Why being loyal drives up the cost of breakdown cover

Which? used to value test breakdown insurance.

I think Brittania and Green Flag often came out on top; AA & RAC not so much.

Having had the AA for years, they have been very good as long as you request an AA patrol vehicle.

My one experience of someone else’s Green Flag was they didn’t even check the vehicle but towed it to a garage and you then paid the garage to fix the problem.

It would be fairer to offer a no-claims discount for breakdown cover.

On the other hand, the longer you have breakdown cover the older your car is likely to be, so more prone to a breakdown. One of my cars was troublesome, It broke down in central London, in a country village and on the M25. Each time required a lift to my garage of choice. You appreciate breakdown cover then, not only the cost saving but otherwise trying to locate someone to sort you out if you didn’t have cover. Peace of mind can be worth a lot, if you are going on holiday, if a passenger is disabled, if it’s the middle of the night…….

I’m with NFU Mutual, Beryl. I think it makes sense to insist on cars being properly maintained. Their terms state: “YOU must always maintain the VEHICLE in a good mechanical and roadworthy condition and have it regularly serviced.” This would allow for owners to do their own maintenance, as I did until I bought my present car. I agree that it would be a good idea to offer combined servicing and breakdown cover.

I am not sure about allowing all owners to do their own maintenance Wavechange. Apart from checking the usual oil, water, antifreeze, tyres, windscreen wipers and petrol, that is the limit of my maintenance and is only carried out when anticipating a long journey, a rarity these days.

The increased sophisticated technological complexity of new vehicles means maintenance requires constant uptodate specialised training and competence to establish absolute safety on today’s overcrowded and potholed riddled roads. I for one definitely don’t qualify.

Even if the owner only does the basic checks, it’s worth looking for signs of developing problems. Which? testing has shown that servicing work is often done poorly and when my cars have been serviced by the main dealer during their warranty period I have seen examples of this. At present I have a small garage that I trust but I think the owner is coming up to retirement.

Don’t give up, Wavechange. Perhaps a new silencer and shock absorbers will make your trusted repairer fit for another ten years’ service.

Maintain your own car ? modern cars need a computer to find all faults so now I do not maintain mine everything is too complicated but I still check the thing that i am able to check oil ,water tyres etc. frequently Mechanics now plus faulty cars into a computer the change the parts the computer says are faulty An old time mechanic is who could repair everything and did is now hard to find

Maintenance and faultfinding are not the same. A competent owner can still do many jobs and most importantly look for problems between services.

Car owners can still save a lot of money by doing simple but time consuming jobs themselves.

For example, one of the design flaws on my 12-year-old Nissan Note is the flexible cable that connects into the tailgate. After about 10 years of use, fatigue from the repeated bending and straightening of this causes individual wires to start breaking. Then important subsystems like the boot release and the rear screen wiper cease to function.

Once you’ve figured out how to burrow down to the emergency boot release latch, fixing this is then only a matter of making good the failed wiring. However, that is a tedious and time consuming job, because the wires are not colour-coded.

So, after paying for my dealer to fix this the first time, I now do all subsequent repairs myself.

On the plus side, I now know not to even bother thinking about ever buying another Nissan.

This is a common problem. When the rear wiper on my previous Golf stopped working after four years I replaced the all the tailgate wiring with better cable – more strands and more flexible plastic insulation. Because of the limited space, using crimp connectors was out of the question and it was necessary to make soldered connections and provide adequate insulation.

On some cars (e.g. older Fords) there are copper contacts to supply power to the heated window and rear wiper. It’s a simple maintenance task to polish the copper, but unless this is done the ones for the heated window (which carry more current) may overheat and melt the plastic surround, requiring replacements to be fitted.

Thanks wavechange, I’ll add VAG to my “blacklist” too.

It seems to be a fairly general problem, Derek. Those who have older cars and open and close their tailgate frequently are obviously more likely to suffer from broken cables. Using highly flexible multi-stranded cable such as that used for multimeter leads and routing it to delocalise the twisting should eliminate the problem.

