The importance of good european breakdown insurance and really good freinds

[Mme poivre]

Husband grummbles every year  but pays the premium for european breakdown insurance.  we have been travelling to France for 5 years now this is the first time we have had to use use it and boy are we glad we have it.

 mine was the birthday from hell this year, some good points though, hubby drove all the way from Belgium to supprise me in the morning - you gotta love him - good bit over

Going to La Roche to look at the brico depo just go on the durl carrige way and the car... no engine no gears no anything arhhhh.....   managed to cruise to the side of the road just infront of a big lorry.   Hubby Striagt on the phone to insurace, yes a two hour wait but then phone converstaions were going between hubby england an france, straight to the garage where they were brill, just get you a replacement car until yours is fixed excellent. 

we are very pleased so far with the way it has all been  handled and gald we had the insurace.

Unfortuantley its somthing to do with the cam belt falling off, which hubby had changed 5000 miles ago, so hubby not very happy .  We are going to have to pay big time to get it fixed, hopefully before we travel home, then we will have to deal with the garage that might not have done the tensioner up correctly when we get home.

Luckily we are not the sort of people to let it get us down, the sun is shining we are in our haouse in France where we love to be and we have lots og good freinds around us. I just means the diy wont get done this hols. [:)]

 

[Pierre ZFP]

[quote user="Mme poivre"]

 I just means the diy wont get done this hols. [:)]

[/quote]

Why not? you have a replacement car, fill it up with bricks [6]

 

[Mme poivre]

yes but the repairs are going to cost and we will have to use the money we saved to so work on the house this hols  - unfortunately we can only do a little at a time - we wil eventually probalby get hte money back but you still have to pay up front [:(] estimanted 2000e

[JMB]

Hi

I had this happen to me. The garage replaced the timing chain wrongly and it chewed up the front of the engine. This happened in germany (a good place to have a chewed up merc engine). It was a brit reg car with french insurance(AGF). I had a german expert do a report and later the insurers had a report done in France. Anyway they recovered me the cost of the repaires(2400€) plus the cost of car hire and accomadation. So if you think a garage has done a bad fitting job on the cambelt ask the repairers what they think and then it may be worthwhile getting a expert opinion about it..

[Mme poivre]

Thanks for the reply JMB thats along the lines of what is happening at the moment just had a report from insurance that the garage are still doing repairs we are just getting anxious because we have to return back to the UK next week end for work and rreally dont want all the hassel if its not fixed before then - but we will have to go with the flow

[Mr Tivoli Blue]

I'm thankful for the insurance too.

I had my Xsara picasso gearcables seize on me just as i drove out of Hyper U one the first day of our Holiday. Managed to get to the house 20 K away. The car was immediately picked up and sent to a Citroen garage somewhere? We were then told to go to Niort to pick up a replacement car.

After about four days we were infomed our car was ready to pick up. But from where??? Bressuire.... Where in Bressuire??? Managed to find the citreon place. Paid the bill and away.  The car was still under warranty so on my return to the UK i Phoned Citroen Uk and asked about claiming the repair costs back under the warranty. Yes go to your local Citroen dealer and they will refund it. True to their word the local dealer refunded the cost in full on production of the receipt. So well done Citroen Too. Now have a C4 Picasso..

[DerekJ]

[quote user="Mme poivre"]

Husband grummbles every year  but pays the premium for european breakdown insurance.

[/quote]

Who did you have the insurance cover with?

[under the sun]

I have European breakdown insurance with ADAC (I used to live in Germany and kept it going) for 98 Euros per year.

Rgds

[pouyade]

We get full European RAC cover included with our Marks and Spencer car insurance. When doing the renewal recently, I looked into it (again) and the costs via M and S was cheaper than buying equivalent insurances separately.

Pouyade

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Must be 20 years ago as a teenager, I made my first driving trip to France and only remembered to get European breakdown cover for the trip at the last moment.

Just as well really as I was driving past Reims on the motorway, my brakes failed. Pulled over (eventually), got help, breakdown cover paid.

On the way back home, 2 weeks later, was driving up from Lyon, again on the motorway, drove past this big billboard warning drivers to take it easy as tyre blow outs were frequent. They weren't wrong either, as not long after seeing that sign, both my rear tyres blew out, and I again, had to be rescued.

The breakdown cover more than paid for itself on that holiday!!!

[under the sun]

But I assume M&S don't insure French registered cars?

Rgds Mike

[pouyade]

Very much doubt it!

Pouyade