CA Guide 2007 Vehicle Breakdowns

[Chrisgr31]

One year someone had a go at breakinging into my Impreza when I stopped on route to Le Mans at Rouen.  When they failed to get in they punctured a rear tyre instead.  I couldn't get the wheel nuts off, and in any event the spare was a spce saver and didn;t fancy driving a heavily laden car on that.  So called Subaru Recovery provided by Mondial.  Spoke to a UK based operator who sent a french speaking breakdown truck.  He tried removing the wheel nuts and couldn't so decided I needed to be taken to a tyre dealer, and we soped in a combination of arm waving and franglais!

At tyre dealer they also didn't speak english but when they pointed at tyres, and said Non I realised they had none of a suitable size!  The breakdown truck therefore took me to the Subaru dealer who also had no tyres and spoke no english!  However he went to another garage to find someone to speak english!

They arranged to get 2 new tyres (as said needed to replace pair) I spoke to Mondail who said they would pay for me to stay in hotel but I would need to claim on car insurance for attempted break in damage (rear spoiler ripped off and a couple of small dents) and for the tyres.

So spoke to Direct Line who told me to pay for tyres and sort out rest on return to UK, and they would refund the tyre cost.  So thats what happened.  The French Subaru dealer complained he had to drill off the wheel nuts as they were on too tight, and said make sure they aren't so tight in future!  But the car was ready for the following day to go onto Le Mans.

On my return to the UK I got the car repaired submitted my bill for 2 tyres to Direct Line who then said only 1 should be replaced.  I spoke to my Subaru dealer who said that best practice would be change both although Subaru UK had just announced it wasn't essential.  Spoke to Direct Line who then agreed to pay for both tyres.

Been paying increased insurance premiums due to the claim ever since!

However got to say Mondail on behalf of Subaru were fantastic and the language problems were got round by various ways.

Also got round language problems when I wrote a car off in Portugal many years ago so I don;t think it is too much of a problem

[neilsie]

As for the 16th car being missing, that was cos one of our group broke his knee on the day we arrived, so his mate had to drive him home Sat morning. 

That raises a good point - we always try to have a second driver for each car that we take with us so that if someone is unwell or injured there is always someone else to bring the car home.  It's perhaps not always possible but worth thinking about (although not strictly on topic!  Sorry FS!)

we also go on the premise that as we travel in convoy, if someone in the convoy gets hit by a fine for speeding, then we can share the cost of the cars in that convoy.  the most likely person to be nabbe dis either the leader or tail ender anyways

[rcutler]

As for the 16th car being missing, that was cos one of our group broke his knee on the day we arrived, so his mate had to drive him home Sat morning. 

That raises a good point - we always try to have a second driver for each car that we take with us so that if someone is unwell or injured there is always someone else to bring the car home.  It's perhaps not always possible but worth thinking about (although not strictly on topic!  Sorry FS!)

Due to my Dad's van being 7.5 tonne, it makes it difficult to get one of us younger guys to legally drive it. Insurance is the other problem too! If Dad was to have a problem driving it home then I would drive it albeit without a license or insurance! If we were to be stopped then there would just be a explanation that infact Dad was driving. The Van only has one main door, (halfway down the length of the van.)

Our experience of Euro breakdown cover was bad.

English speaking call center by AA was RUDE!!
Cover did not include vehicles over 3.5 tonne (We declared this before we took the cover out!)
Cover did not include vehicles over 10 Meters (We declared this before we took the cover out!)
Recovery truck took 4 hours to arrive
Recovery truck driver spoke NOT A WORD of English
Recovery truck had NO TOOLS not even a spare FUSE!!!
Recovery truck was WAY TOO SMALL TO TAKE US. We dwarved it!!
Once recovery truck left we were told the recovery to the UK was going to cost us £2000. Another £2000 if we wanted to continue the journey.

We had onward journey cover with them!!!

Useless. I now have no breakdown cover especially as I managed to fix it on the carriageway.

[grumpy]

My tip is a simple one.  Don't lock the phone number for your breakdown service in the boot with the keys.

[Lorry]

These buqqers are so keen to take your money, but won't do ought.

Be prepared.  Dib dib dob dob