There are plenty of places even in rural areas that I know have the capability to fix and/or tow your car in the event you break down. I just pay for AAA and consider it the cost of owning and operating a car. I can change my own tire and do small maintenance myself for the foreseeable future, but I keep my AAA membership for when things go really awry.
We have one like it near downtown KC. It’s just a lot with around 8 fueling stations near the highway. No cash, only credit cards. There may be a Coke machine but I’m not sure.
Price on gas is the same as ones with attendants.
An AAA membership for when things go bad, a cell phone to tell them you need them and a GPS so you can tell them exactly where you are. No worries – gotta love modern living.
I broke down on the highway outside a major metropolitan area in January. It was extremely cold. I called AAA, expecting to be rescued in a reasonable amount of time. Two hours later, I called them again. They had no record I had called the first time, and promised that the tow truck would be out in a jiff. An hour later, I called again. The tow truck, which had apparently only been contacted in the last ten minutes or so, was still over an hour from reaching me.
I broke down near midnight, and it was nearly dawn by the time they got to me. I’m a hale and healthy guy. I’d hate to think what it might have been like in that kind of cold for someone more frail than me.
True, they aren’t, but my experience with them is that they get there in a pretty reasonable amount of time, all things considered. This is also why I do not travel in winter without an emergency blanket, a flashlight, a knit cap and a pair of warm gloves in my trunk.
Oh, I won’t be getting rid of my membership, and the guy handed me some hot food and a cup of coffee when I got into the tow truck’s cab. There’s definitely that, and certainly there’s no substitute for being prepared. But it can still be tough, even for someone in a well-populated area, with an AAA membership.
It really depends on where you live or where you break down. My wife could not get a mechanic to come to our friggin’ house in Anchorage when she had a problem. The operator gave her the verbal equivalent of a shrug and said “there are no businesses that will respond in your area”. We cancelled. My car insurance company provides breakdown service, as does Good Sam.
The full service stations didn’t pay mechanics well. So the guys they hired weren’t necessarily the best. But in an emergency they usually could get a car started that a regular driver couldn’t.
Course in the old days a lot of things could kill a car. On rainy days, a crack in the distributor cap would let in moisture and kill the car. My uncles station helped a lot of people with wet ignition systems. I could work on those old cars. I quit trying after smog control made them so darn complicated.
Todays cars are much more reliable. I change my oil and filters. Anything else and I call a mechanic.
Ahh, the smell of gasoline: so good; so bordeline illegally good.
PREPAY!!! WTF is that!!! I forgot the trouble of using a non U.S. creit card, so that meant ZIP code and going to the till and prepaying, that’s what bugs me. Noting like sitting in your car and the guy bringing the wireless POS and paying without wasting calories.
OTOH, nothing beats the mammoth gas-stations that are almost malls I’ve used in the states. On a long trip they make all the difference.
I probably should have clarified I was referring to an able bodied person.
I’m well over 35 (I’ve got about 300 days to still claim I’m in my 40’s)… no mobility issues though. I definitely remember full service stations. I also remember black and white TV’s being sold… haven’t seen one of those forever either.
I guess it just shocks me that there are any still out there. I honestly don’t think I’ve seen one in over 20 years.
Shouldn’t have to be this way. Sounds like full service stations just might be a good business model to revive. If one of the major chains announced they were converting to full service stations, I’d certainly become a loyal customer.
There’s nothing “more independent” about self service, unless it’s also somehow “more independent” to walk into a Burger King instead of using the drive-thru. Hell, as someone else said, ALL gas stations were full service during the glory days of the 1950s.