If you are looking at insuring against the perils of vehicle breaking down midway, then there are many who offer those services. MyTVS provides 24 by 7, assistance in most of the states of India, except J&K and north eastern states. The current membership can be availed from silver to platinum which offer breakdown assistance 3 times a year to unlimited times a year respectively. The fees range for a yearly Rs 750 (currently available at Rs555) to Rs 2500. the range of services include Jump Start and battery check, lockout keys, wheel change, car towing facility, taxi arrangement, wrecker facility and fuel arrangement. There are minor repair works that are also included. The response time within the city is around 60 minutes and in villages around 120 minutes.

Website: http://www.mytvs.in/, toll free numbers 1800 425 2002

If you have arrived in Delhi and looking to ensure that you are not stuck anywhere due to breakdown of your vehicle, then RACE is the answer. Rapid Action in Car Emergency (RACE) provides joy to many in the northern part of India. This month the company which has good presence in north and NCR region has shifted focus to South as well. Currently the company provides service to around 25000 customers in the Delhi NCR region. RACE provides its customer annual membership of around Rs 750 for different services which include towing, fuel filling, flat tire help, and jump start etc. RACE this year started operations in major cities of AP, Karnataka and Kerala.

For more information log on to www.prjgroups.com/race/faq.html

If you are planning your trip to India or have reached here, and are moving around on your own vehicle, then knowing about the breakdown services really help. A look on the web about breakdown cover services would throw up many options. One of the nationwide options is MYTVS 24X 7 Emergency Services. You are offered help throughout India except locations like Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the 7 northeast states. There is a silver, gold and platinum membership. The services provided range from break down assistance to fuel arrangement. This provider ensures 24 by 7 call centre access, which allows you to conference call with ASPs (authorized service providers). The help should reach you within 60 to 120 minutes, depending upon your location.

For more details log on to www.mytvs.in/

Believe it or not tommorrow celebrates 50 years of motoring driving when the first stretch of the M1 was openend. For most of us the goal of driving is to get from A to B in the shortedt possible time allwoing us to get one with our lives or see and vsit things just not possible without a car. The motorway brought the south closer to the North and then as time went on, just about every town and City to each other on the fastest roads possible.

It is hard to rembember (i am not old enough) what it was like to be driving on roads where 3pmph was as fast you were going to get, even if there were countless vehicles on the road. As more vehicles hit the road the traditional motoring clubs found themsleves expanding to deal with the extra demand, to the point where today insurance companies manily own the interests of the main breakdown cover providers.

The AA show in their press release a fact file on th M1 and celebrate in the general success of the motorways, even if we hate the traffic jams and roadworks that take us from 70mph to 5mph in some cases. It would be great to read the RAC’s opinion of the motorway system and Green Flag’s also, although this organistion was not around in that name back in the fifties.

We al want the roads to be faster and safer and even though we all want new cars, we hate it when othere buy cars and clog up the roads. Well thats life and until we have spaceships, it looks like motorways are here to stay with no alternatives.

It is not just us motorists who need breakdown cover, but also those heavier vehicles we see on the roads. In this case it looks like a road sweeper wanted to sweep something other than the road and finds itself in what looks like a ditch. I suppose the ecovery truck is not your normal breakdown cover operator also, but heh! it is all related.
We all need help in times of need and in this case something bigger and heavier was needed to get this roadsweeper on the road again.

It has been a while since we have shown any new TV adverts, so we need to get back in the swing of things. Here is the latest RAC breakdown cover tv advert, even though it is at least 6 months old. The theme is close to you, showing stricken cars in what appears to be winter months with the music “Close To You” played alongside.

There is not words to be said, letting the vehicle do the talking, but there are quite a lot of exhaust fumes coming off some of the cars giving the impression of how cold it is, but also showing us, how much C02 can leave these older cars.

Being close to you means shorter average call out times, which the RAC have realised is just as important as price and all 3 large organisations looking at just over 30 minutes as average, but how these figures are measured we still don’t know. Are they measured in quiet times, busy time as the extreme figures removed? (ie. Breaking down right next to a parked patrol van). Anyway here is the video.

