on a Sierra. The guy spent 2 hours fitting a new one at the side of the road. Only charge about £10.00 for the belt. not sure if they are still the same now.