I’m a little disappointed with the Auto Club. I guess I mean what many people call Triple A, or AAA. I am a member of ACSC which is The Auto Club of Southern California. My renewal just came in the mail and it’s for $111.00 for one year. It includes free towing or other breakdown type services (I believe they allow 4 a year), all the maps and ‘trip planning’ you can take and a magazine which I could easily do without. Also some places take the card as a discount (Hertz, Avis, many hotels and Winchells Donuts :D).
However that’s nearly ten bucks a month for something I rarely use. I can see that one tow would probably be more than the annual cost, however, what I’m looking for is a more reasonably priced ‘auto club’ if there is one.
I quit AAA in New York a few years ago; I think it was $45 with a limit of three service calls a year. Bah! With my leased Volvo I get ‘Volvo-on-Call’ contracted out to the Amoco Motor Club. Included in my lease, unlimited calls each yaer.
Of course, next month when I buy out the lease I’ll probably find it costs two hundred a year…
To answer the OP, yes, there are other auto clubs (such as Amoco), however a search on Google turns up more info on auto clubs for collectors.
PhiloVance, What did they do to disappoint you? I have been a member of ACSC for 32 years and have never had less than excellent service.
My ACSC membership dues are $43 for one year. Additional services can be added for an additional fee. They are: AAA Plus (100 miles of towing, free gas, etc) RV towing/tire service, and additional associate members of the family (at a per person charge). You must have added one (or more) of the extras to get up to $111.00!
There may be other clubs out there, but I doubt any could come close to the consistently excellent service (in all arenas) that they provide.
But there is at least one other club that has nothing to do with the AAA. I think it’s called the National Automobile Club. All I know of them is from looking at one of their maps, which had the scale marked in 5000-foot increments rather than miles or kilometers. For this bit of inanity I think they are justly obscure.
I almost forgot I started this thread. I checked out Amoco and it’s not available in CA. National is, but the price is much the same. Yes I have some extras, if you count spouse and the 100 mile option.
Maybe I’ll stay with Auto Club after all.
Michele…yes ACSC is the same as AAA, just means Auto Club of So. Cal.
I hear there’s an Allstate, or used to be, run by Sears. But then, I never liked Sears stuff much, except their lawnmowers and washers/dryers.
I know ACSC is an affiliate of AAA. What I’d like to know is what they did to disappoint you. I’m curious because I have always received excellent service from them.
So, if you ever get back to this post (I had forgotten about it too!) I’d really like to know!
So far, AAA has been fine, but they occasionally raise their rate. I used their online hotel booking a few times and received better rates than at other sites.
In a nutshell my disappointment stems from the fact that I didn’t use the services much and I’m paying over 100 bucks a year for it. Now I sort of realize it’s like an insurance policy and for the price, it’s not too bad.
I belong to Central Penn AAA. My membership is the “Plus” package, which runs something like $55 per year. The three service-call maximum is the same, but I get free towing for up to 100 miles if they can’t get my car working on the side of the road.
About two years ago my Fleetwood’s radiator blew up outside of Baltimore on the way to a driving tour in West Virginia. I was about 110 miles from the only guy who I will allow to do mechanical work on the Cad, so I called AAA for a tow. None of the local places AAA dealt with had a truck big enough to handle the car, so they called for a guy from North East (about an hour away) who had a deluxe flatbed tow truck that could take it.
This guy drove an hour south to get me and the car and then about two hours north back to my mechanic outside of Philadelphia. He even let me use his cell phone to get an Avis car for the rest of the trip.
Total cost: $25 tip for the tow truck guy and about $20 for additional mileage.
So AFAIC, AAA is the only auto club. I figure I’ve got the next couple years’ worth of dues back already.
