Adac European Breakdown Cover, A Heads Up.

[Goliath 94]

http://www.adac.de/mitgliedschaft/adac_membership/default.aspx#ank84033

 

If you would like to join you can email Petra in English and she will sort it out for you. petra.leyrer@nrh.adac.de

 

Spurred on by Adam's unlucky experience with his headgasket going and having large recovery costs I thought I would put up a thread detailing ADAC cover as not a lot of people seem to know about it.

 

ADAC is a German breakdown company that offer European breakdown cover (including surrounding countries), you can join up as a UK citizen/resident.

 

For 79 Euros (about £69) you can get a years ADAC plus membership. For 98 Euros you can get cover for a 'couple'.

 

They will recover you to a garage, if they cannot fix it that day then they will pay up to 130 Euros per night for a hotel for you. If it cannot be fixed at all (blown engine etc) then they will recover it back to the UK FREE OF CHARGE, even if it is an old banger with little value! If you breakdown in the UK then they will send out the RAC or AA, similarly if you breakdown in other countries they send out local recovery companies.

 

They will also cover the recovery cost if you breakdown/crash on the nurburgring.

 

I have only recently taken out membership myself and I am so glad I have. I have had 1 direct and one indirect dealing with ADAC in the last month, judge for yourself if the service is worth £69!

 

Direct Dealing:

Last week my friend and I were touring Europe in his BMW, we were part way up the Gotthard pass when we noticed it had a flat tyre, being a relatively new BMW it has no spare wheel, only a can of tyre weld (no runflats). We read the tyre weld instructions several times and followed them precisely, all seemed ok at first until we inflated the tyre again as per the instructions. When we started driving again with the freshly 'fixed' and inflated tyre, we got about 100 yds when the tyre exploded. I rang the ADAC, explained we were in the middle of nowhere up a mountain pass, within 45 minutes we were recovered on a trailer and taken back to a garage. They didn't have any suitable tyres in stock to fix it so the ADAC arranged a hotel for us, the hotel was 170 swiss francs which was just over 130 Euros so we had to pay a whole 10 swiss francs (£6) towards the hotel cost, it was however an extremely nice hotel, easily the equivalent of a 4 or 5 star here in the UK. All of this was arranged without question and with urgency. The next morning the car was fixed, we paid the tyre bill and left.

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Indirect Dealing:

At the beginning of August I went on 'retrorun' to the Nurburgring for a week, on the way back some friends in a Metro broke down in Germany, turns out the diff died, they got recovered to an ADAC place in Germany (not sure of waiting times etc). They knew the car couldn't be fixed so the ADAC arranged for the car to be delivered back to the UK, however they said this would take a couple of weeks as they wait until they have a transporter load full to take at once. This left them with the task of getting back home, ADAC were happy to supply a hire car they could take and leave in the UK, however it would cost them 300 Euros (not bad for Germany to UK one way hire), luckily I wasn't too far away in Belgium and just redirected back to Germany to pick them up. However if you were in that situation without a friend to give you a lift 300 Euros is not a bad price (about half what Adam had to pay for a 170 odd mile recovery).

EDIT: Forgot to add that it only took about a week for the metro to get back to the UK

 

 

I highly recommend this to anyone, as far as I can see it is far superior to AA or RAC breakdown cover.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Goliath

[Daz_C 8 1 Cars]

They use the AA in the UK.

Having just had my car contract a terminal illness half way round the Nordschleife I can safely say the ADAC Plus cover was invaluable. At a cost of 200euro+ to be recovered off the ring it has paid for itself.

Although not reading the T's&C's fully I presumed they would only recover the car to the UK if the cars value was more than the cost of recovery.. (as is the case with AA/RAC) so am/was in the process of arranging my own recovery. I'm back home now after grabbing a lift with mates, with the car at the guesthouse we stayed at. I will most definately be ringing ADAC shortly to see if they will recover it back home for me.

 

Cheers for the info re- metro Goliath.

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

Thanks, good to know.

If we can find out whether they will also recover your own car within the uk to your house or somewhere of your own choice then these guys will get my money.

The AA wouldn't cover the 205 abroad when I last checked and were going to charge me £200ish for the E91......on top of membership fee!

[TooMany2cvs 65]

We took out ADAC cover when we buggered off around Europe in the VW - absolute no-brainer, the only outfit we could find that'd give full-year pan-euro cover for a 20+yo camper.

 

We did have some shenanigans when a CV joint fell apart and the dealer they took us to couldn't be arsed to even open the door, but it did all sort itself out in the end.

 

http://wherevertheroadgoes.com/2011/08/09/are-we-making-your-forecourt-look-untidy/

http://wherevertheroadgoes.com/2011/08/15/are-we-making-your-forecourt-look-untidy-part-2/

http://wherevertheroadgoes.com/2011/10/24/are-we-making-your-forecourt-look-untidy-part-3/

 

There's no international recovery that'll pay out more for repatriation than a car's "worth" - but the nice thing is that a German outfit will be thinking more in terms of German-market values, which are considerably higher than UK...

