Tips & Advice

AA Breakdown Winter Offer – Time To Join?

I needed to renew the UK breakdown cover for my motorhome the other day and was poised to continue with my existing company when I realised I should get one or two competing quotes.

I hopped over to The AA’s website and found that it is running a winter offer, with “up to 42% off”. I was very happy to be offered Roadside, Relay and Home Start cover for my campervan for just £99. Although there are cheaper breakdown services around, I like The AA and it claims to fix more breakdowns at the roadside than any other organisation – which alone is a good advert for their patrols.

As we’re talking about motorhomes, I should mention the size restrictions that apply to AA’s standard UK breakdown cover. At the time of writing, based on my policy documents (please check for yourself before purchasing), the only restrictions seem to be:

  • Up to 3.5 tonnes
  • Maximum vehicle width 2.3m (7′ 6″)

Motorhomes are acceptable as long as they fall within these measurements – which basically means that any 3.5t panel van conversion and some coachbuilts can use this service.

European Breakdown Cover

While we’re on the subject of breakdown cover, I should mention the AA’s European Breakdown service. I have had cause to use this, once in the event of an accident abroad, and (in my personal experience) it is a truly excellent service. Needless to say, I remain an AA European Breakdown customer.

The operations end of the service is run from an office in Lyons, France (I believe), completely separately from the UK breakdown operation. The operations staff all speak English and usually several other European languages. They are very helpful, fairly flexible and pretty reliable.

The last time I checked, the AA’s European breakdown service will cover campervans and motorhomes are covered as long as they fall within the following restrictions (valid at time of writing, please check for yourself):

  • Maximum weight of 3.5 tonnes
  • Maximum length 7 metres
  • Maximum width 2.3 metres
  • Maximum height 3 metres

The vast majority of Europe is covered, including almost all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Highly recommended.