Joining the AA, is it worth it ?

SlabMurphy

Thinking of Joining AA Ireland. Are the benefits worth it. Is there any pitfalls or anyone had bad experiences with them ??

r3nu4l

I had membership and never used it at the time, these days I have Tesco breakdown assist and haven't used that either.

It's like anything, when you do end up needing it, you'll have already cancelled your membership

SlabMurphy

r3nu4l wrote: »

I had membership and never used it at the time, these days I have Tesco breakdown assist and haven't used that either.

It's like anything, when you do end up needing it, you'll have already cancelled your membership

Fair enough but with the bloody problems I'm having they'll be sick of me Cann't seem to go one of the street to the other without the F**King breaking down :mad:

craichoe

SlabMurphy wrote: »

Fair enough but with the bloody problems I'm having they'll be sick of me Cann't seem to go one of the street to the other without the F**King breaking down :mad:

I think your better off using the money you'd spend on the AA to maintain your car.

nowuckenfurries

Joined in January this year for EUR 69.00 (Special offer)

So far they have towed my car home after snapped Clutch Pedal on one occasion & on another they pulled my crashed car from a ditch... Giving that an average tow would be EUR 90.00 - EUR 125.00, so I've got my monies worth so far....

bazz26

SlabMurphy wrote: »

Thinking of Joining AA Ireland. Are the benefits worth it. Is there any pitfalls or anyone had bad experiences with them ??

Check your insurance policy, alot of policies have a breakdown recovery option.

Ferris

craichoe wrote: »

I think your better off using the money you'd spend on the AA to maintain your car.

Nice thing about the AA is that its you thats covered, not your car. That means if your wife/da/ma/girlfriend/barman has a car problem they'll tow it so long as you are physically there.

Anan1

SlabMurphy wrote: »

Fair enough but with the bloody problems I'm having they'll be sick of me Cann't seem to go one of the street to the other without the F**King breaking down :mad:

There's your answer.;)

itarumaa

I got nothing than positive things to say about AA,

if you have an unworthy car like me, definitely worth of the money.

oclugg

We pay 11 euro a month. Back in April, around 7pm, the car wouldn't start on the St Stephen's green parking bay. We freaked out then remembered AA, a quick call, 10 minutes later a guy arrives on a motor bike and had us on the road in 5 minutes. As we all know, there's a lot of ripping off in Ireland at the moment but for me, 2.75 a week for that kind of peace of mind is one hell of a bargain.

Darragh29

Ferris wrote: »

Nice thing about the AA is that its you thats covered, not your car. That means if your wife/da/ma/girlfriend/barman has a car problem they'll tow it so long as you are physically there.

I don't know how they still have this rule in operation. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen people in this situation who have no AA membership, with their car after breaking down, the first thing they do is start ringing around for a relative/friend with AA membership for a free recovery! They get that person to come to the scene and presto, out comes the AA man and talks to who he thinks is the driver!

pburns

Yeah, but what's their coverage like outside the sticks? Say Kildare/Laois/Offaly?

L1011

Rescued my mam from the sticks of Kildare when a head gasket blew in the 90s. Nobody in the family has called them out since, those with older cars are doing the Bangernomics theory that paying for the AA is wasting money (they just call ME to rescue them!) and those of us with newer cars have AA coverage free from Fiat Ireland anyway.

Ferris

Darragh29 wrote: »

I don't know how they still have this rule in operation. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen people in this situation who have no AA membership, with their car after breaking down, the first thing they do is start ringing around for a relative/friend with AA membership for a free recovery! They get that person to come to the scene and presto, out comes the AA man and talks to who he thinks is the driver!

A friend of mine (AA member) used it to get his sisters car towed earlier this year, from Belfast to Dublin! He drove up and she drove his car back.

itarumaa

I think that if you get the extra option they will tow your car basically anywhere in Ireland to home,

They did tow my car from Dublin 15 - Celbridge with no charge, but I think that is in the limits (if you dont have any extras)

homer90

pburns wrote: »

Yeah, but what's their coverage like outside the sticks? Say Kildare/Laois/Offaly?

