France Trip Breakdown Recovery Suggestions please :)

[stuavo]

Hi, my wife and I are off to France in a couple of weeks for a 17-day road trip. I want to organise breakdown recovery so that, in case we have any problems
we can arrange for a local repair or, in the worst-case scenario, have the vehicle (and us) returned home.

Does anyone have any experience/recommendations, please?

 

[willwander]

VW Assist is good, cover whole of Europe.

 

[Betsycalifornia]

Hi, my wife and I are off to France in a couple of weeks for a 17-day road trip. I want to organise breakdown recovery so that, in case we have any problems
we can arrange for a local repair or, in the worst-case scenario, have the vehicle (and us) returned home.

Does anyone have any experience/recommendations, please?

How old is your van?

 

[Beeechke1]

We have an annual AA European Breakdown Cover because we make multiple trips each year often using our full 90 day allowance.

Cost is £278 p.a. for Zone 1 (UK & France, Germany Netherlands etc) and Zone 2 ( Spain Portugal etc.)

If you are only going to France then Zone 1 will cover you and it will be cheaper.

You can look on line but its worth ringing their customer service to haggle the price

 

[Barbara]

Hi, my wife and I are off to France in a couple of weeks for a 17-day road trip. I want to organise breakdown recovery so that, in case we have any problems
we can arrange for a local repair or, in the worst-case scenario, have the vehicle (and us) returned home.

Does anyone have any experience/recommendations, please?

Britannia rescue have been good, they put me on the phone to a english speaking center who arranged a local garage. Unfortunately my car had an intermittent fault in south of France. It went to a VW garage for 5 days who could not find the fault. Britannia rescue put me up in a hotel ( the other option as a loan car). As the fault was intermittent they were happy for me to try to drive back to UK after it was not found and they said they would rescue me again if needed. Told not to use paying motorways as apparently only the police can take you off them. Other brackdowns have been a water pump at calais fixed next day, 2 flat batteries in Spain both fixed quickly, on car. With the van no breakdowns so far, am I testing fate?

 

[secret lemonade drinker]

Green Flag European Cover on a California Beach, never needed it but always had it!
Cheaper direct than as Red Pennant through Caravan Club but same level of cover

 

[stuavo]

How old is your van?

3 years old. Just out of warranty

 

[Betsycalifornia]

Try the AA, they’re who comes out in France for VW assist, based out of Lyon.

 

[chockswahay]

‘All in’ 2 yr warranty will cover that

 

[Perfectos]

Cheapest way to get recovery cover , is via your insurer, most have reduced cost scheme available including abroad cover

 

[Up10]

@stuavo
Hi, just be aware that all toll routes in France are private so recovery is only available from the toll operators. They will charge to take you to the nearest exit where your chosen recovery service will collect you. Green flag will reimburse this sum. Not sure about the others.

 

[wildslammer22]

VW Assist is good, cover whole of Europe.

I’ve had dreadful experience with them in France. Short staffed, unresponsive & unhelpful. They use the AA in the UK which I’m sure is fine but on the continent they use local sub contractors. I managed to lock myself out of my van (self inflicted woes). after 14 separate calls (with waits varying between 20 minutes and 48 minutes to be connected) lots of misinformation and disinterest some 9 hours later they finally got someone to turn up. This was not peak season and we were literally miles from anywhere on a very remote camp site. The outside temperatures were touching 38° at one point and with no food options within a 15 mile radius I was ready to combust! As it happens a very nice Dutch family who were over-landing fed us and provided some good company.

Suffice it to say I won’t be renewing with VW Assist or the AA!

 

[Rich20]

One thing to watch out for is that sone of the breakdown companies have a clause that if the cost of repairs/repatriation is higher than the vehicle value then they will not cover you and you are on your own. Do your homework and check the small print

 

[sticky1]

@stuavo
Hi, just be aware that all toll routes in France are private so recovery is only available from the toll operators. They will charge to take you to the nearest exit where your chosen recovery service will collect you. Green flag will reimburse this sum. Not sure about the others.

I had a sensor fail on the ‘peage’ motorway.
€300 recovery off the motorway, most breakdown services won’t cover this but may reimburse you.
We then had to use the manufacturer recovery assistance to get us to a local dealer and the associated last minute hotels because it was the weekend.
We had warranty but the French garage didn’t have the equipment to test the sensor (it was a brand new model) so offered us a loan car and arranged for my van to be returned to the UK!
It was a nightmare with four kids in tow.
We regularly drive through France but I’ve had a couple of epic recovery events that still haunt me.

 

[stuavo]

We have an annual AA European Breakdown Cover because we make multiple trips each year often using our full 90 day allowance.

Cost is £278 p.a. for Zone 1 (UK & France, Germany Netherlands etc) and Zone 2 ( Spain Portugal etc.)

If you are only going to France then Zone 1 will cover you and it will be cheaper.

You can look on line but its worth ringing their customer service to haggle the price

 

[stuavo]

Thank you, will look into it

 

[Perfectos]

First 7 years of ownership was covered by Factory & All in warranty so European Breakdown cover was included.

See post #10, for context:

I now have European Break down cover with my insurer, it has all the Benefits of the AA scheme. Costs circa £100 p/a

IMO, It makes sense because it's in your insurers best interest to get your vehicle back home / on the road again, which most insurance policy have benefits of onward travel, hotels , repatriation etc etc ,
In the instance of a break down the Insurers can exert much more pressure on the third party recovery company simply because they have a massive spend and partnership with the recovery company &
single point of contact if it all goes wrong.

 

[Coalhole kid]

I've recently took out Red Pennant travel and breakdown cover for a similar trip through the CAMC. A little dearer than some others but seem to have a good level of cover and appear to be more campervan/caravan orientated. They have a dual recovery benefit where they'll take you to your (prebooked) holiday destination, and if they can't fix the vehicle by the end of your stay, they'll repatriate then.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

We have always added full UK/Euro RAC/AA to our annual can insurance policy. Costs less than a £100 and have always been pleased with the quality of service & response times.