“Using highly flexible multi-stranded cable such as that used for multimeter leads and routing it to delocalise the twisting should eliminate the problem.”

I get that, but I would be hoping to buy cars where the designers have gotten the basic ENGINEERING for that right-first-time.

As we’ve both demonstrated from our home repairs, it’s not rocket science, and, as I hope we agree from other convos, dodgy electrics can be a fire hazard too.

I’m frequently disappointed by what I consider to be poor design. It may be the fault of the designer but I suspect that substitution of cheaper and less suitable materials is a factor. In general car design has been improved to reduce problems that were common in the 60s and 70s such as water ingress into connectors, chafing of cables and hoses, and fracture of cables due to inadequate strain relief. Sometimes cables and hoses are not replaced correctly during servicing or repair work, but this is easy to rectify. We sometimes hear about car fires due to electrical faults and I am not surprised.

One example of common but poor design is the cigarette lighter power socket. It is OK for small loads such as a phone charger or sat nav but use a travel kettle or (as I did) a car vacuum cleaner, and the plug could melt.

Trying to get back on-topic, electrical problems are a common reason for call out of breakdown services and will push up premiums.

How many owners are qualified to change a cam belt for example? An expensive but vital part of engine maintenance and protection. My garage will advise when this is due for change, something that I never think about. I am quite happy to pay for servicing if it ensures trouble free motoring which so far it has. So in light of your MOT detailed analysis Malcolm, what exactly am I paying extra for when it is being serviced as servicing is evidently part of the MOT process?

I’ve replaced timing belts but on some cars it’s best left to a garage with a ramp and lifting equipment. Failure to replace a belt can lead to very expensive repairs and I shudder to think what would happen if the belt snapped or slipped on a motorway without a hard shoulder.

There’s many vehicles that would fail an MOT on our roads, Beryl. If you enter the registration numbers of ones in your street you are likely to see examples of cars with potentially dangerous faults: https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

Thanks – that’s a useful link and also shows if there are any outstanding product recalls.

I’ve given the link a few times but for some reason never mentioned recalls. That is of use for a potential purchaser because recalls may not have ben acted on.

Out of interest I have checked a fair number of cars belonging to neighbours and friends. Wherever I have seen MOT failures a subsequent test has shown a pass, so the faults will have been dealt with. I have not found any cars without current MOTs.

Problems that are not sufficient to result in an MOT failure such as slight corrosion of brake pipes will result in an ‘advisory’, as will tyres that are worn below 3mm or brake pads and disks that are wearing thin.

It can be useful to check a vehicle you suspect has been dumped. If it does not have an MOT or car tax, you can then report it to the police.

Your neighbours would not know you had checked their cars Beryl.

I am aware the police carry out random checks that also include road tax evasion since windscreen discs were discontinued at the end of September 2014. My dilemma would be whether to approach a neighbour or the law in the event of an unsafe vehicle being used Alfa.

It would certainly be useful to check suspect illegally parked cars in our private communal parking area which does happen from time to time despite clearly displayed notices. People have been known to park and go off for a few days on business trips or holiday as our village is situated on a main line rail route.

I understand that automatic number plate recognition is used to help identify untaxed vehicles. If I was aware of an illegal vehicle I would ring the police non-emergency number (101). I did this for the first time yesterday to report a vehicle on the verge of the road into town. It had been involved in a slight accident several days ago and was undriveable with one front wheel at 45° to the other. Mine was the first report and within hours it had been festooned with ‘police aware’ tape.

We have departed from the topic of breakdown cover. 🙁

Twitter On Traffic Police accounts will inform on the number of motorists caught every day for no insurance no tax no MOT etc. More than 1 every day just by one police force Since the subject has moved on

Report untaxed vehicles to the DVLA no MOT to the Police NO insurance to the police Reporting untaxed ones can be done online on the DVLA website

Anything that contributes to road safety is valuable, the more so if it increases driver awareness of prevailing conditions. There are so many potential distractions outside the car so I share your concerns about distractions inside the vehicle but most driving aids have a good purpose and should relieve the stress of driving.