Top notch, as they also use local mechanics that are on call

Redderneck

Well worth it. I suppose if you have a brand new (Japanaese/Korean) car, you could forego membership for a year or two if shekels are tight; but if you're driving something which is out of warranty, or troublesome, or an Alfa Romeo/FIAT/French yoke (any Alfa Romeo regardless of age), then money well spent.

L1011

Both an Alfa and a Fiat would have it for four years free with the car, with 'the intention you'll never need to call them' as Fiat Ireland's CEO said. New ones are *not* unreliable.

Redderneck

MYOB wrote: »

Both an Alfa and a Fiat would have it for four years free with the car, with 'the intention you'll never need to call them' as Fiat Ireland's CEO said. New ones are *not* unreliable.

Fair enough if they are offering 'free' AA membership with new Alfas & Fiats. Proper order too.

"You'll never need to call them"? Sorry; not buying what he's selling/you're buying. I've owned a 156 & a 166. Good pal a 156 & now 159. Brother a series of various Alfas. You need to love them to buy a second/subsequent Alfa. Certainly Alfa's & FIATs have improved, but from such low starting points as to make a mockery of any claim that they are now magically 'reliable.' Less unreliable is my take.

daveharnett

I thought that most of the big insurers had breakdown assist now?

unkel

I've been an AA member for many years and I've only very positive experiences with them.

L1011

Redderneck wrote: »

Fair enough if they are offering 'free' AA membership with new Alfas & Fiats. Proper order too.

"You'll never need to call them"? Sorry; not buying what he's selling/you're buying. I've owned a 156 & a 166. Good pal a 156 & now 159. Brother a series of various Alfas. You need to love them to buy a second/subsequent Alfa. Certainly Alfa's & FIATs have improved, but from such low starting points as to make a mockery of any claim that they are now magically 'reliable.' Less unreliable is my take.

42000 miles on a Panda (mine being replaced next week by a Panda100), never broke down, never had a non-service, non-accident repair.

80000km on a Grande Punto (father), servicing, rear shocks and 4 tyres; never broken down.

75000km on a diesel Panda (mother), was sold with a damaged manifold gasket that caused some funny acceleration issues - was fixed under warranty and no problems since.

The 156 is an OLD car (and the later models were a world above the older ones), as is the 166. You cannot compare them to a car they sell now, at all.

--amadeus--

The took a 1960's Merc saloon from close to Cambridge all teh way back to Limerick on teh back of a flatbed truck and gave me a free hire car for the journey home a few years ago. I've lost count of teh number of tows and dig-outs I've had off them (so much that I was on first name terms with the local AA man! )

Only limit - AFAIK - is you can only have 7 free tows in a year. Membership has lapsed now as I'm not doing distance in teh classic anymore but I'd reccomend it.

Zube

[sigh]

I have owned a succession of French and Italian cars for 20 years, have never been in the AA, and have never needed anything bar a jump start. This includes a 205, Alfa 155, Fiat Seicento and Multipla, two Clios and a Kangoo.

Most people are never let down by any reasonably new, well maintained car, and the difference between a "shockingly bad" marque like Alfa and a top marque like Toyota is quite small, in terms of actual breakdowns suffered by customers.

Tabnabs

One thing they won't help you out with is if you put petrol into a diesel engine.

You ring the AA man, no problem he says, unfortunately we can't do it because we have no where to dispose of the mixture, but I know a man who can. 2 or 3 hours later a harassed looking man in a van turns up (harassed because it's the 7th call out he's had today!) does the job and lightens your wallet by a couple hundred quid.:(

Redderneck

MYOB wrote: »

42000 miles on a Panda (mine being replaced next week by a Panda100), never broke down, never had a non-service, non-accident repair.

80000km on a Grande Punto (father), servicing, rear shocks and 4 tyres; never broken down.

