Motoring Discussion > Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery Miscellaneous
Thread Author: movilogo Replies: 11
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 12:06 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - movilogo
Imagine this situation. Your car has broken down far away from home.
You call recovery service and they declare they can’t fix it at roadside and thus requires trip to dealership.

If anywhere UK recovery is within your policy and you calculate that you can reach a main dealer (nearest to your home preferably) within their opening hours, probably this is what you might do.

But say it is in non-business hours dealers are closed. So what will you do?

1. Recover the car to your own home and then tow it away again when dealer opens? In this case, will your recovery firm provide a free ride because this is a continuation of your earlier tow back home?

2. Or will you leave your car in front of dealership anyway assuming you can push it inside when they open next morning? Mind you, most dealers won’t touch your car unless it is within their premises!

3. Any other?

PS: Never faced this situation myself so wondering what to do if it happens.

Last edited by: movilogo on Mon 5 Dec 11 at 12:07
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 12:14 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Bromptonaut
I'm with Britannia who will do the second recovery as a continuation of the first. Even where we had a dealer with an open forecourt/car park they were very reluctant to leave the car there on a Sunday evening.
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 12:16 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Hard Cheese

Had it once when a rock took out the sump of my Vectra on the M4, had it towed and parked outside the dealer and the key through the letter box ... ... ... and a note on the steering wheel - "do NOT start".

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New Mon 5 Dec 11 13:16 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Jacks

>> 2. Or will you leave your car in front of dealership
>>

A lot of the bigger edge of town glass palace type dealers have 24hr security who will take delivery of the car from the recovery truck out of hours.

That's what happened when my wife's MINI needed recovery at 11 pm one night, the truck driver knew the dealer had 24 hr security and dropped the car there, the security man unlocked the compound to allow the driver to unload and leave paperwork with him.

With this particular recovery service - BMW Assist but the actual truck came from a well known local repair garage who do 24hr recovery on the local motorway and are agents for several recovery services including Mondial etc) - the driver would only take the car and my wife home, or take the car and her to the dealer and leave her there, he wouldn't take her home after dropping the car off!

Fortunately I was able to pick her up but it could have been awkward for one car households.

J
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 13:33 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Clk Sec
Good point Movilogo and Bromptonaut.

I have the full works with Green Flag and would not wish to leave my car languishing unattended outside my chosen dealership from, say, Saturday afternoon until Monday morning.

I must check my policy document as renewal is due in a week or so.
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 15:28 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Bigtee
AA For the past 24 yrs.

Who carries a tow rope and full set of tools and spares i don't.
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 15:42 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Crankcase
I was with the AA since 1982, and over the years the premium edged up and up. Last year they wanted £240 renewal, which even though it was pretty much everything, seemed steep and a half.

One phone call reduced it to £80.

I then took advantage of the Toyota Owners' Club, which offers me everything I need, covers pretty well everything the AA did, and has some extra goodies as well, and that's just £60 a year, so I probably won't go back to the AA now.

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New Mon 5 Dec 11 15:47 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Falkirk Bairn
I don't worry about hypothetical questions.............................

I drive a Japanese car!!!!
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 16:16 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - RattleandSmoke
We have this issue with the Fiesta, the clutch is making a funny noise and will probably fail one day. My dad has break down cover but only to the nearest dealer, but we don't want them to fix it.

What happens in that situation? Is there an option to tow the car to the nearest scrap yard?

And Falkirk I can guarantee your car will break down because you've just jinxed it.
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 17:22 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - rtj70
When I broke down in a Mondeo in 2006 (EGR problem) the car couldn't be taken to the local dealer (few miles away) because of security bollards. So it was taken home (passed the Ford dealer) and then I phoned for a recovery again the next morning to the dealer.

Mine was a company car so the recovery etc didn't cost me anything. Both done by the RAC who must have a contract with the lease company. Interesting question by the OP.

My brother once broke down outside where he was living. Car was still registered to the home address. He was planning on travelling to the family home and couldn't get it started so called the AA. They would have had to transport the car if they couldn't fix it (they needed parts) so got a Halfords to open out of hours.
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 17:29 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Pat
When Ian's XJR1300 broke down in Dartford it was recovered back to our home that evening and then collected the following morning and taken back to the Dealer he had bought it from a couple of weeks previously.

That was with Green Flag and was their suggestion to do it that way.

Pat
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New Mon 5 Dec 11 19:49 
 Options: if your car breaks down & needs recovery - Alastairw
When I destroyed the Octy's clutch in Dorset the RAC towed me to a garage they had a contract with. They arranged for a courtesy car to be ready for us (a ten year old Megane 4 door, but a car is a car), and agreed to change the clutch. We kept the courtesy car for three days of our hioliday while they tracked down the correct kit for a 2.0FSi (hens teeth apparently - watch out NickinNZ!), and knocked 10% off the vast bill as I qualified for the RAC 'Tow and Go' scheme.
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