This years renewal has landed for the Korando.
£73.36 as a special discount against a normal price of £ a hundred and something full rate from Start rescue, includes a £45 admin fee.
Identical cover from AXA who used to cover Start rescue for £58.60.
Will phone Start monday to get reduced to AXA price... well it worked last year..
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I just took out cover for one of our cars through Moneysupermarket with Britannia Rescue.
With home start, UK recovery and no excess it was £24! Keep thinking I must have done something wrong but it looks OK. I could have got the same cover through Boundless (old CSMA) for £60.
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I have Britannia for the Venga. We only use it "locally" but have all the bells and whistles except EU to make sure the car is returned to Colchester.
I think breakdown insurance is also priced by postcode. 14yr old Venga Co4 postcode... £ 27. Something.
Last edited by: ORB>> on Sun 9 Nov 25 at 06:06
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>> I just took out cover for one of our cars through Moneysupermarket with Britannia Rescue.
>>
>>
>> With home start, UK recovery and no excess it was £24! Keep thinking I must
>> have done something wrong but it looks OK.
I recently did similar for my Corolla TS & for a similar fee. Previously, I always took out Toyota Roadside Assistance but in recent years the AA subsumed it entirely & the prices started climbing & imo it no longer represented the value that I used to believe it represented especially as i don't need the included European cover.
Last edited by: Heidfirst on Mon 10 Nov 25 at 12:14
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Now that we do few miles and rarely go long distance, I've been gambling for many years. Apparently over 50% of calls, and thus costs, are caused by flat tyres, flat batteries and running out of fuel. Although I have experienced all these three causes of failing to proceed I have always managed to deal with them myself. In over forty years of family driving we've only used a breakdown service twice - once for a failing fuel pump in our old Focus which blew its fuse (temporarily restored by installing a higher amp fuse), and once for a burst fuel line - (I had replaced a rusty metal section by the rear wheel of my old Audi 100 with a length of rubber tubing from a scrapped old washing machine, not realising it was highly pressurised....mea culpa!). That was the only time I have ever needed a car to be trailered back home. If we were stranded I'd just bear the cost, but if we ever drove abroad again I would probably buy cover.
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I'm with you there John F. I don't feel like subsidising those that can't do basic maintenance and checks.
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No amount of basic maintenance will necessarily save you from a puncture on a motorway.
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>> No amount of basic maintenance will necessarily save you from a puncture on a motorway.
Also, unless I could get right out of the way of other traffic, I wouldn't be changing a wheel on the hard shoulder.
Last time I called them was for possible wheel bearing noise that turned out to be a piece of road grit between the brake disc and its backing plat. Before that a fuel injector failure.
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To be honest I wouldn’t be changing a wheel myself anywhere these days. Wheels have got big and heavy and I’ve got old and weak and anyway don’t have a spare. Changing a wheel on the motorway is suicidal.
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The last car/s I have bought, I insisted that it had a spare wheel. O.K. a space saver, but at least one that could be fitted and get me home.
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>> The last car/s I have bought, I insisted that it had a spare wheel. O.K.
>> a space saver, but at least one that could be fitted and get me home.
Same here with Skodas.
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Nowhere to put it tidily in my beemer, besides it has run-flats, one time needed did me Ok for 60 miles, and to kwikfit the next morning.
"meow what if the tyre sheds to bits"
AA.
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Just one puncture in somewhere around twenty years. No spare wheel. Called AA who did a temporary plug repair by roadside to get me home. Took about 15 minutes.
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>> Same here with Skodas.
>>
and here with my Skodas and now Suzuki - space saver now under the boot floor
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>> >> No amount of basic maintenance will necessarily save you from a puncture on a
>> motorway.
>>
>> Also, unless I could get right out of the way of other traffic, I wouldn't
>> be changing a wheel on the hard shoulder.
>>
Many years ago as a young sales-rep I changed one in the coned off middle lane of a motorway contraflow with traffic going in opposite directions in lanes 1 & 3. Did it pretty quickly too!
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"No amount of basic maintenance will necessarily save you from a puncture on a motorway."
Absolutely. But usually (not always) you have warning signs that a battery is failing, or a tyre has a slow puncture, or the car is making a "funny' noise. Some wait until failure before waking up. Just don't see why I should subsidise them.
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I don't think you get much notice for a battery these days. Seems to be one weak start and then flat.
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>> No amount of basic maintenance will necessarily save you from a puncture on a motorway.
Possibly not a puncture per se, but if correct pressure is not maintained and becomes too low a tyre can overheat and fail at high speed. This happened to me about 50yrs ago when I was young and careless. Although modern tyres are probably more resilient and modern UK motorway speeds are slower. (The handbook of my father's Rover 105S contained the following instruction...'for sustained speeds above 90mph increase the tyre pressure by 4psi.')