75000km on a diesel Panda (mother), was sold with a damaged manifold gasket that caused some funny acceleration issues - was fixed under warranty and no problems since.

The 156 is an OLD car (and the later models were a world above the older ones), as is the 166. You cannot compare them to a car they sell now, at all.

Yup; they're 'old' cars. But they are cars which I have personal experience of having driven. So to say that I cannot compare them to cars they sell now is nonsense. I can & I will; just as your personal experience with FIATs has been exemplary and you base your opinion on that. Which is fair enough.

There are a world of factors which will impact on any car's reliabilty; the mileages ebing covered on a daily basis, the duration of the average journeys, regualr maintenance or not, quality of dealer back-up, road surfaces/weather conditions, driving style etc. I put up big miles on a good mix of roads and would not dream of not having AA membership, whether it came via my pocket via dealer or directly from me.

If I were pottering about doing mainly short commutes, then as long as I was servicing it regularly, then I might not bother with it. Maybe I should have said "if you were driving something brand new (especially Japanese/Korean) you could forego membership...!!!" - maybe then it wouldn;t have been taken as some sort of personal affront by happy FIAT owners.

Redderneck

The FIAT Panda has improved markedly if the Top Gear Survey is anything to go by. 8th place overall in Driver Satisfaction Survey late 2006/early 2007. But it's the exception which proves the rule.

http://www.topgear.com/content/carsurvey/2006/features/01/1.html

Still pointing to Japan/Asia for reliability and thumbs down to France (especially) & Italy.

Still - when you're asked to rate your own car, as with this survey methodology, not many are going to say I'm driving a right dog, as the inference is that you must be a right eejit to have bought a dog in the first place. Plus it's really only the petrolheads who'll respond to such a survey so it may not reflect the regular punter. Meh...

Zube

Redderneck wrote: »

Still - when you're asked to rate your own car, as with this survey methodology, not many are going to say I'm driving a right dog, as the inference is that you must be a right eejit to have bought a dog in the first place.

It's the other way around. When asked to rate their car, people give it low marks because the dealer is sh!te, or there's a squeak somewhere, or because it's all they can afford and they wish they had a BMW.

Survey people on how many times their car has let them down, and it'd be a different picture.

Tragedy

So to say that I cannot compare them to cars they sell now is nonsense.

Are you for real?

I bought a dairy milk 15 years ago, it smelt funny. Dairy Milk today smells funny even though I havent bought one in 15 years, TRUE FACTS.

January

If you buy your membership direct from AA then it covers you and not the car.

If the car you bought came with AA membership then unfortunatly it only covers the car and not you.

If you have insurance (home or motor) with AA then you get a discount on your membership (€67 for the year instead of the usual €130). You also in turn may get a discount on your motor insurance and you get a 20% discount on your home insurance at each renewal.

You also get membership to the AA Members Club. Which gives you discounts on things like hotels, Advanced Pitstop, 3 Ireland and the new eTrip toll tag (25€ free parking and a discount on the monthly admin fee I think).

You also get a discount on the new Car Data Check facility available on the website and if your buying a car and want to get it checked by a mechanic, they give you a discount for that too.

Holsten

Deffo worth it, only around 100e or abouts.

LFCFan

Have used them 4 times now. Once for 2 blown headlights at night. Got one working so I could get home. Twice for dead batteries. Once on my car, once on my wifes car. And once for my brother when his key no longer disengaged the immobiliser. They even text you when the mechanic is on their way to you. Always polite and always ontime. Can't fault them one bit. Have my Car and Home insurance with them too and they were cheaper then everyone else for that too.

GarC77

I joined them last Christmas and this year have called them three times.

Twice for batteries and once for a relentless alarm that I could not shut down on a Friday night outside the house.
They even came back on the Monday to collect the car in order to bring it to my garage to have the alarm fixed. As my car is low (I should have told them) they had to go back and get a flat bed truck. This was no problem for them.

I found them to be prompt, friendly and efficient.

It was the best €126 I have spent on my cars (and piece of mind).