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So if my wife's car breaks down who isn't listed, I can just drive to her then call AAA
Yes. They cover you, not a particular car. They may ask if you were driving it and if you say no, I do not know whether they will cover it (probably not if you tell them you were not even in the car at the time). They never ask IME.
The primary restriction is if you use it too much, they will cancel you. Also, if you use it twice for the same car, they will send you a letter saying they hope you have gotten the car fixed.
In my area, you see tow trucks all over the place that have the AAA Texas logo emblazoned all over them.
Here too, but AAA doesn't own the trucks, they contract with individual tow drivers, my nephew owns a tow company and he negotiates several contracts every year, including AAA. If he doesn't get the AAA contract he would have to take the decals off of his trucks
Find you? Neither AAA nor these other services own tow trucks or repair shops. It's likely the same tow truck that shows up either way.
Maybe I didn't explain my point fully. AAA has shops/tow companies all over the country and I know that there is always someone AAA can call fairly local and they arrive fairly quickly. How can I be sure that will happen with the insurance co or my car warranty roadside assistance? AAA is a proven commodity. For me those other services are not. For $10 dollars a month why would I experiment with an unknown?
Yes. They cover you, not a particular car. They may ask if you were driving it and if you say no, I do not know whether they will cover it (probably not if you tell them you were not even in the car at the time). They never ask IME.
The primary restriction is if you use it too much, they will cancel you. Also, if you use it twice for the same car, they will send you a letter saying they hope you have gotten the car fixed.
They cover the person, not the car, even if the person is just a passenger. Many years ago, I was out with a pal, & she managed to lock us out of the car, so she called her gf, who had AAA to come & meet us at the mall parking lot & then her pal called her AAA & he came & got us back into the car.
Now Dh has the extra AAA that covers up to 200 miles of towing. We need that, our car is older & I like to do day trips, we only have the one car, so only he is covered. I forget how much it costs, but it is worth the peace of mind.
I had AAA for 2 years and never had to use it. I didn't renew after that. I have roadside assistance through my auto insurance and also one of my credit cards for free.
What I hate about AAA is I still get mail from them wanting me to renew my membership.
I had AAA Plus the first 20ish years of my driving life when I had beater cars, used paper maps, trusted their star ratings, and found the discounts unbeatable. And then I let it expire. Haven't missed it at all. Got tired of silly crap like requiring the physical card for services and discounts rather than simply knowing the number. Or browsing motels and seeing Internet rates that were less than the AAA rates without the membership validation hoops. Whenever I needed a mortgage or auto loan their special rates were never the lowest.
People talk about how it's insurance and worth having when you have car problems. Sure it is but you can cover those situations in a much cheaper way. The AAA discount is seldom the best available and looking at it from owner's POV should tell you why. Paper maps are obsolete to most. The internet rendered AAA irrelevant and I seem to recall AAA was very slow to adopt the internet.
I disagree about that. I've had more people calling my job for directions because they are using GPS to get to us than if they had used a paper map. They tend to use our mailing address, which is Albany, NY, rather than our physical address, which is Menands (just north of Albany). Problem is, there is another building with the same street address as ours, but it is in a different (and also Albany) zip code, 12207, 5 miles south of where we are. We are in Albany zip code 12204. For some reason they can't designate a specific zip code, even though Albany has multiple zips. So they call here and I have to straighten them out.
I also find Google Maps to not be the most reliable either. I went out to the Ithaca NY area last month (first time driving out there myself) and used Google Maps to get me to Myers Park in Lansing. For some reason, GM sent me onto a side road (Michigan Hill Road to Route 200) to pick up Route 38 from Route 79, when it should have kept me on Route 79 to Richford and THEN had me pick up Route 38. It's a much more direct, simpler route, considering I missed the turn off of Route 200 on the way back. I won't make that mistake again.
I disagree about that. I've had more people calling my job for directions because they are using GPS to get to us than if they had used a paper map. They tend to use our mailing address, which is Albany, NY, rather than our physical address, which is Menands (just north of Albany). Problem is, there is another building with the same street address as ours, but it is in a different (and also Albany) zip code, 12207, 5 miles south of where we are. We are in Albany zip code 12204. For some reason they can't designate a specific zip code, even though Albany has multiple zips. So they call here and I have to straighten them out.
Re: Paper maps are obsolete to most.
Nope, you actually agree with that. By your own account, people are using gps not paper maps. So while you can argue whether paper maps "should" be used more, they are not so my original statement remains true.
you don't have people using paper maps calling you for help because almost nobody is using paper maps.
And in a given city, for every example you can find where google maps is off i could find 2x more where the paper map is off. Maybe 10x more if the map is a few years old. Anecdotal examples don't change the fact that paper maps and electronics maps both come from a database, and the electronic maps instantly reflect updates and corrections to that database while paper maps must wait til the next annual printing (the already printed map never updates).
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