Roadside assistance???

Just to give an idea about my probably wait time for a flat repair if calling Toyota roadside and going by barbaram description above and talking to a tripleA member while waiting for a tow to pull her out of the sand on the side of the road near where I got my flat. The tow would have been an hour Minimum. and more likely many more hours at 10 pm in Cape Hatteras village. The nearest Dealer is in Elisabeth City, NC which is around a 2 hour drive. The next closest dealer is in Virginia Beach near the Air Force Base.
Yikes!

 

Buy a car with a spare? If enough customers turn their back on spareless cars, the manufacturers will wake up.

 

A simple flat tire incident like the OP presented may be saved by having a spare. But all of the incidents I required roadside assistance were much more than that. In fact, I have never had a simple flat tire on a road that spare tire would have helped.

 

^ Ain’t that the truth. I had a brake stick on in my ’59 bug. It heated up the drum so much the lug bolts backed out and I lost a wheel on the highway.

Thankfully it was raining. Without the 5 little plumes of steam rising from the wet pavement that night, I might never have found the bolts.

 

Humm, I had a similar incident happened on my old Taurus, but it was not the brake that caused the wheel to come off while I was driving. It had to be a vandal loosening lug nuts. No proof, but that was my theory.

 

AAA is more of insurance than investment. It may be better than Toyota Roadside Assistance, at least for a simple flat tire. But they can be expensive. I switched to my insurance company's roadside assistance plan. $10/year for a car. $20 for two cars, it is better than $150/year for two people for AAA. The big difference is that AAA is for a member, Toyota and insurance co ones are for a car. Although, I have not had an occasion I was in someone else's car and had to call AAA.

 

Hmmmm. 66 years old now. Never once needed AAA. What would all those membership fees have added up to?

 

Been at Dad's house and called AAA to tow his pickup more than once to a shop to repair pack rat damage on my membership. That's a 14 mile tow more than once $$ plus all the times I've used it for other stuff. It's paid for itself in my case. Plus you're buying it for the time you "may" need it which you can't predict. Worth it for me for my wife to have it when I can't get there. You can spen your money on $$ coffee, but I'll spend mine on AAA and stay skinnier. We travel a lot and go places where not many others go.

 

A LOT !! 66 x 66 = 666 666
I think what this thread is about is how toyota roadside assistance is handled, more than about how good or bad AAA s services are. But, your comment is intriguing in that toyota s service is offered free with purchase for the first two years of ownership, where as AAA s service is a pay as you go thing.
Having our Primes towed to the nearest Dealer Service for the first two years of ownership has it's pros and cons. This thread is mostly about one of those cons and the alternatives with there own pros and cons as you mentioned above (-(-:--)-).

I tried to put some jokes in there, but most of my attempts at humor here backfire more that getting a chuckle or two from the audience. /666\