The K Experience

UK vs USA - Automobile Associations

Present - Here and Now

Sunday, 27 January 2008

AAA vs AA

OK, so far all the UK USA comparisons have been in favour of the UK, which seems a little unfair. It's not my intention to do so, and I wil try and make the next UK vs USA entry in favour of the USA, but...

So this is the story. My girlfriend, an owner of a Lexus GS300, 1996 i think (better car than mine), isn't the greatest driver in the world, and has had a fair few scrapes and run ins with concrete posts. When leaving my apartment parking lot last week, she managed to bang the front of the car, on the pole which was right next to her. It was a pretty hard bang too, and it must have loosened something in the engine because the car just wasn't running the same after it. Actually it was hardly running at all. As soon as she banged it, it stalled, and everytime she would start it up, it would stop shortly after.

Now, I was on my way to work, and was already late, so I couldn't stick around to help her sort it out. Anyway she had AAA cover so she decided to wait by the road side for the AAA guy to come and sort it out. It didn't seem like a big problem and I actually told her that it was probably something that had come loose in the engine and wouldn't take long to fix.

About an hour went past and my girlfriend phoned me up to ask if I knew any mechanics in the area.

"Why, has the triple A guy come yet?"
"No, but if the guys not a mechanic he will have to tow me to a garage, so I just wan...."
"Hold on, hold on...If the guy is not a mechanic? who are they gonna send? A chef?"
"No, sometimes they don't send a mechanic, and they can't fix it so they just tow you to the nearest garage."
"So...What do they do? Do they check anything? Do they even look at the engine?"
"Well yea, they check the battery."

How rediculous is that? For those of you who are not familiar with the British version, the AA, let me explain a few experiences I had with my cars in the past.

My Fiat Punto About 2 years ago, when I was living in the UK, I used to drive a beautiful blue W reg (2000) Fiat Punto. It was great. I loved it. My first decent car (my previous one was a white Ford Fiesta I named TJ, which I also loved, but was a rust bucket). The Punto cost me about £2500, and only had 23,000 miles on the clock when I bought it from the dealer. Bargain. Anyway, she usually ran great, but one time on the way home from east London at about 1am in the morning, she decided to cough up her exhaust pipe. I wasn't best pleased. I stopped by the side of the road and called the trusty AA. About an hour later Mr AA guy, a trained mechanic I might add, came along, yanked off the old pipe which was hanging off the undercarage, then went into the back of his van, which was a treasure trove of mechanical equipment and car bits. He came out with a little temporary exhaust pipe thing, a small cylindrical tube about 20cm in length and 10cm in diameter, and he fitted that to the underneath of the car. The whole thing took about 30 minutes, and I had to pay for the tube which was about £6. He did say that I had to go to a garage the next day to get it fixed properly, but if I had the same problem in California, he would only have towed me home, as I don't know any garages that are open at 1pm in any country.

This is not the only time the AA has come to my rescue. TJ (my white Fiesta mentioned earlier) decided not to start one morning, on calling the AA, some guy came round, figured out it was the alternator, tightened it up for me, and I was on my way.

Being California, where everyone drives, and the roads go on for miles and miles, compared to the UK, you would think that the AAA service would be the best in the world, right? So I decided to check out their details online. The following is taken from their website. I have highlighted certain words.

Mechanical First Aid Helps When You're Stuck On The Road
When it is safe, minor repairs may be attempted at the scene to place the vehicle in a drivable condition. These repairs cannot be guaranteed and members should immediately proceed to a repair facility to consult a mechanic. The Auto Club cannot guarantee the availability of repairs. The Auto Club service representative or the independent service provider can assist you in locating a local AAA-approved repair facility upon request.

Compare this to the AA details.

Roadside

This is the minimum level of cover and provides assistance if you are broken down away from home. Our aim is to fix your vehicle and get you on your way, but if we are unable to do this within a reasonable time we will provide a local tow to the nearest suitable repairer.

I would also like to add that with AA membership, you don't have to be the owner or even the driver of the car that has broken down to get road side assistance, you have just to be a passenger (at least that is how it was when I was a member). This is not the case for the AAA. Obviously, this is not an extensive analysis of the two services, but you would at least want them to fix simple problems, which my girlfriend's problem was.

So the AAA guy eventually made his way to my girlfriends car, checked the battery, like she said he would do, (even I knew that it wasn't the battery), and then without doing anything else, towed her to the nearest garage. Upon the mechanics at the garage checking the car, (doing a simple service which cost her about $85) they realized that indeed the bang had disconnected something in the engine, which took less than a minute to find and fix. If she was in England, I'm sure she would have had that done for free.

The main reason I'm ranting on about this, is because my girlfriend ended up paying for a service that the AAA should have catered for, and eventually that $85 would find its way out of my pocket, to make up for her loss.

My Paseo I drive an old Toyota Paseo, which has already done over 208,000 miles. When I bought it, for just over $2000 it was just over 206,000. It runs like a beauty at the moment, and I'm sure it will last me for a decent while, but the mileage says that it would be best to get some automotive road side assistance in case of emergency. Before I found out about the AAA's lack of service I was feeling quite happy about handing over my $50 or so. But now I'm not so sure.