I used to justify my AAA membership because I had a job that took me on strange roads every day, and so I took a lot of advantage of the free maps and guidebooks.
Now I work at home and seldom use the car, so the fee seems too high. But I still need the security of someone to call when my car breaks down.
How do you deal with that?
Check to see if your car insurance offers towing service/roadside assistance/whatever they call it.
I did that until a brother-in-law bought a AAA membership for my husband and I for Christmas. Plus, I saved 30% on my last pair of glasses and prescription sunglasses since I was a AAA member.
I have the towing and labor coverage through my auto insurance. It costs me $6 per vehicle every six months. I’ve used it a couple times for flat tires, and my husband has used it a couple times for a dead battery.
Ever since I had a bitch of a flat in the bad area of San Bernardino (insert your own joke here) I’ve kept my AAA membership current. I’ve called them several times in the last few years, usually for either a jump-start or a tow. The peace of mind is well worth the money.
In my own case if I can’t fix it on the side of the road I walk back, get the chain out and tow the car home with the lawn tractor.
Keep towing on your insurance. Call the place you have the work done at.
Ha! Last time my car broke down I hiked to the nearest exit. Now at least I own a cellphone.
I don’t ever drive far in my car. I presume my insurance has something. I guess I should go check. I do know they cover batteries and lockouts.
I have never had a good experience with AAA and these days trust my luck more than I will ever trust them. Maybe I’ve been lucky but I’ve never encountered a situation where I couldn’t either: A) fix the problem myself, B) call a local garage or C) catch a friendly driver, trucker, police or highway assistance person who would help. For the record, I’ve been driving for just short of 40 years (gack).
For the OP: Find a local garage and keep their card on hand. That should cover you for any problem in you area.
I’ve never had a breakdown near my favorite garage. Or rather, since I don’t use garages at all, only JiffyLube, any local garage. I keep a phone book in my trunk, but even that wouldn’t help me, since all my breakdowns are out of the county, usually on the interstate. I used to have tow reimbursement on my credit card but they just dropped it. Even then it didn’t have anyone I could call, just reimbursement.
I’ve gotten good use out of my membership. I’ve even been able to use it to move vehicles that weren’t technically broken down. But the tow truck driver didn’t need to know that. 
I’m tellin:p
Back in the day, unless you were poor as all get out, AAA was worth it. A small fee per month is/was worth the big assed bill you’d get towing the car to a garage or even back to your home.
Unless AAA has increased greatly in price while towing charges have dropped greatly, I’d still suspect it is worth it.
If you have it, you really need to have an idea of where you want it towed for mechanical trouble BEFOREHAND.
Hey, people say human insurance should cover preexisting conditions and/or undocumented patients…
I was offered roadside assistance as part of my cell phone plan. Anyone else hear of that?
Well if I say my car is anything less then personhood it might break down. You win this time.
We’ve stuck with AAA, though the times I’ve called them for help lately (a couple of flat tires in the last 4-5 years, 2 different cars), they’ve taken so long to come that I’ve gotten the tire changed by other means before they get there.
However, they have a partnership with CAA. So when our car broke down in Ontario, they helped us out. Dunno if insurance company towing services cover Canada, but I was sure glad we had AAA.
And of course you don’t have to own the vehicles in question (uh, that sounds like you’re using them to help steal the cars, doesn’t it? :eek:). When my brother locked his keys in his car while visiting us, we used our AAA membership to have them get into the car and unlock it.
Bro joined AAA after that, though!
I call my husband. We have a trailer which most cars fit on; he will winch them up there and take 'em where they need to go.
If he’s not in town, I call a tow truck.
We’ve actually never had to use our AAA discount on the car itself, but we’ve gotten so many discounts because of the membership (on restaurants, hotels, car rentals, exhibits, zoos, amusement parks, etc) that the membership has more than paid for itself several times over. Do you remember to ask “do you have a AAA discount?” when you’re buying things? We’ve been very surprised to find that so many businesses do. Even if it’s only a couple bucks here and there it adds up.
(We had Chevron road service up until a couple years ago and don’t remember why we switched - I did use that a couple times when I locked my keys in the car. They were prompt as far as that went, but didn’t offer discounts like AAA does.)
Don’t get roadside assistance through Allstate. Under certain circumstances they count roadside assistance calls as insurance claims.
ETA: I change tires or get a jump myself. If there’s something happening I can’t fix (coolant leak, etc.) I have free roadside assistance through Hyundai (5 years of it comes with all new Hyundais).