There are no longer any versions of the coupe in the UK which are younger than ten years old. This is a problem when it comes to recovery services...

You may recall Joe's issue with a major UK recovery group after Spa last year, when he was told his car would not be recovered since the price of repair or recovery was greater than the value of the car.

I have been investigating possibilities since I drive on the continent quite often; in particular, I'm driving to Berlin over xmas and the new year. Obviously I want some cover. In this case, I'll be taking the 20vt for the winter tyres and the viscous coupling as well as the better economy than the 16NA.

Here's the problem: *every* company appears to restrict recovery costs to the value of the car - irrespective of premium paid...

Eurotunnel: £96/fortnight - Return of vehicle to the UK if unrepairable: Up to current market value of vehicle

Green Flag: (I'm an old customer with the original company) £88/fortnight - will only return if the cost of recovery is less than the market value of the car, though they will recover the car to a local garage, ship out parts, and recover me in both directions.

Direct Line (which is who you get if you try and buy Green Flag these days, too) - Returning you and your car to home address: Market Value

AA Older vehicle supplement for six year or older cars... To recover Your Vehicle to the UK or onward to Your original destination (but only where cost of recovery does not exceed Your Vehicle’s current market value) or Vehicle collection – one person’s costs to collect after repair overseas

RAC Vehicle repatriation to the territory
– will not be available if the market value is less than the cost of repatriating the Insured Vehicle. See pages 28 and 37 for further details.
– will not cover the cost of repatriation if Your Insured Vehicle is roadworthy; or the first £250 of any claim made. See pages 21 and 29 for further details.

The problem is that the value of a coupe - irrespective of how much we've spent on it - is likely to be considered under a couple of thousand in most cases. In many cases, that's going to be less than the recovery cost. I don't know how to get around this one...

People have spoken of ADAC - but their English language page restricts membership to people living in Germany. I'll get Anita on the site later to see what they have to say.

Even better, no-one I spoke to would deal with anything over fifteen years old... so that's the 16NA stuck on this side of the water, then.

Options?

Risk it and if it does break down hire a towing dolly and tow it back.

I cannot give you any useful advice here other than tell you these were pretty much my findings when I checked last year.
What was more worrying was the lack of any company I dealt with to actually give me a book price for the car or tell me where they get this price from.

Some company's will let you pay towards the recovery costs if it goes over the book price of the car but I came to the conclusion that if your coupé breaks down over seas then unless your lucky or in a situation like Joe was then your likely to end up with no coupé and a small amount of money

(Im talking about recovery from Germany, Austria ect, you will probably be ok if you were in France)

I'm going to Berlin - motorway/autoroute/autobahn all the way. Like you, I couldn't get an agreed value...

Heritage don't list continental recovery but I filled in the form; we'll see what happens.

Joe, how much do you charge per mile?

Neil

Have you tried Brittania?

I have used them for the last 10 years as I travel to France each year.
The one time my 12 year old Land Rover broke down they were excellent. They tried to repair it, provided a taxi to the car hire company, used the hire car for 2 weeks. They could not fix the car (head gasket gone) so they arrange 5 flights from Bordeaux to Cardiff at the end of our stay. The direct flights were full so we all flew to Paris, then Shipol (1st class) and Cardiff. When we arrived at the Cardiff a hire car was waiting for us all and I was able to keep it for 2 weeks until the Landy was re-patriated home.
All for the annual fee of £79

There was never any mention of vehicle value?

Their cover also provides UK cover too.

The current cost for this is £130, but if you join CSMA for £15 it gets discounted to about £60 or £70 IIRC. (you are probably already a member through BBC affiliation)

Brittania

If you have an agreed value on your car insurance policy, does that not go some way towards proving the market value of your car?

I may be wrong on this, but isn't the whole point of an agreed value that it is higher than the market value (as most policies should pay out market value anyway). I know there are arguments over what the market value is, but in principle I think this is the case?

The issue is that the recovery companies will neither agree a value nor tell you what value they're using.

For example: a coupe which has had belts, chod, clutch, new snow tyres, a recent service etc is worth easily fifteen hundred quid more than one of the same vintage bought off ebay with no history... but it's the price of the latter that informs the market value.

Don't know if it's changed or you were just lucky but their terms say lower of transport costs or market value. It does say the value comes from the Glass guide though.

I seem to recal BarmyBob using a german or dutch recovery outfit. Also if you use say a German,French Dutch company etc they may value the car to European coupe prices,which makes your average 20vt worth about 5,000 euros.

RAC uses Glasses

If you did get stuck out there,i have a car trailor now.

I have always used ADAC (German)

Not needed to be recovered with them but have used them in the UK for a breakdown.

I do though have three former colleagues, who own vehicle repair outfits in Germany, and have a friend with a Barn in Holland. If I ever were in the dodo and couldn't get the car home I would have it recovered to one of these guys.

Nice to know you'd be OK Bob!

We would pick it up at £2 per mile plus ferry costs.

Hmmm. Potentially a thousand miles each way...

discount for fccuk members? one car at a time? bringing it to Spa??

We've got a 3 car truck that might come in handy.

That's why the boss is running around in a new Bentley :-)

Has this always been the case?

Around 15 years ago we broke down at the bottom of Spain in my dads 'ageing' Rover SD1. The CSMA gave us a lovely hire car for 2 weeks, towed the Rover back home and popped it on the drive, then had a taxi waiting at Dover to drive us home.

I'm sure the SD1 wasn't worth that much (even if it had a 3.9 v8 stuffed in it).