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The car I purchased last year is nearly out of its 1 year free breakdown cover. I've just done a quick moneysupermarket search and some companies have come up that I have never heard of before
example
rescuemycar.com = £18.77 per year
Green Flag = £56.99
RAC = £80
So obviously these newer companies are literally acting on an insurance basis and punting out the work to local garages etc ? Are they any good or better to stay with the big providers and pay way for money.
The car is a 2019 Merc E Class with 25k miles.
Ta
Not cheap. but credit where it's due, the AA have been amazing. Saved my bacon twice in the last year or so and have gone above and beyond. Think it's about £9 per month.
Is it worth asking Mercedes how much for their cover? May depend on how you use your car. Not taking out home start for example may make it cheaper.
I know that if you take your vehicle abroad VW’s for instance I think covers you for Europe so whilst slightly more expensive than others initially much cheaper than taking out additional cover later.
Green Flag runs on a local partner model- so the person who turns up is likely to be local to where the breakdown occurs rather than one of the big fleet of vehicles the AA or RAC use. My dad had a breakdown six weeks ago and GF were with him in less than an hour and got him back home pretty quickly leaving his car at a garage to be fixed. He couldn’t fault them but I have heard of people waiting many hours. But that can be true of the bigger companies too.
We used to be with Green Flag and they were as good as the two best knowns. They don't run a fleet but their service was as good when required.
I let my battery die whilst camping on Skye and called them to jump start the car. They had no record of my current membership but after a suitable application of 'Mr Harrods', they came out and sorted it. I did laugh when I stalled the car as I watched the rescue van dissappear into the murk... Luckily it started again...
When I got home I found I'd forgotten to renew a couple of months before... Ahem.
startrescue member here. They've been fine on the couple of time I've called them out Flat battery and engine cut out on the M1. Were really cheap, now a bit more expensive now the car is over 10 years old.
They just subcontract to local provider, which is the same as greenflag I think
I can't comment on AA or RAC, but the Green Flag/Brittania Rescue will tend to turn up with a flat-bed truck and a bloke with a jump starter pack. If there's something more technical wrong you will be towed to nearest garage. This is fine for me as I rarely travel far and I've been towed to garage I normally use a couple of times.
AA and RAC may be able to fix more faults at roadside.
Have used autoaid for years (also covers my partner in any car, home start and misfuelling cover as standard). They use their contractor for the area. Used them several times and the only issue I had was that the initial call handler didn't describe the fault correctly to the contactor so they turned up with a transit van when it was obvious it was going to be recovery so I then ended up in a courtesy car and they took my car to my local mechanic the day after.
No guarantee human error like that doesn't happen in the big firms either.
Green Flag have been good for us when we've needed it - we now have personal cover for me, MrsMc and MCJnr, which is making it a bit expensive, though we are covered in any car
used autoaid multiple times with no dramas.
Second for Autoaid. I've had to call them out a few times over the years and never had an issue. As above they also cover your spouse for £61.50. They cover the person (or two people) rather than the car so covered if your driving another car.