Breakdown insurance while visiting

[chaz]

Here we are edge of the Somme sat indoors, watching British Superbikes , it's a lovely sunny day out and a local bike club has been charging through our villages on a rally ride. . Here we are indoors, and could be out visiting cemeteries and graveyards... Instead, stripping wallpaper .

Point of this is, whilst returning home Friday  evening l parked down a lane to allow Stormm to water a patch of grass.

the car wouldn't start, 15 minutes poking around under the bonnet got nowhere. So a call to a friend resulted in a call to our continental insurance company. 45 mins later a recover 'depannager ' arrived, winched the car up and took us to a yard. Despite the insurance assuring us the driver could speak English, he couldn't. The car unloaded, locked in the yard and a taxi called. We were shepherded outside and gates locked 11pm. 20 mins later a taxi turned up, again no speak English, loaded dog in boot and took us home 57 euro on clock as we started off. At home it was 125 euro. Paid by the insurance company.

We now have to wait as garages don't work weekends, hire car company opens Tuesday. We are supposed to be on shuttle at 12.50 Tuesday.

if the car can't be fixed before Tuesday, the options are.... Stay longer or-hire car home.

if we return to Wiltshire in hire car, they might deliver ours back when completed OR we have to drive back to France and drive ours back home.

 

moral of story, although the car is regularly serviced, take out  continental insurance cover.

 

[Dragon]

We were driving from a restaurant in a small rural village back to our overnight chambres d’hôtes accommodation in another village about 20 km away, using an unlit country road which passes through densely wooded areas and fields.  The car hit an unseen pothole and the tyre immediately deflated.  We tried to use the inflation kit but obviously it didn't work because of the nature of the damage.  Our Grand Scénic has neither a spare wheel nor a space-saving wheel. (Even with a space-saving wheel you can only go so far.) We realised that we were unable to do anything to help ourselves and we were completely stuck in a remote, dark, forested lane with barely a phone signal.

 

We managed to call the insurance helpline and about 00.30h a rescue vehicle arrived. The driver volunteered to take us to our accommodation and first thing the next morning (Saturday) he delivered our car to Euromaster in Vitry-le-François. By 10.30h Euromaster had discovered that they would be unable to obtain a tyre until Tuesday morning, so we would be without the car until Tuesday afternoon: four days hence. We were due in Alsace later on Saturday afternoon. Even had we wished to, it was not possible for us to stay in the chambres d’hôtes for another four nights (with no car):  the hostess was ill.  The only way we could solve our problem was to leave our car with Euromaster and pay to hire a car for our entire holiday.

 

Our breakdown insurance does not cover immobilisation due to tyre problems if the car does not have a spare wheel. The insurers were very helpful and regretful, but their responsibility ended with transporting the car to a tyre service depot.

 

At midnight on the Friday night, sitting by the roadside in that isolated rural area, with no means of moving, of defending ourselves, of getting ourselves to a safer place, we felt extremely vulnerable. There were no dwellings in earshot or sight. Phone signals were erratic. Fortunately the few vehicles which passed either ignored us or stopped to ask what was the matter. Had any passing traffic been hostile, there was nothing whatsoever we could have done to summon help or get to a place of safety.

 

We too found that no-one involved in rescuing us spoke English, but fortunately we can speak French. It was a bit of a surprise that the UK-based breakdown helpline process began in French.

 

As soon as we were back in the UK, we bought a new full sized spare wheel which is an inelegant and expensive solution, but brings some peace of mind. 

[keithmroberts]

That makes sense. My previous car came with just an inflation kit, and being a cautious type I ordered a spare tyre, which turned out to be not a space saver, but one with limited speed warnings, and which definitely didn't fit in the space provided. Still I lived with it. My current Renault did come with a spare, again with warnings about speed etc, and I was very grateful for that when I had a terminal puncture in Belgium near Lijsennthoek on a Sunday lunchtime. It was years literally since I had changed a wheel, and I had to wait until the Tuesday for the correct replacement to be delivered.  Still, I was at least mobile. I really dislike the silly little foam kits, and will never be left to rely on one.

 

[Michelle Young]

When I collected my Picanto two years ago, the first thing I did was look for a spare wheel. Nothing. As the salesman had said the car came with a spare, I insisted that he got me one. Probably came out of his budget but I don't trust the inflation kits either.

[chaz]

Agree with the above, our vectra had two blowouts on successive trips, one at 40 in avillage and one at 70 on the M25. They were new budget tyres. After limping along m25, m3 and A303 we swapped space saver for a full size alloy.

hopefylly the non starting can be sorted today, the frustrating thing is backward France, short working hours, no breakers yards and no easily available EuroParts, MMS or Andrew Page after market suppliers. We have a pit in our garage and I have sockets and tools but car locked away otherwise could do myself.

[Dragon]

It's extremely annoying that after all the efforts manufacturers invest in designing a car interior to look nice and be space efficient, you have to spoil it by putting a ugly great wheel on the back seat if the boot is full. Ok, we can transport fruit in it if we buy fresh seasonal apples in Alsace in the autumn, but still...

 

We never use the seventh seat (the one under the floor in the boot) and it takes up useful space. I had a positive conversation with Renault, who agreed to remove it to accommodate a spare wheel. That had to be done by a dealer otherwise we would invalidate our insurance by modifying the vehicle. The wheel was ordered to come straight from France (this is still pre-Brexit  ), the job was booked, the seat was removed and…. the space wasn't big enough for a wheel. Sigh. So a travelling fruit bowl it remains.

 

My point is, though, that I had no idea that our breakdown insurance does not cover immobilisation due to tyre problems if the car does not have a spare wheel.

 

Chaz, I hope you're able to continue with your journey as planned before the breakdown.

Edited 10 September , 2018 by Dragon

[chaz]

The fortnight we were there was the usual one day strip wall paper or paint ceiling etc, the next off to the graves.

im beginning to think it's all the stop starts we do maybe 10 cemeteries a day, that has taken the toll on the starter motor or relay.

we are now back home, the NFU insurance got us a taxi to Amiens at 7am this morning and were sat outside Hertz waiting a car when they opened at 8am. One word of caution , for some reason our mobiles work in France and can call England but certain numbers won't call. 0845 funnily enough works to Eurotunnel but the 33 number does not.

git back to the house in a C 3, called Eurotunnel, changed reg number on booking ., loaded up and set off to Calais.

turned up at passport control , French plates and waved straight through, passport control a quick glance and through. Nor all in our English car it's Half a dozen questions and scan of passport. No plate recognition picked new number up straight away.

arrived home at 16.30 at 17.00 NFU recovery division called asking how we were getting on....

cant fault the service and help.

pity, the car may not be back for up to a month. Probably a problem. I could sort myself,  shame the recovery yard didn't tell us they didn't want to work on it in the firstplace or I would have had it delivered to our French house..