 

We've used them once in the UK, when the 205 spat a rad hose, and the AA rocked up quickly and sorted us with no problem at all. When we rang their "UK number", we were told we needed to ring Germany - but they were quite happy to call us back instantly.

[base-1 17]

If it cannot be fixed at all (blown engine etc) then they will recover it back to the UK FREE OF CHARGE, even if it is an old banger with little value! If you breakdown in the UK then they will send out the RAC or AA, similarly if you breakdown in other countries they send out local recovery companies.

 

They will also cover the recovery cost if you breakdown/crash on the nurburgring.

 

 

There's no international recovery that'll pay out more for repatriation than a car's "worth" - but the nice thing is that a German outfit will be thinking more in terms of German-market values, which are considerably higher than UK...

 

I started out with ADAC precisely for the 'Ring benefits. Some people have had issues getting their cars repatriated though, there isn't just a blanket policy to ship any old s*itter home. As long as you're aware of possibly having to negotiate and possibly have some way of justifying the cost due to rarity or something, you'll be fine. I've been a member over 5 years now and not had to test it yet thankfully!

[Anthony 1,003]

Any ideas/experience roughly how long it takes for membership to come through?

 

I already have European breakdown cover through another policy, but it's rather less comprehensive than the ADAC cover appears to be and thus I'm almost tempted to get this just for peace of mind (and not renew my other policy next year)

[Goliath 94]

It took about a week for my membership to come through

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

yay! Sod off AA with your Gold membership that means nothing to me and your renewal price that is almost double a new members fee.

No longer will I annually ring you up and tell you that and then haggle the price down.

ADAC here we come!

 

 

 

EDIT: just read on PH that within the UK they will only tow a maximum of 50miles from your house. I will try and get this confirmed.

[Goliath 94]

yay! Sod off AA with your Gold membership that means nothing to me and your renewal price that is almost double a new members fee.

No longer will I annually ring you up and tell you that and then haggle the price down.

ADAC here we come!

 

 

 

EDIT: just read on PH that within the UK they will only tow a maximum of 50miles from your house. I will try and get this confirmed.

 

I don't know the answer for sure, but if they will tow your car back to the UK from abroad I don't see why they won't within the UK?

[GilesW 41]

I like the quarterly mag - written in German - that you get. lol

 

 

But yes - if you are travelling in Europe, or at home, it's the only membership worth having.

 

The repatriated my car from the 'ring.

 

Indeed my RAC petrolman mate has it. Think that says loads......

[Weser 30]

Wow when im off in europe with the camper I will be using these guys. So much cheaper and sounds like a quality service.

[TooMany2cvs 65]

EDIT: just read on PH that within the UK they will only tow a maximum of 50miles from your house. I will try and get this confirmed.

They recover you €200-worth of distance maximum, and pay for hirecar/accommodation/other benefits whilst your car's being fixed. If it's not fixable "locally" within 3 days, they recover the car home.

[TurboSam 5]

ADAC didn't want to bring a 205 back from Nurburg in 2011 when a friend crashed.

 

I've got ADAC myself but I wouldn't count on them bringing a 205 back from europe.

Edited August 22, 2013 by TurboSam

[johnhenry 20]

so you're James mate! hah

[Goliath 94]

so you're James mate! hah

So are you You went to Berkhampstead right?

Edited August 23, 2013 by Goliath

[johnhenry 20]

hah yeah! went to primary school with him many years ago! how do you know him?

[Goliath 94]

hah yeah! went to primary school with him many years ago! how do you know him?

 

Cool, weird that he now teaches there! I know him through music stuff

 

P.s. we seem to have gone off topic a tad!

 

P.p.s ADAC is awesome

[Daz_C 8 1 Cars]

ADAC didn't want to bring a 205 back from Nurburg in 2011 when a friend crashed.

 

I've got ADAC myself but I wouldn't count on them bringing a 205 back from europe.

 

I'd just like to thank Goliath for starting this thread, after my 205 contracted a terminal illness at the Nurburgring I was in the process of getting recovery organised which would have cost me between £650 and £800, I felt pretty sure that ADAC would refuse repatriation to the Uk due to age of the car and/or value (in there eyes) so I didn't even persue that route. Anyway I was back home reading Goliaths post and thought bugger it I'll give it a go, so I got on the phone..............anyway forward 2 weeks or so and my little 205 landed back in the Uk/at a garage of my choosing on Tuesday, they wouldn't deliver to a residential address.

Luckily/surprisingly there were no issues trying to convince them that the car was worth recovery back to the Uk, they just rang me and asked for a delivery address after they realised it wasn't fixable.

Adac Plus has saved me over a grand for that weekend all for the pricely annual sum of 79.50euro.