hi there,

please can somebody help, i need to get home via my car from valencia to london. my car is old, and i am concerned about driving without breakdown cover. I had AA on the way here, which covered me for that specific journey, i was not expecting to return!, now i need to and cannot get AA as the car is in spain and you must be in england to get that cover. does anyone have any idea how to help me, i only need cover for one day to get me to bilbao

many thanks

Simone waller

Hi Simone;

Dont think this is going to help much…

Breakdown cover in Spain is normally included in the Spanish Car Insurance relating to the vehicle, under the heading ‘Assistencia de Viaje.’ If you have Spanish insurance on the car it might be worth checking it out.

Is the car still on English plates? Is the UK road tax and UK MOT up to date? Do you have an address in England… If the answer to these questions is yes then there is no particular reason why the AA or RAC shouldn’t give breakdown cover for the car and include European Cover.

However… If the answer is no regarding UK Road Tax and MOT then you cannot legally drive the car anywhere in Europe anyway… so the question of breakdown assistance would be irrelevant anyway. Again if it is on English plates and the tax /  MOT is out of date, even if you make it to Bilbao unscathed, you can expect some serious problems / questions if you encounter a stroppy Customs or Borders Agency inspector when you arrive in Portsmouth or Plymouth.

It’s a horrible Catch 22 situation… can’t get road tax without an MOT, but can’t legally drive to an MOT station without road tax.

Not much help!

fb

HI FB

THANKS FOR THAT, I AM TOTALLY LEGAL I HAVE UP TO DATE TAX, MOT AND insurance, all british, i am legal to drive here and home. the trouble is AA or RAC wont cover you if you are not in england, i did think i could probably lie and say i was leaving from uk on 5 april for example and returning on 15th april get cover for the 2 weeks and only use it on my return if the car breaks down. trouble is when i broke down on the way here, and it actually came to towing me all those promises of how easy it would be were rubbish and i had a terrible time convincing them. i had to confirm my dates of travel, ferry crossing arrival times etc, and even then it was touch and go wether or not they would tow me. in the end they did but i dont really want to be in that situation again with a big fat lie on my shoulders which could get me in a fix

any ideas

S x

Totally understand your feelings on the matter…
When we moved here many moons ago we did so in a 30ft American Motorhome… which broke down once in France and then again near San Sebastian.
Finished up on the back of HGV heavy recovery vehicles on both occasions…
First time cost us 400?, the second breakdown eventually transpired to be terminal and we had to fork out over 4000? to get the thing transported from San Sebastian to Granada. Because of the age of the vehicle we had been unable to arrange breakdown insurance so the whole thing was a total disaster.

Forget Europ Assist; despite the name they too only provide cover for UK residents.

You might like to take a look at http://www.racc.es/externos/microsites/asist/socio2/asistencia-en-carretera.php This may be a solution; looks to be about the same as the RAC but you may need to take out cover for a year… if you put the url into google translate you can get an English translation if you need it; simply click on the link that appears in the translated window…

We rang them when we broke down, even though we were not members (we were desperate for help!) and it was they who arranged for our long haul transit across Spain.

Hope this helps… just a point… have you considered talking to your UK insurers? Maybe they might have some suggestions.

Good Luck

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