50 things to do in Cork when you're dead

Avatar MIA

Driving my wife's pug 206 (Alfa is in the garage) and the car is after breaking down. I suspect the fuel pump. Everything else is ticking over.

Rang the AA (comprehensive insurance) and no breakdown assist on the policy. Used to take this for granted on comp policies. Probably serves me right for assuming AA of all people have it. Have called a local recovery company, so just waiting...

Second time breaking down, first time was Alfa related. It's not fun. Entertain me while my battery lasts.

colm_mcm

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Driving my wife's pug 206 (Alfa is in the garage) and the car is after breaking down. I suspect the fuel pump. Everything else is ticking over.

Rang the AA (comprehensive insurance) and no breakdown assist on the policy. Used to take this for granted on comp policies. Probably serves me right for assuming AA of all people have it. Have called a local recovery company, so just waiting...

Second time breaking down, first time was Alfa related. It's not fun. Entertain me while my battery lasts.

porsche boy

So you have a Peugeot and an Alfa Romeo and you didn't think roadside assistance might be of use??? Ah lad.

Avatar MIA

porsche boy wrote: »

So you have a Peugeot and an Alfa Romeo and you didn't think roadside assistance might be of use??? Ah lad.

I've the Alfa 8 years and the pug 10 years, both from new. First problem with the pug. If you read my post you'll see we thought we had breakdown assist. Don't think we'll be troubling the AA come the renewal date.

Avatar MIA

colm_mcm wrote: »

Was the broken link symbolic

Alun

Avatar MIA wrote: »

If you read my post you'll see we thought we had breakdown assist. Don't think we'll be troubling the AA come the renewal date.

The AA are just a broker, not an insurance company.

Avatar MIA

Alun wrote: »

The AA are just a broker, not an insurance company.

The Insurance company is Allianz, which we were with previously, but through the AA we lost breakdown assist.

Del2005

Alun wrote: »

The AA are just a broker, not an insurance company.

I got junk mail through the door from AA saying that they'd match any quote. Rang them up and got a quote, more than my renewal. Then I asked about recovery and they said I could get AA recovery separately, complete scam and the only company I've got a quote from in years that don't offer recovery as part of the policy.

punisher5112

Did you put a match to it yet????

Avatar MIA

Del2005 wrote: »

I got junk mail through the door from AA saying that they'd match any quote. Rang them up and got a quote, more than my renewal. Then I asked about recovery and they said I could get AA recovery separately, complete scam and the only company I've got a quote from in years that don't offer recovery as part of the policy.

Yeah, lesson learned

ba_barabus

Del2005 wrote: »

I got junk mail through the door from AA saying that they'd match any quote. Rang them up and got a quote, more than my renewal. Then I asked about recovery and they said I could get AA recovery separately, complete scam and the only company I've got a quote from in years that don't offer recovery as part of the policy.

I was with them years ago. They went one better with me. They forgot to switch my insurance over to a new car after I rang them to do so. Fortunately I had an email stating I was covered from them. They confirmed the call had been placed but never fully explained why they left me driving a car with no cover for 2 months.

Alun

Avatar MIA wrote: »

The Insurance company is Allianz, which we were with previously, but through the AA we lost breakdown assist.

Del2005 wrote: »

Then I asked about recovery and they said I could get AA recovery separately, complete scam and the only company I've got a quote from in years that don't offer recovery as part of the policy.

Since one of the AA's raisons d'etre is providing breakdown assistance that should hardly come as a huge surprise.

The policies AA provide through any of their providers, be that Allianz, Aviva or whatever, don't exactly match those provided by the same providers when approached directly.

Rubberchikken

insured with aviva through AA. when some ninny hit my car and i rang the AA, they failed to pass on the info to aviva. when i rang the aa about this this after wondering why i was hearing nothing, i got no apology no explanation etc.
wont be going back to aa when renewal due no matter what they promise.

Alun

I was insured through the AA previously, via Allianz, Aviva and a few others over the years, but got fed up with the interminable questions asked when I rang up to renew, the answers to which never changed from one year to the next, but they asked every single one every time. Life's too short for that, so went with Allianz Direct and I can do everything online, and for €50 less than what the AA quoted me for Allianz.

chocksaway

So what related story:

the fuel pump in my old polo packed in on the way from Middleton to Kinsale a few years ago. We were down that part of the country for a weekend and said we'd drive out to Kinsale following the sat-nav.

It took us down the most random narrow country roads, but all was good until the car cut out! Rang the insurance company to sort out getting someone to come out, so the transferred me through to their local guy.

Was impossible to direct him to where we were cause it was a kind of no name road in the middle of no where. All I could give them were sat-nav coordinates but their system at the time ran on postal addresses.

Spent 5 hours waiting for him to find us. Girlfriend was not happy. Last time we took the polo anywhere

Avatar MIA

It has transpired to be the timing belt. For the first 8 years life of the car the car was taken to a main dealer with regular servicing - even got the free service in that time. The Timing belt was never changed.

There's loads of lessons being learned here. Not least of which being the wife buying a new car... Suppose 10 years is long enough in fairness. Such a pity, because she was happy with the car and never a bother, and fairly low mileage considering.

FWIW, she's looking at the Kia Sportage - 0% finance and 7 years warranty.