Car insurance provider protects against garage bills

Saga has added to its roadside car breakdown service with a new policy that protects against garage bills.
Breakdown Repair, which comes as an add-on to Saga’s Breakdown Assistance, allows customers to claim back the cost of garage labour and replacement parts up to the value of £500 (subject to a £25 excess) if they cannot continue their journey following a breakdown. This includes cover for the most common causes of breakdown such as a flat or faulty battery, or faults with the starter motor, alternator and head gasket, among others.
Saga Breakdown Assistance helps more than 50,000 motorists a year and while eight out of ten breakdowns are repaired at the roadside, many cars still have to be taken to garages.
A head gasket failure, one of the most common causes of breakdowns, costs on average £390 to repair, while an ­alternator failure typically costs £285 to fix.
Saga says that 54 per cent of new cars are bought by the over-50s, most of whom in the past have traded in their cars when the manufacturer’s warranty expired. In the recession, however, many are holding on to their vehicles longer, leading to the risk of breakdown bills.
Saga says its Breakdown Repair, which costs £6.86 a month, provides a “seamless service” for customers. The roadside patrolman will take them directly to a garage and discuss the fault with the mechanics.
Discussions between the garage and Saga in respect of the diagnosis and ­repair costs will be undertaken by qualified mechanics to help control costs.
Saga chief executive Andrew Goodsell said: “Whilst the over-50s tend to take better care of their cars, breakdowns can, unfortunately, happen to us all and often at the most inconvenient time.
“If you are unlucky enough to have a breakdown the last thing you want is to be faced with an unplanned repair bill before you are able to continue your journey.”

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Free breakdown cover with car insurance from Churchill

Research by Churchill has show that women risk being stranded through poor car knowledge so are offering FREE breakdown cover with their car insurance for a limited period.According to the research, 31% of women consider their basic car maintenance skills to be poor or non-existent compared to only 10% of men..
Motorists were asked to identify a number of basic car maintenance points and the result clearly show men are more knowledgeable on the subject.
Interestingly though whilst only 21% of men didn’t know where to check oil levels, compared to 44% of women who didn’t, 63% of men and 76% of women didn’t know where to check the windscreen washer fluid.
If a car breaks down only 5% of women will attempt to fix it themselves, compared to 34% of men.
Fundamentally, women are far more comfortable knowing that they can contact someone to help if their car breaks down.

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