A question often asked is what happens about breakdown cover when you lease a car, after all, the car does not belong to you, but the leasing company. Well first most lease cars are bought new and as most manufacturers offer breakdown cover for at least the first year, you are protected. But then it is up to you to make sure you have purchased breakdown cover for that vehicle. If there is a manufacturer issue with the vehicle then you should still be able to return the car to the leasing company, or at least get them to deal with it. But as most callouts for these patrolmen, tend to be things like being locked out or a flat tyre is unlikely that anything a patrolman will do will affect your leasing contract or require any further action to be taken.

However there may be some conditions to do with your leasing contract including damage to the vehicle. So if you have clipped a curb or the paintwork got scratched breaking into your leased car, you may need to get this fixed under the contract of you lease deal.

Well it has been some years since breakdown cover organisations have been directly related to f1 as sponsors tend to be on an international scale with huge amounts of money invested. However a programme on Eurosport called the Factory clearly showed a Williams F1 car being driven around Red Square in Russia with Green Flag breakdown cover right across Nakajima’s helmet. Then in the F1 magazine there is a competition from Green Flag to experience Formula One car at the Italian Grand Prix showing the Williams car with Green Flag written all over it.

Then the picture starts to come together when you remember that RBS bank owns Green Flag and of course for those who watch F1, will know that RBS is and has been promoted worldwide on William cars for some time now.

As RBS owns or controls many insurance departments for Direct Line insurance to Churchill, you wonder if this Williams car will find itself decorated in many different liveries to suit the marketing and is it possible that RBS has demanded more for their money, with pictures of the car with all their brands.

Lets be honest there will not be many people on Russia who will know what Green Flag breakdown cover is, or even the Italians in Monza this year. The bad news is the competition to win the F1 experience from Green Flag has now closed.

But a separate competition run by Williams to drive a F1 car may be still open, which will include driving against other competitors in other classes before the winner gets to drive the car. Wonder if this car will have Green Flag on it also?

Ok we know that RAC do hundreds of thousands of call outs each year to stricken motorists right around the UK, so what could be so popular that 9000 of them were for the same reason. Well we are not talking about those common faults like a flat battery, or starting issues, we are talking about cars that have a serious oil issue.

According to the RAC 1 in 5 cars do not have enough oil in them, this prompted Tim form the Fifth gear programme to do some serious research on the subject by deliberately getting his proton to seize because he had drained it of oil, so we could know what to look out. Even with the entire racket, even with all the commotion, the RAC tells us than 25 cars everyday will end their life this way. Not through low oil but through insufficient oil that ruins the engine.

Now many believe the RAC breakdown cover is good, but unfortunately roadside assistance has not moved on to exchanging engine son the roadside, so unless you have a recovery policy, the rest of the day is going to be finding a towing service to get your car to the local garage, who will then quote you an arm and leg for a replacement engine.

Checking your oil is easy and a hell of a lot cheaper than replacing an engine and it may cut down those 9000 breakdown cover calls the RAC are forced to do with oil issues.
Here is the video clip from 5th gear on Tim’s Oil campaign.

It happens every year; the rain comes down as hundreds of thousands go to the popular Glastonbury festival. With this sort of numbers many coming by private car ands sometimes long queues it is very likely that the odd vehicle may just have a breakdown. Then when you add up the lost keys, flat batteries and small collisions that occasionally happen, they the local breakdown cover guys may have a busy time this week. The AA breakdown cover service reckons they helped 200 cars last year just on site.

But it is not just the breakdown cover they offer during festival time, for the AA it has also meant months of preparation. The AA are responsible for putting up the signage that gets these music lovers to the right car parks or where they needs to be. The AA claims it will take 1000 AA signs this year and a month to put them all up safely. Some volunteers also look after the car parks and they also patrol the small roads on motorbikes looking for any stranded motorists to ensure the traffic keeps moving.

All this planning for next year will start as soon as this festival will finish, this show how much preparation is needed for events outside the festival, to ensure more people spend their time watching bands, not sitting in cars.