How does towing work?
 

If I have a AAA membership, and my car breaks down at night, I can have them
tow my car to a shop or my dealer. I've never needed to have my car towed, so
I don't know how this works. If my car breaks down at night, and I have it
towed to a shop/dealer who has already closed, do I just leave my car there?
Do I put a note on the windshield explaining why my car is there? And will
the tow truck also take me back home?

The tow-truck drivers know which shops stay open late.

Nowadays, it takes a fully-equipped professional to *optimize* a
vehicle's performance.

It does NOT take a pro, to do basic inspections that will AVOID a
show-stopping "breakdown."

I think most folks over in the auto groups would agree with me that, if
you religiously follow the manufacturer's stated maintenance
timetables, you will never have a "breakdown".

The most profitable organizations, are the most careful about
maintenance.

Maintenance *is* the frugal path.

gnubee wrote:
> If I have a AAA membership, and my car breaks down at night, I can have them
> tow my car to a shop or my dealer. I've never needed to have my car towed, so
> I don't know how this works. If my car breaks down at night, and I have it
> towed to a shop/dealer who has already closed, do I just leave my car there?
> Do I put a note on the windshield explaining why my car is there? And will
> the tow truck also take me back home?
>

Most repair facilities have a night box where you can drop the key.
You can then call them or go back in the morning. If you a wary of this
simply leave the car o the property and get there when they open.
The AAA obligation ends when the towing ends but the driver should do
one of he following:
Drop you off somewhere in the way back to their garage (Of course he
might be going in the opposite direction) or in a safe location.
If you do not have a cell he should use his or use his radio to call
the garage to get you a taxi,


--
To reply via e-mail please delete 1 c from paccbell

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> The tow-truck drivers know which shops stay open late.
>
> Nowadays, it takes a fully-equipped professional to *optimize* a
> vehicle's performance.
>
> It does NOT take a pro, to do basic inspections that will AVOID a
> show-stopping "breakdown."
>
> I think most folks over in the auto groups would agree with me that, if
> you religiously follow the manufacturer's stated maintenance
> timetables, you will never have a "breakdown".
>
> The most profitable organizations, are the most careful about
> maintenance.
>
> Maintenance *is* the frugal path.
>


I totally disagree with your statement "if you religiously follow the
manufacturer's stated maintenance timetables, you will never have a
"breakdown"."

While you will lessen your chance of a breakdown, you will *never eliminate*
your breakdowns due to a faulty part.

I think that any mechanic (excluding shadetree) will agree with my
statement.

I repair multi-million dollar pieces of equipment for a living, and while
our parent company says that we do too much preventative maintenance, we go
with the manufacturers recommended schedules (actually sometimes we go
beyond) for the PM's. We still have breakdowns almost every day. During
production, when the machinery is down, we are talking thousands of dollars
per minute that we are down. Downtime, or the lack of, is *very* important
to us at work.

C. Massey wrote:
> We still have breakdowns almost every day.

maybe the machines are being used beyond their design parameters.


or maybe the repairs and maintenance aren't being done very well!

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:32:20 GMT, "C. Massey" >
wrote:

>
> wrote in message
roups.com...
>> The tow-truck drivers know which shops stay open late.
>>
>> Nowadays, it takes a fully-equipped professional to *optimize* a
>> vehicle's performance.
>>
>> It does NOT take a pro, to do basic inspections that will AVOID a
>> show-stopping "breakdown."
>>
>> I think most folks over in the auto groups would agree with me that, if
>> you religiously follow the manufacturer's stated maintenance
>> timetables, you will never have a "breakdown".
>>
>> The most profitable organizations, are the most careful about
>> maintenance.
>>
>> Maintenance *is* the frugal path.
>>
>
>
>I totally disagree with your statement "if you religiously follow the
>manufacturer's stated maintenance timetables, you will never have a
>"breakdown"."
>
>While you will lessen your chance of a breakdown, you will *never eliminate*
>your breakdowns due to a faulty part.
>

Totally agree. I had a 4runner that was well maintained and it broke
down on the road when the starter failed without any warning.

Therefore best to say "almost never" breakdown.

gnubee writes:
>If my car breaks down at night, and I have it
>towed to a shop/dealer who has already closed, do I just leave my car there?

As someone else pointed out, some of the shops stay open late, but
still, if you get towed at 2am, it's unlikely that anybody's going to
be open. If that happens, then yes, the tow-truck driver will tow
your car to the repair shop (or for that matter, to any location) of
your choice and leave it there. You can leave a note on the
windshield, but you should also call the shop as soon as they open in
the morning and let them know what's going on.

Note also that with standard AAA membership, the amount of towing you
get for free is limited to a few miles. If you ask the two-truck
driver to tow farther than that, you'll pay by the mile at rates set
by the driver (i.e., not by the AAA).

Note also that some tow-truck drivers will try to rip you off and
charge you for things that are supposed to come for free with AAA
membership. For example, they may charge you a "hook-up fee" or "lift
fee". Perhaps they legitimately think that these are legitimate
charges, but I think it's more likely that they're looking to make a
quick buck. It's best not to argue with the driver about this. Just
pay the fee, and then contact the AAA and ask them to reimburse you,
which they will if the fee wasn't legitimate.

>And will the tow truck also take me back home?

That's not included in the AAA service. The driver may agree to take
you home, but he's free to charge you whatever he wants to do it. You
can usually ask him to call you a cab, though. If you're in a remote
location, it might be wise to ask him to stay with you until the cab
arrives. You should consider the distance from your house and the
remoteness of the location when deciding to where to ask the driver to
tow your car.

I had a car die on Sunday and AAA towed it to my
mechanic. My mech has off-hour forms and you can
call in a problem.