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One of the best ways to AVOID a breakdown is preventitive maintenece.
On top of that the approx £1.20 a week paying for brakdown cover inc Europe is minor to get myself, Blodwen (the dog) and youngrovergirl home is well worth it.
But each to their own.
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I pay £80 pa to Brittannia which includes European cover.
The last time I needed a call out was about 5 years ago in an airport car park for a flat battery - had I not had cover I suspect another solution would be quickly found - flat batteries in airport car parks must be a frequent occurence.
I can't remenber the time before that - probably 30+ years ago.
So in pure financial terms £80 pa or less for just UK cover is excessive - much cheaper to pay what it costs if ever needed.
BUT - if ever I breakdown miles from the nearest town at 23.00 on a wet and chilly November evening my £80 insurance policy will seem an utterly brilliant deal.
The alternative - a cold night, or hoping I can get a phone and internet signal to find a taxi to collect me and find a hotel. The following morning trying to find a garage to come out and collect and fix the car, making alternative travel arrangements etc etc.
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>> The last time I needed a call out was about 5 years ago in an
>> airport car park for a flat battery - had I not had cover I suspect
>> another solution would be quickly found - flat batteries in airport car parks must be
>> a frequent occurence.
Northampton station car park used to have a jump start kit.
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>> Northampton station car park used to have a jump start kit.
>>
That was a defibrillator.........
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That was a defibrillator.........
Same thing but different usage.
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Agreed, at financial level breakdown cover is one of those risks it’s easy enough to cover yourself. For me, all I’m paying for with a breakdown policy is someone that I know can contact at any time, where ever I am to sort things out. So I’ve got an RAC policy for the UK with, I think, a £40 excess on every claim and including home start which covers me for any car I’m in, for a little under £50.
My BMW is new enough for European assistance to be included and I discovered, having taken my SLK to Mercedes for a service as they were broadly the same price as an independent, that a service there also included 12 months MB assist including EU cover. Though I suspect pretty much any signifiant fault would see the car written off as uneconomic to recover, what with it being 17 years old and with nearly 100k miles!
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Green Flag 12 month "Cover for everything" apart from EU
£44.00
Renewal asked for £63 IIRC
Looked on-line at the GF site - Price was £19 less
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>> Green Flag 12 month "Cover for everything" apart from EU
I used to have Green Flag years ago and at the time they were great but they got rather pricey and I started travelling in Europe a lot. I've also used GEM which were truly fabulous when required.
I keep looking at Startrescue as mentioned by ORB but my current cover is via a joint Nationwide Flex Plus account at £18/month for personal cover for both of us and car cover for two cars with no age limit and includes European travel. It also covers mobile phone insurance (which we have used!) and worldwide travel insurance. I must admit we are not currently using the latter but need to embrace a phone call soon to declare a serious recent health issue, hopefully okish as it's now over a year ago.
The other thing that has kept us on board is Nationwide keeps giving us £50 each back every year.
Last edited by: BigJohn on Mon 10 Nov 25 at 20:13
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I've just tried a Startrescue quote:-
2024 Swace Nationwide, Home & European Recover + 2006 Panda Nationwide Recovery & Home Assist came to £191.05 although I spotted that a 15% Quidco discount was available for new customers. The problem is we need European breakdown on the Swace AND personal cover as my wife frequently goes out with friends who I know don't have breakdown.
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You can obtain instant cover from the AA if you’re not a member and you’ve broken down but you have to pay for membership and a surcharge. They don’t quote the amount of surcharge online (you have to call). I suspect it may be a dynamic pricing model according to the nature or time of breakdown.
I still prefer the reassurance of having cover. “Start” in our case.
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>> You can obtain instant cover from the AA if you’re not a member and you’ve
>> broken down but you have to pay for membership and a surcharge. They don’t quote
>> the amount of surcharge online (you have to call). I suspect it may be a
>> dynamic pricing model according to the nature or time of breakdown.
>>
One of my son-in-laws did it a few (I'd guess 5) years ago and it was £250. I'd guess a lot more now, but no price on the AA UK website. Interestingly instant cover is featured on their Irish website for €191.
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>>
>> The last time I needed a call out was about 5 years ago in an
>> airport car park for a flat battery - had I not had cover I suspect
>> another solution would be quickly found - flat batteries in airport car parks must be
>> a frequent occurence.
>>
Happened to me many yrs ago at Luton. Turning the light switch too far to the left switched parking lights on. Doh! However, one of the benefits of their sky high parking charges was a free jump start.
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Made the phone call this morning
£62.87 instead of £73.36.
Every little helps.
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Breakdown cover - Bill Payer
