Warranty and Roadside Assistance

[Highlander19]

My Yeti is almost 3 years old and will be out of warranty and Skoda Roadside assistance, is it worth extending with Skoda or getting

independent warranty and joining AA or such like.

[Llanigraham]

I wouldn't bother with the AA from my recent experience, or from the comments of the recovery operator that picked me up. (Midget broke down) *

Out of choice I am with Britannia Rescue with the Yeti and have extended that to cover the Midget and it is still cheaper than the AA.

Allegedly the RAC are not much better than the AA, and Green Flag seem to get fairly good reports.

 

*He rated them with the AA at the bottom, followed by the RAC, with Green Flag and Britannia at the top.

[Ootohere]

Scotland / West Coast i would go RAC or Green Flag.

[Prezafab]

I think they are all pretty similar. My 3 x RAC experiences in the last year were:-

 

1) Long wait for patrol (1.5 hours), helpful patrolman - got running and followed me home. 8/10.

2) Long waits. Poor call centre comms. Lots of wasted time. Patrolman only interested in it going to a local garage (his mate?) rather than arranging recovery. Good recovery agent. 6/10.

3) Really poor call centre comms - had to send patrol even though they couldn't do anything. Patrolman had argument with them on phone on my and his behalf on arrival. Local recovery agent very good. 5/10 for everything up to the local agent arriving.

 

My personal experience was that the local recovery agents have been better than the national side of the operations, so you pays your money, you takes your choice !

[Ootohere]

RAC or Green Flag or any Breakdown Service can have 'Local Recovery / Garages' coming out to you in Scotland.

I have had localish low loaders arriving to get vehicle and tow the trailer. 

[gumdrop]

I have never used the Skoda Roadside Assistence, AA and RAC have both been very good,

when I have had to use them, I still use Green Flag but only had occasion to call them out,

my car alarm kept going off so I moved my car behind a berm and the reception building

it started to rain heavily and two hours after the call Green Flag arrived in a breakdown

truck. The alarm started going again and the driver just said nothing he could do and left.

Took the car into Barnstable the following day, a Ford Dealer, Brilliant service sorted in an hour.

[eribaMotters]

AA and RAC are expensive. I use Green flag through the Caravan & Motorhome Club and I think I'm paying about £110 for two cars including homestart. I'm even running this whilst my new Audi is only 5 months old as it does a special two way cover.

I seem to recall VAG do however do a special. I think it's about £145 for two years cover including homestart and Europe which is excellent if you can get it.

 

Colin

[Guest]

See what your insurance company charge for breakdown cover. 

 

The CSIS (via Zurich) used Green Flag on the two occasions I required recovery. 

[RickT]

This year I went with Green Flag, Recovery Plus was £60. That is for everything except Euro cover.

[paulatthehug]

Skoda Assist (aka AA) took 2.5 hours to get to my car last time I called them out. Not impressed. In the past we've used Green Flag and now we're with Brittania Rescue, both of whom we've found to be very good. It seems to us that both AA and RAC prefer to use their own people wherever possible and only use third party sub-contractors as a last resort. This can lead to long delays if they're busy. Green Flag, Britannia, etc only use third party sub-contractors so you get the first one who's available. In our experience that means you get someone fast and we've never had a problem with the person who's turned up to help us out.

Edited 4 August, 2019 by paulatthehug

[oldstan]

Surprised no mention of AutoAid.

 

They usually get a fairly prompt mention whenever someone asks for an alternative to the usual suspects.

 

Has to be said the cost has gone up this year - from mid forties to sixty - a bit more than usual - however considering it'll cover two cars in the family plus your wife/husband/partner/whatever then I've never been able to beat it.

Edited 4 August, 2019 by oldstan

[Highlander19]

Thanks for all the replies regarding breakdown/recovery has anyone extended Skoda warranty or taken out an independent warranty instead, plan to keep the Yeti for a couple of years.(unless something else comes up with the appeal of the Yeti)

So for peace of mind would probably extend the warranty.

[oldstan]

Extend the manufacturer warranty ... no brainer.

 

I did use 'Car Car Plan' for a couple of years, and didn't need to claim, and if you take it out via the CSMA (now called "Boundless") it's not too expensive and I think can be trusted reasonably well ... but I would stillsay extend the VAG warranty - it gives them less room to wriggle.

[Ootohere]

Check the Exclusions now, and amounts covered, The T&C's have changed recently.

http://insurewithskoda.co.uk/extended-warranty

 

[Zarniwoop]

I've extended my Skoda manufacturer's warranty twice now...... a no brainer for me also.  You can choose the level of cover...but it seems to me daft to go for the lower level as full cover is not much more expensive.  And extending the warranty also extends the Skoda Assist,  so you save the cost of alternative breakdown cover.  Last time I renewed for a further year it was less than £180.... and just one of the simplest of garage repairs would cost that.  (Of course,  Sod's Law being what it is,  I've so far never needed to use the extended warranty!  But peace of mind is everything when you get to my age....)

[Robjon]

3 hours ago, Zarniwoop said:

And extending the warranty also extends the Skoda Assist...

 

Interesting...

 

The extended warranty does NOT extend the Skoda Assist if purchased at the time of registration of the vehicle.

[Zarniwoop]

12 minutes ago, Robjon said:

 

Interesting...

 

The extended warranty does NOT extend the Skoda Assist if purchased at the time of registration of the vehicle.

Sorry folks....misled you there.... Please put it down to softening of the brain.  It does NOT extend the Skoda Assist.... But Skoda Assist can be extended by invitation,  which is what I did (and then promptly forgot that I had done it).  Forgetting the details of things seems to happen a lot these days.  At least I can still remember who and where I am (most of the time).

[Robjon]

4 hours ago, Zarniwoop said:

...peace of mind is everything when you get to my our age...