European break down cover

[warrenpfo]

Not sure where best to post this so feel free to move it if you think it belongs elsewhere.

My passport has finally come through and so our trip to Italy is on. YAY

I need to sort out some breakdown cover just in case the worst should happen and just wondered who people use, have used and would recommend.

Lastly if anyone has a Swiss driving vignette they wont need or use for the month of August m happy to rent it from you.

 

[yogi]

There is a German crowd, can't think of their name though, ADC or something like that. Meant to be cheap and good covering all continental Europe.

 

[yogi]

ADAC.de
That's the one.

 

[Scott]

I met the ADAC rep at the Abenteur & Allrad show and applied for membership (you only pay once you receive the paperwork and membership cards). I was assured that as I was an English member I'd receive my paperwork in English, nope it all came through in German, so I emailed them and the every correspondence that I received was in German.

I wasn't happy to except a contract in a foregin language, so in the end I gave up on the idea, which was a shame as on the face of it their cover is very good.

So I stayed with my AA membership. I have had to claim on my AA European membership and they did a pretty good job, us and the car were repatriated the following day (from approx Ameins in France). As I had annual EU cover, there was no problem when I contacted them the next day to swap the cover onto another vehicle to resume my EU travel.

I didn't have to pay a penny for the recovery, and the only hold up was buying a ferry crossing, as they hadn't bought one prior to our arrival, due to being unsure at which time we would need to cross. Therefore we had about an hour of phoning back and forth, and liasing with the ferry company whilst the car sat on the truck, as the truck drops your car at the ferry lane.

Let us know if you have any joy with the ADAC (I'm sure there's a thread on here somewhere), if not, my vote is for the AA.

Enjoy your trip and I hope you won't need to utilise your breakdown cover.

 

[Charlie]

I am a member of ADAC, it costs 79.50 euro per year for a single membership. I’ve not had to call them out thankfully, so I can’t comment on the actual services provided.This is the best number to call +4994155673, and ask for an English speaking representative.

 

[AndyCook]

I joned ADAC a few weeks ago. Since AA europe cover for my 2 trips was going to cost too mu h.

 

[Ian Rubie]

The last time Toby and I went to Libya we went with a friend who has a 110 Land Rover. He wanted to do France a bit slower than we planned so set off a few days before us with the view to meeting us in Marseille to catch the Med ferry together. To cut a long story short, after several problems on the way, the LR finally died just outside Paris. He had bought breakdown cover from the Post Office. They paid for his Paris hotel, flight home, airport taxi at both ends and to get the LR home. He was extremely happy with the service they provided.

 

[AndyCook]

Was that using ADAC Ian?

 

[Ian Rubie]

I'm sorry, the only detail I know is he bought it from the Post Office. It was several years ago.

Edit - Having looked at their website it seems that they no longer offer breakdown cover. ADAC it is then.

 

[warrenpfo]

Here are the documents and policy in English for ADAC

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4nizg3f1janasc0/ADAC%20Brochure%20%20latest.pdf?v=0mcnchttps://www.dropbox.com/s/4nizg3f1janasc0/ADAC%20Brochure%20%20latest.pdf?v=0mcnc
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fpvz64xkj02v5eh/Adac booklet with poor translation.doc?v=0mcnc

 

[grantw]

I didn't think any UK based companies would cover a car over 15 years old? Well this is the trouble I've had when trying to organise it .. so as a result I'm only covered here.

 

[Gav Peter]

Just ran across this website & Green Flag came out ~£90 for 31 days cover based on Oiley plus trailer... AA & RAC were nearly 3 times that

EDIT: Yep Ian, I looked for the PO cover but couldn't find it either

 

[Cptsideways]

ADAC here too, full euro cover in anything your driving the wife & I £103 for the year

 

[grantw]

Just reading about them on here: http://www.joysofeuropeancaravanning.co.uk/adacbreakdownservice.htm

They sound really good. Thanks for passing on the tips.

 

[AndyCook]

i read that too

i emailed to get an application form (a poor scan/FAX) but i filled it in, scanned it and emailed it back as PDF and gave her CC details
processed pretty quickly

the person i emailed was Evelyn
but i believe there are people in UK you can phone too
[email protected]

 

[Scott]

I didn't think any UK based companies would cover a car over 15 years old? Well this is the trouble I've had when trying to organise it .. so as a result I'm only covered here.

The AA have been covering my 1993 Land Cruiser no problem, annual multi trip policy £106.

May look again at the ADAC cover following the feedback on here.

 

[mrdelmonti]

Only trouble with ADAC is I believe you have to cover the recovery costs yourself and then they reimburse you, other than that I've only heard good things. In the UK I believe they generally use the AA.

 

[Andy]

Last year on a trip back from Egypt, Roman who was travelling with me, had a power steering hose (high pressure side) split in Tunisia. We did a bodge repair that night & had to get the ferry to genoa the next day.

we went our separate ways in genoa as I needed to push to get back to uk (did that in one hit,) whilst roman was going to do it over 2 days, anyway he phoned me from a place about 100k,s after Mont Blanc to say it had gone again & was going to get a b&b & sort in the morning.

he phoned Adac in the morning who sent a mechanic who then recovered the car to his garage, as it was a Sunday & roman needed to be back in London for work on the Monday, Adac then taxied him to a local rail way station , and then local train to get the Eurostar ( first class I believe) back to uk. They sorted all the tickets etc for him & his wife & he was home earlier than he had planned if driving!

then he had the choice of Adac getting the car back to uk, or them paying for him & me to fly to southern France, repair it & drive it home.
this is what we did a week later........to make boys weekend away!!
thegarage had a hydraulic hose made up, fitted it & away we went.

Certainly worth the years membership fee, but the BIG aggro with them is that all of the correspondence is in German.
Even after requesting it in English several times.
i haven't renewed yet this year as I can't understand the documents they keep sending me! But will do before my next desert trip, just in case

andy

 

[Rob Cowell]

I use Britannia Rescue. European cover for trips up to 180 days. Dont think there is any age (of vehicle) limit. They quote £130 for euro cover for 12 months, but I pay well under that as a CSMA member (I work for a privatised company - CSMA covers ex as well as current civil service). Never had to call out in Europe but they've been very good the few times I've used them in the UK in the last 20 or so years.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Watch out as well for the clauses in some of the UK cover where if the cost of recovery is greater than the value of the car they'll leave the car behind and get you back... this was beginning to become a problem for my old Volvo as it was worth £1k on a good day towards the end of it's life.

I've also heard good things about ADAC in the past.

Other things to think about is how long the cover is for (some only cover trips upto 4 weeks, others only allow a total of 6 months out of the UK) as at one time I needed insurance and recovery coverage for nearly 6 months out of the UK; I ended up with LV for insurance and MoreThan for recovery.

At the end of my car's life I had it's recovery via Volvo Assistance, which was the same as a new car got They now include that for a year with every service at a main dealer, whereas I paid £180 for 2 yrs cover (which also covered me for damage to my camping gear and a whole load of other stuff). May be worth looking at what Toyota offer as well...