Anyone got a recommendation ?

Been quoted £70 from Greenflag for a 1 week trip to Italy or about £120 for a year.

Anyone got anything better?

Check carefully with green flag (and everybody else) - they may give you a quote but most don't deal with cars over 10 years old.

Even if they do, you'll find you're in a situation where they won't recover the car if the cost of repair and/or recovery is more than the book value of the car... seriously ungood.

Best bet I found was the classic insurance including euro recovery from Sarah on here.

Give me a call

Ok will do. Cheers.

Greenflag will cover >10years, but the price goes up.

Go with ADAC the German AA. It's about £90 a year and they are excellent, you get the AA in the UK and it is the driver that is covered, not the car, so old heaps accepted!

Mr. barnacle wont be too pleased to be called an "old heap", or did you mean the Coupe?

Oi!

And, Oi!

I meant my 3 old heaps; T reg Merc V8, P reg 328 and '99 coupe...all worth less than £3k together.

Around £60 a year Europe and UK from Sarah's firm for my 18.5 year old coupe with guaranteed repatriation irrespective of cost/car value.

Not keen on the AA's UK prices either, so gave them the heave for both cars last year.

Pete - do you have to take car Insurance out to get this recovery deal or can it be taken separately ?

It can be taken out separately Mike, it's just convenient to do the two together.

I have my Grande Punto on their UK breakdown and recovery cover even though it is currently insured elsewhere.

Thanks Pete, I think I will take this out, and not renew my RAC

Erm, how on earth did you manage that? I was a bit disappointed with the quote from Sarah. She told me that as my coupe is "an old car"' ( mine is a year 2000, so 4.5 years younger than yours), that the repatriation costs would be more than that value of the car. Therefore possibly not enough to cover repatriation. It was £67 which is only £3 cheaper than Green Flag. Obviously I'll need to check the policy wording.. but not quite what I was hoping for

It possibly depends on whether you have agreed value insurance or not.

Ah... I see. I would be going for a standalone BD cover.

Thanks Pete.

I am insured with Glynwood and enquired about their Breakdown Cover. They sent me through the European recovery policy document and it states - "Limited to the value of the vehicle being UK Glass’s guide"

If you have an agreed value policy this limit is £2000 max.

Now that figure should be good for most of Europe but it could become an issue if you were say going to Italy!

My German is rusty but my understanding of the ADAC rules are, if the car breaks down you’ll be recovered to the nearest garage. That Garage then has five days to fix the problem, regardless of cost. If the garage were unable to repair the car, in those 5 days, the car would then be repatriated.

There is also a company called ACE , in Germany. They offer a similar service but their garage limit is 3 days before repatriating. They are also a little cheaper.

What I can’t find in either of their small print is any mention of limits to the cost of repatriation of vehicles to their homes. I also need to clarify if both these services will also offer repatriation of vehicles to the UK.

I have asked a friend in Germany to look into this for us.

Just to be clear.....

The European Breakdown policy offered here at Glynwood for £67, currently,is:-

- vehicle specific, so only covers the vehicle insured under it
- has no vehicle age restriction
- provides Repatriation Cover upto £2000

Please remember that a Breakdown policy is what it says a Breakdown Policy - it is mean as something to get you back on the road to continue your journey following a breakdown. Yes they will repatriate you back to the UK if there is no option of repairing the car or the car can't be repaired within the specified timescales.

The policy wording obviously explains in more detail the cover benefits and limits and I would suggest that you familiarise yourself with this along with any other insurance documents before a journey so you are fully aware of the benefits and restrictions, regardless of who your insurance is with.

Regards
Sarah

Knowing what happened to one of our members previously, after a significant motor problem, I am just after ensuring that I would be covered, if possible.

Should I suffer a similar problem during the Italy trip I would hate to loose a car for not being properly covered.

My friend, a german garage owner and ACE agent, spoke to both the ADAC & ACE today. Both companies said they would cover UK based customers / vehicles.

They both cover the person - not any specific Vehicle.

Both would, in the first instance, recover a car to a garage for repair work. ADAC have a 5 day repair limit, ACE three days. Both said that they can decide sooner that a vehicle can't be fixed during those times and recover it to the owners home or a garage.

Should a vehicle require repatriation both stated they would limit costs, based on vehicle market values - in Germany.

So, it sounds like ADAC/ACE are more likely to repatriate our coupes?

All UK companies will just claim car is not worth repatriating and give you a train/plane ticket home which you can use to wave goodbye to your car with?

The mainstream ones - perhaps, much less likely with the specialist classic policies.

Can anybody identify a UK company that will not use 'market value' or limit repatriation costs? 'Up to £2000' or 'market value' may not be enough to repatriate from Italy and be used as a cheap get-out clause.

Call me cynical, but I know what the insurance company will prefer to do. And it won't involve your car coming back home.

Surely Joe (FCSS) will bring an entire set of replacement parts (including new engine) in the boot of his Coupe?

Problem solved.



Or, are we taking the "Top Gear Approach" and leaving our Coupe colleagues on the side of the road in a cloud of steam and dribbling oil?

Seriously though, could we consider sharing phone numbers for the trip and bring a few spares with us so that if the worst happens (and we are close by), we could help eachother out? I'm talking about small items like spare injectors, coil packs, CHOD, belts (not cam obviously since the engine would be toast), crank positions sensors etc. I can bring a semi-functional MAF for a VIS which would get someone back on the road. Plus my old cam position sensor which works most of the time !

Like another famous trip to Turin, we'll also be a "Self-Preservation Society"

Exactly. Keep away from coaches and mountain passes though.

Still looking for a company offering EU breadown and repatriation without using the market value cost of the car.

Anyone found one yet? I bet some of the classic car places offer it.

Have you tried Equity Red Star?

I have looked at this many times for the Club and there appears to be nothing in the UK out there that offers unlimited repatriation cover. Which sounds to me like you are after. All policies have limits.

Like I have said before a Breakdown policy is taken out to get your car repaired and back on the road in the event of a breakdown, so with this in mind this IS what the policy offers. Repatriation cover is there should the car not be able to be repaired, the policy shouldn't just be taken out based on this cover as this is not what it is there for.

Hi Sarah, thanks for the help.

The difficulty I (and others) will have is that the Coupe isn't worth enough to get it repatriated. It seems a shame (and a gap in the market perhaps) that you can't pay a slightly higher premium to have unlimited repatriation. I am not insured with Glynwood - since I have a multicar policy elsewhere, so I am probably stuck.

With EU cover, I always look for repatriation cover, so for me, it is a proportion of what the cover is for. Breakdown cover is just another form of insurance after all. So I am not sure I agree that breakdown cover shouldn't be judged on repatriation as well. Unless I'm misunderstanding.