Breakdown

Breakdown repair cover: what pays for parts, tyres, batteries and keys

Breakdown repair cover explained: roadside labour is usually included, but parts and garage bills often aren't. Plus tyres, batteries, keys and accidents.

Breakdown repair cover is not the same thing as ordinary breakdown cover: a standard breakdown policy pays for someone to come out and try to fix your car at the roadside, or tow it to a garage, but it usually doesn't pay for the parts or for the garage's repair bill. If you want help with those costs, you need separate repair cover (often called parts and garage cover), which has its own claim limits, excess and exclusions.

What does standard breakdown cover pay for?

The Financial Ombudsman Service describes breakdown cover as cover that can include roadside call-outs, towing to a garage, a hire car and hotel stays, with European cover often available for an extra fee. What you actually get depends on the level you buy:

• Roadside assistance: a mechanic tries to fix the car where it is, or tows it to a nearby garage. Which? notes that basic roadside cover often doesn't help within a quarter of a mile of your home.
• Home start: adds help if the car won't start at or near home.
• National recovery: tows you and the car to a destination anywhere in the UK.
• Onward travel: a hire car, accommodation or other transport if the car can't be fixed the same day.

Which? has also found basic policies that allow as few as two or three call-outs a year, so the number of call-outs is worth checking too.

The key point is where the cover stops. In one Ombudsman decision, a driver with a puncture and no spare wheel was towed to a repairer. The ombudsman said that once the car had been taken to the repairer, the repair itself wasn't covered by the roadside policy. That is how most standard breakdown cover works: the mechanic's time at the roadside is included, the garage bill afterwards is yours.

Does breakdown cover pay for parts?

Usually not. If the patrol can fix the car with a part they carry, such as a battery, you would normally pay for the part on the spot. The Ombudsman's case study about a driver sold a car battery he didn't need shows how this works in practice: the patrol mechanic fitted a new battery and the driver paid £120 for it. When a garage later found the battery hadn't been the fault, the Ombudsman told the provider to refund the cost plus interest.

So "does breakdown cover include battery replacement?" has a two-part answer. A flat or failed battery normally counts as a breakdown, so the call-out and the mechanic's time are covered. A new battery is a part, and you normally pay for it.

Breakdown repair cover: how parts and garage cover works

Parts and garage cover (some providers call it repair cover) is an extra policy that pays towards the cost of repairs after a breakdown. It is often a separate insurance contract from the breakdown cover itself, sometimes with a different insurer.

A parts and garage policy reviewed by the Ombudsman gives a good picture of the typical terms:

1. A limit per claim. The policy paid up to a set amount per claim, after an excess.
2. A cap on claims. It allowed a set number of claims a year.
3. A waiting period. No claims could be made in the first 14 days.
4. The breakdown service comes first. The breakdown provider had to attend and confirm the car needed a garage repair before the repair cover applied.
5. Approval before work starts. The insurer had to approve the repair and its cost before the garage began. The driver could use a garage of their choice, though the insurer preferred its own.
6. No pre-existing faults. Faults that existed before the cover was bought, or that the driver knew about before the journey, were excluded.

In that case the driver's head gasket failed days after the waiting period ended. An independent engineer found the wear had been developing before the policy started, and the Ombudsman agreed the claim fell outside the cover.

The excess comes off what the policy pays, and any part of the garage bill above the per-claim limit is yours to pay. A large engine or gearbox job can cost more than a single claim limit.

Does breakdown cover include a flat tyre?

Most policies treat a flat, blown or punctured tyre as a breakdown, but with conditions. The policy wording quoted in this Ombudsman decision is typical of how it can work:

• If you have a usable spare or space saver wheel, and the locking wheel nut key if your car needs one, the patrol changes the wheel.
• If you don't, the provider may send a mobile tyre fitter. That policy paid the fitter's call-out charge up to a capped amount, but the new tyre was at the driver's cost.
• If no fitter can be found, the car is taken to the nearest garage that can repair it, and help under the policy ends there.

The same decision shows a trap. The driver said a pothole caused the puncture, and the policy excluded breakdowns caused by an accident. The Ombudsman found it reasonable for the provider to treat the pothole damage as an accident and refuse help. How a tyre failed can matter as much as the fact that it did.

Does breakdown cover include accidents, keys or windscreens?

These are the problems most often outside breakdown cover. The table sets out where help usually comes from.

Accidents

The Financial Ombudsman Service says breakdown cover doesn't include recovery after a road traffic accident; that falls to your motor insurer or repairer. It also works the other way round. The Association of British Insurers lists mechanical and electrical failure or breakdown among the things a standard car insurance policy usually doesn't cover. Each policy picks up what the other leaves out.

Lost keys

Losing your keys isn't normally a breakdown. The policy in the pothole decision above said a breakdown does not include being unable to get into or start the car because keys were lost, damaged or failed to work. Car insurance may not help either: in another Ombudsman decision, a motor policy excluded loss of keys, and the Ombudsman agreed the insurer didn't have to pay when the only keys to a car were stolen. Some policies do include key cover, so it is worth checking whether yours does and what it pays for (replacement keys, locksmith costs, or new locks as well).

Windscreens

Breakdown cover doesn't deal with glass. The ABI notes that a car insurance policy may or may not include windscreen cover. Our guide to car windscreen insurance and your no claims bonus explains how those claims work.

Wrong fuel

Misfuelling cover varies widely. Which? found that fewer than a quarter of the breakdown policies it looked at covered it. Where it is covered, there may be a charge or limit, and the policy in the pothole decision above only treated misfuelling as a breakdown within the UK.

What sets the price of breakdown repair cover?

The price depends mainly on how much you add: the level of cover (roadside only, home start, national recovery, European), whether it is personal cover that follows you or vehicle cover for one car, and extras such as parts and garage cover or key cover. Which? notes that a new car may already come with manufacturer breakdown cover, so it is worth checking before buying a policy that overlaps with it. Breakdown cover also sometimes comes as part of a package with a bank account or car insurance. Our article on car breakdown prices goes into more detail.

With repair cover, the claim limit, excess, number of claims, waiting period and pre-existing fault wording are worth reading alongside the price. When you know what you need, you can get breakdown cover quotes through Kompare.

What if a breakdown claim goes wrong?

Start with a formal complaint to the provider. If you don't get a final response within eight weeks, or you're unhappy with it, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to use.

There is one catch. The Ombudsman can only look at services regulated by the FCA, and some roadside call-out and recovery services are not regulated, so it can't always look at complaints about them. It can usually look at complaints about onward travel, garage repairs, overnight accommodation and incidents in Europe. You can check a provider on the FCA register. The Ombudsman's guidance for firms says it looks at whether the mechanic acted reasonably within the limits of working at the roadside, and evidence such as call notes, roadside reports and garage reports, so it helps to keep any paperwork you're given.