ISO: the best roadside assistance service

[rgG]

Psurfer wrote:
Will any of the services provide a car carrier tow if requested?

Every time AAA has towed one of our cars, and we have had several towed, they have sent a flat bed hauler, not a pull behind.

[kap]

Always have had good/great experiences with AAA until the most recent occurrence. Spoke to a manager of Customer Services dept. Agreeing that the service rendered was unsatisfactory, she debited back the cost (tu)

[michaelb]

when I owned beaters, which I guess was most of my adult life, I expected to break down and get towed fairly regularly, so AAA made sense. Upgrading to pro to get the 100 miles was also well worth it. My memory is that AAA only pays for 3 tows or services per year, so keep that in mind if you have a real beater.

Now that we have a new and newish car, we cancelled AAA. Our state farm car insurance offers road service for a few bucks added every 6 months, so way cheaper than AAA. However, if I understand this correctly, I am supposed to call my agent on his cell phone and he will help us arrange something (so not exactly the same sort of 1-800 response we would get from AAA).

[Wailer]

Are there even alternatives to AAA? Other than roadside assistance that comes with new cars, there has to be something that competes with AAA. I guess one can look always up a towing company in the phonebook and just pay for their services.

[kap]

michaelb wrote:
when I owned beaters, which I guess was most of my adult life, I expected to break down and get towed fairly regularly, so AAA made sense. Upgrading to pro to get the 100 miles was also well worth it. My memory is that AAA only pays for 3 tows or services per year, so keep that in mind if you have a real beater.

Now that we have a new and newish car, we cancelled AAA. Our state farm car insurance offers road service for a few bucks added every 6 months, so way cheaper than AAA. However, if I understand this correctly, I am supposed to call my agent on his cell phone and he will help us arrange something (so not exactly the same sort of 1-800 response we would get from AAA).

both of our cars are over 10 years old. We should consider AAA+. We'll also check with out car insurances to see what their offers on road services.

[testcase]

If a provider you like is affiliated with a particular club, join that club.

I've belonged to several motor clubs over the years. I'm currently with AAA (the Plus membership). I'd recommend finding out what service providers will actually respond when you call. Here on Long Island, AAA's response time tends to run over an hour (sometimes by a lot).

[volcs0]

We just took a 3000+ mile road trip in our eleven year old minivan. So, I bought AAA+ just before we left. Thankfully, we didn't have to use it, but it was nice knowing we could have.

Most of our hotels were booked at the AAA rate. In general, that allowed us to get the earlybird "pre-pay" price without the risks of pre-paying (allowing us to cancel if needed). I didn't add it up, but I'm sure we saved close to the purchase price of the AAA+ (~$100).

[kap]

AAA basic membership's response time has always been good thus far ... no more than 20-30 minutes.

[bazookaman]

rgG wrote:
Every time AAA has towed one of our cars, and we have had several towed, they have sent a flat bed hauler, not a pull behind.

Both times they towed my truck they brought a rollback. The first time was automatic for whatever reason. The second time I asked for one b/c the first guy made a point to tell me it's a good thing he brought the rollback. The operator asked why I wanted a rollback and I told her but she said if it wasn't necessary I'd be charged for it. I guess it was necessary as I wasn't charged.

I've also used them for rental car discounts. No one in town could even come close to the cost of renting a car w/the discount.

[OWC Jamie]

Wailer wrote:
Are there even alternatives to AAA? Other than roadside assistance that comes with new cars, there has to be something that competes with AAA. I guess one can look always up a towing company in the phonebook and just pay for their services.

AARP was hawking Allstate's for a while.
http://www.aarproadside.com/aarp/home.do