RAC breakdown recovery service includes home start for everyone

The RAC is now offering “rescue anywhere” cover with all three of its new breakdown cover products, so customers choosing the cheapest level of cover won’t have to upgrade to get home rescue. 

For vehicles that can’t be fixed at the roadside, it has also increased the level of support across the board for towing and recovery, alternative transport and garage support for customers. 

For the one in five breakdowns that patrols can’t fix straight away, all customers are now being offered the option of a 20-mile taxi journey, so they can carry on even if their cars can’t. Those who’ve taken out the two higher tiers of cover, Advanced and Ultimate, are also entitled to a hire car.

Customers opting for the most basic Standard cover will receive a fault report so that they and the garage know what’s wrong with the car, and those choosing Advanced will also get a repair estimate and jargon-free explanation, plus priority access to a trusted RAC approved garage, which will provide a 12-month warranty on any repair work. 

Ultimate customers will also receive a “garage concierge” service, which will provide them with a taxi from the scene while the patrol books in and tows their vehicle for repair at an RAC approved garage.

Standard breakdown cover provides up to three callouts a year and a 10-mile tow to the nearest garage. Advanced offers unlimited callouts, a tow to any UK destination and £150 worth of onward transport or accommodation. Ultimate provides the same level of cover, plus onward transport and accommodation for up to seven days to the value of £500.

On launching the three new levels of cover, RAC consumer roadside managing director Andy Baker said: “Drivers told us they thought cover for breakdowns at home should be included as standard in breakdown policies. We also know just how common these sorts of breakdowns can be, especially this year with so many more people spending time at home. So we’ve responded, and anyone choosing one of these policies will now be rescued, regardless of where they happen to be in the UK when they break down.”

The cost of the new breakdown provisions starts at £9 a month, or £90 a year, for Standard cover, rising to £15 a month (£150 a year) for Advanced, while Ultimate is £22 a month (£220 a year) for single-vehicle coverage. 

Those prices compare well with the AA, which charges from £12 a month (£119 a year) for single-car cover with home start.   

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2020 What Car? Reliability Survey

Buying a new car ought to be a pleasure, but the ownership experience can soon turn sour if the car develops a string of faults that keep it off the road for weeks on end or aren’t covered by its warranty and end up costing you a small fortune to put right.

So it’s worth weighing up the desirability of your prospective purchase with its reliability record. That’s where the annual What Car? Reliability Survey comes in. We asked almost 13,000 car owners to tell us how dependable their car had been over the previous 12 months, revealing whether it had suffered any problems and the areas in which the trouble occurred. 

In addition, we asked owners to tell us how much they’d had to pay to get their car fixed and how much time it had spent in the workshop. In most cases, these two factors are more important than what actually went wrong with the car, because they determine how long you could be without your car and how much of a dent a fault could put in your wallet. So we used a combination of the answers to these questions to create a unique Reliability Rating – expressed as a percentage – for each model.

The 2020 What Car? Reliability Survey contains information on 175 models that span 31 brands. We’ve included data on cars up to five years old.

Most reliable value and small cars 

= 1. Skoda Citigo (2012-2019)

Reliability rating 100%

What went wrong? Nothing

Skoda’s sister to the Volkswagen Up is not only slick to drive and great value but also remarkably durable in its original petrol form (it’s now electric only). Even though the earlier examples dating back to 2015 will now be out of warranty, not one owner reported a fault with their car.

Owner’s view “This car is a little gem. It has been utterly dependable over the past year”

= 1. Toyota Aygo (2014-present)

Reliability rating 100%

What went wrong? Nothing

Very popular among owners, the Aygo shouldn’t leave you stranded at the roadside. Not a single one of the cars we were told about suffered a problem; it’s no wonder that more than three-quarters of people cited reliability as the thing they liked best about their car.

Owner’s view “It’s the most reliable car I’ve ever owned. I’ve been so impressed with it that I would consider buying another one"

3. Volkswagen Up (2012-present)

Reliability rating 99.4%

The Up is closely related to the Citigo – and it’s almost as dependable, with just 3% of cars suffering a fault. The only area that proved troublesome was engine electrics. Although all affected cars were off the road for more than a week, all were fixed for free under warranty.

Least reliable value and small cars 

=1. Dacia Sandero (2013-present)

Reliability rating 85.9%

What went wrong? Bodywork 14%, engine electrics 14%, interior trim 14%, gearbox/clutch 7%, infotainment/sat-nav 7%

Owners told us that 21% of Sanderos went wrong. Two-thirds of the faulty cars took more than a day to repair, and some owners were faced with bills of up to £750.

Owner's view  "A lot of things have failed, such as the horn and power steering, and my car had starting problems until it was fixed under warranty”

=1. Suzuki Ignis (2016-present)

Reliability rating 85.9%

What went wrong? Gearbox/clutch 13%, infotainment/sat-nav 13%, suspension 13%, non-engine electrics 6%, steering 6%

The Ignis isn’t as bullet-proof as other Suzuki models. A quarter of cars were afflicted by a problem and nearly half lingered in a garage for more than a week.

Owner's view  “Reliability has been very poor and servicing has been relatively expensive”

3. Kia Picanto (2017-present)

Reliability rating 88.3%

Although 31% of Picantos went wrong, the most common problems were minor, relating to the battery and non-engine electrical systems. A third of the affected cars took more than a week to put right, but two-thirds of work was done under warranty.

Reliability for value and small cars aged up to five years old

Next: Most and least reliable family cars >

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