Does anyone know why people put AAA- American Automobile Association- bumper stickers on their cars? Is it required?? Or do they put a sticker on your bumper when you use their services???
Other than those guesses, I don’t see any reason to.
AAA offers a reward for the recovery of stolen vehicles. It used to say that on their window stickers. The only reason I can think of is that maybe the thief (acting as an innocent passerby) would prefer to collect a guaranteed reward than hand the car over to a chop shop.
AAA member checking in:
No to both. There’s no requirement to display the sticker, and if some tow truck driver (for example) stuck a sticker on my car without my permission, I’d be upset, and I doubt any business would be dumb enough to make that a policy, or at least it wouldn’t be policy very long.
The stickers help to identify your car in the event you have to call for assistance. Supposedly, they also make thieves think twice, since the car is registered with a search service. I view this last statement with a lot of skepticism, but who knows?
I really shouldn’t say this, and I hope I survive, but the real reason is that members can identify themselves to other members. You see, there is no Illuminati conspirasy to rule the world and the Masons have missed their chance: The real threat is the AAA. Be warned.
I have a AAA sticker on my car, but it’s a static sticker for the window, not a bumper sticker.
It is there because they sent it to me in the mail with my membership card, and I am a mindless drone. (Lookee here, Paw! A sticker fer th’ automobile!)
The answer is simple… because there are a lot of people like Podkayne, (no offense intended) AAA gets a lot of free advertising. And the more people who display their sticker, the more members they’ll get (on the theory that the people who don’t have the sticker start to say to themselves “hmmmm… seems like everybody’s got one of those cute little AAA stickers… golly, I’d better get me one of them things too, or else everybody will think I’m a moron if I don’t… heckfire, I don’t want to be the onliest one without one.”)
I am not a mindless drone. But, my wife, jdimbert drives a Honda minivan in a common color.
Has anyone in the history of roadside assistance ever needed a jumpstart when it was warm outside? I tell my wife to go into a building, call AAA and tell them where the car is parked. Since the car has a AAA sticker, the tow-truck guy can identify it… and my babe doesn’t need to freeze her assets off waiting for him.
I put the local chapter’s (Auto Club of Southern California) little round sticker on my bumper. I decided that since I’m a member, it behooves me (ever so slightly) to advertise for them in the hopes of increasing membership and promoting the general health of the organization. Might keep my membership dues (and insurance premiums, perhaps) down slightly.
How much difference can one vehicle make? Likely, nothing even remotely measurable, I realize. I don’t think the sticker is an eyesore (to the contrary, it’s a nice contrast to my pickup’s otherwise rather plain rear), so I don’t mind its presence, anyway.
Presence or absence of the sticker doesn’t really seem to matter when you’re calling for assistance. Presence or absence of your membership card seems to be the final and only criterion for actually obtaining free roadside service. Not having the card with you, sticker or no, will at the very least increase the hassle.
There seems to be a hery high correlation between AAA members that use the sticker, and elderly drivers. Why, I don’t know.