Breakdown for classic cars travelling to Europe

[alfabeat]

Hello. It's not quite a classic, but my Alfa 156 GTA is now 20 years old and I'm struggling to find breakdown cover for two trips I have planned to Europe.

The first is to Ireland in October, then to Le Mans in June next year.

Everywhere I try doesn't cover vehicles over 16 years old.

Any pointers?

Thanks

[Riley Blue]

Britannia Rescue may be worth contacting: https://www.lv.com/breakdown-cover/european-breakd...

[alfabeat]

Thank you. Will give them a call later today.

[Fessia fancier]

You could also try Classic car insurance which can give access to cheap breakdown cover

[tight fart]

Nationwide Flexi account worth looking at, £13 a month and you get
Europe wide breakdown cover.

[Squadrone Rosso]

My S4 Spider is insured through the AROC Scheme with Chris Knot Insurance. They do European wide breakdown for a reasonable fee.

Had to use it too in Cannes when the clutch pivot arm broke. No drama at all. Local Alfisti recommended a garage, car was recovered there and fixed. Enjoyed the rest of the trip.

[Carsie]

I used Rescuemycar.com for my XK.

5* Defaqto rating, 14 day cover £75. Thought it a good deal considering French towing charges off their motorways.

Having said that the Jag has been bulletproof all these years.

[alfabeat]

Thank you for all the suggestions! I have always winged it in the past and always given a sigh of relief when getting onto the ferry/train...!

[//j17]

As Fessia fancier said give some of the classic car insurers a call as there's a good chance that not only will they cover your car on a classic policy but will also give you ~30 days EU insurance and breakdown cover AND a lower premium than you're currently paying.

[TypeR]

I opened up a bank account with Nationwide just before my road trip to Tuscany. I took my 20 year old GTV.
Their Plus account gives you Euro breakdown cover, (any car) travel insurance and cover for gadgets too.
It costs £13.00 a month.
When I got back home, I closed the bank account.

[scottos]

My old bmw is insured with A-Plan Thatcham branch and includes euro break down cover with AXA. I've only had to use it twice in a few years and both in the UK, they've been good both times.

[david.h]

Many "Classic" insurers include continental recovery as standard. My insurer's was through RAC.
HOWEVER in the small print tyres and the consequences of tyre failure are specifically excluded by the RAC together with any consequential losses (delay, car hire, hotels etc).
I had two catastrophic punctures within 3 hours in Germany and had to source "unusual" sized tyres and tubes which took a few days. The insurance did pay for the recovery off the Autobahn (about £200), which was something!
Cost me (not including the tyres/tubes, delivery & fitting which I expected to have to pay for) three days unexpected hotel stay - in a place I did NOT want to be, a car hire and an amendment fee on the ferry! Not cheap.
I think this exclusion is applied generally, not just to old classics.
Be warned.
David

Edited by david.h on Wednesday 14th September 12:01

Edited by david.h on Wednesday 14th September 12:02

[Woody.GT]

Got cover through AA this year to take my '72 Alfa to LeMans and have used them in past too. When I broke down last time in France in my '92 Saab 900 Turbo they were reasonably helpful, however what did come out in the small print is they take it to a garage of their choice, if that garage cannot fix it or it needs repatriation then they would only cover the cost of repatriation up to 50% of value of the car. It could be argued that my 270,000 mile Saab was only worth a few grand and repatriation could easily slip into 50% of that.

[mike9009]

I always get annual European breakdown cover for my 1982 VW T25 through my insurance company. (Currently Just Kampers). It cost £90 (from memory).

For the first time ever, I needed to call them out this summer with a blow out in Brittany. Breakdown service came out within 50 minutes of finishing the call. ( The call was a little tricky as they wanted my precise location - which was excruciating difficult. They kept asking me if I could see any landmarks, couldn't find via lat/ long and wouldn't accept that I was heading north between X junction and y junction on a dual carriageway.......aaaarrrgggghhhh) The noise from the traffic made the conversation even more tricky. I thought they could find your location from the telephone call triangulation.....or is that science fiction???

Anyway delayed by about 90 minutes having been taken from the dual carriageway to somewhere a little safer to change the tyre..... which was pretty good.

[9xxNick]

If you join Boundless (formerly the Civil Service Motoring Association) you can take advantage of their deal with LV to get very good value European breakdown recovery cover which has no age limitation on the car.

Boundless membership is now very open so you don't need to be a public sector worker to qualify.

Their deal with LV also seems to offer very good value car insurance too, with other types of insurance also available.

[GoodOlBoy]

I insure with Classicline and breakdown insurance is standard.

[nvubu]

I'm have a personal policy directly with the RAC which covers unlimited cars for me and my wife - no age limit to the cars, both in the UK and in Europe, I also had a policy via the travel package with my bank, but that was car age restricted.

The RAC flew me and the family home from Slovenia when my modern car broke down the day before we were due to start our journey home, and then they flew me back out a week later once repaired.