How To Choose The Best Car Breakdown Cover

Breakdown cover offers peace of mind, but you need to choose the right policy. Follow our tips to ensure you’re not left stranded at the roadside

- Claire Evans

VIRTUALLY ALL NEW cars come with at least a year’s breakdown cover, and many second-hand ones are sold with 12 months’ cover, too, but once that time is up you’re on your own.

To ensure you don’t get stranded at the roadside or landed with a hefty recovery fee if your car breaks down, it’s worth investing in breakdown cover. Although the recovery services do offer emergency assistance to non-members, it’s cheaper – and less stressful – to buy cover up front.

With a wide range of policies on offer, finding the best cover for you can be a time-consuming task. To make it easier, we’ve rounded up the different offerings and explain the costs and pros and cons of each.

Manufacturers tend to offer competitively priced deals due to partnerships with major breakdown cover providers, such as the AA, Green Flag and RAC. These deals can have drawbacks though, such as a clause in the small print that states the car has to be serviced by a franchised dealer. It’s therefore important to check the terms and conditions before you buy.

What are the different types of breakdown cover?

If you opt for a non-manufacturer breakdown policy there are two types of cover: vehicle and personal. Vehicle cover is the cheaper option and only provides assistance for the car named in the policy. Personal cover provides assistance to one person for more than one car; it’s slightly pricier than vehicle cover, but far cheaper than buying two separate car policies, so it’s worth considering if you drive more than one car. There are three levels of cover to choose from, plus a range of additional extras that can be added. These are: 

Roadside assistance