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How does towing work?



 
 
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  #31  
Old July 19th 05, 07:43 AM
Logan Shaw
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The Real Bev wrote:
> I doubt if the tow-jockey cares where you bought your membership -- otherwise
> you'd play hell getting a tow in an expensive area if you'd bought your
> membership in a cheap area.


Call me crazy, but I don't quite get why it's worthwhile to buy
insurance for this in the first place.

At the worst, I can imagine needing a tow perhaps twice a year, and
that would be in a bad year. Given that it costs about $125 for a
tow, I'm not sure how it's a catastrophe to have to pay for it yourself.

More to the point, unless the insurance company is negotiating special
rates with tow truck companies (which, I admit, is possible), they are
paying the same rates as you and yet making money despite all their
overhead. Therefore, on average you should expect to pay less if you
simply pay the costs yourself on the rare occasion that it's necessary.

To put it another way, the purpose of insurance is not to get free
stuff: it never works that way, because the insurance company makes
a profit, and you must therefore wind up paying more *on* *average*.
The purpose of insurance is instead to protect you from large expenses
that could damage your financial stability or at least throw you off.
I just don't see how having to pay $125 typically less than once a
year can threaten to throw anyone off all that much.

All in all, if I had to choose between the two, I'd much rather have
insurance for the repairs themselves. You can bet that after you
spend that $125 to be towed to a shop, the repair bill is going to
come to a lot more than $125 most of the time. Seems to me that's
the type of unexpected expense to protect yourself from. Not that
I'm aware of a company that offers this type of insurance, but it
does seem more desirable.

- Logan
Ads
  #32  
Old July 19th 05, 02:19 PM
George
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Logan Shaw wrote:
> The Real Bev wrote:
>
>> I doubt if the tow-jockey cares where you bought your membership --
>> otherwise
>> you'd play hell getting a tow in an expensive area if you'd bought your
>> membership in a cheap area.

>
>
> Call me crazy, but I don't quite get why it's worthwhile to buy
> insurance for this in the first place.



Because there is a single point of contact. If you were 75 miles from
home and your car stopped on the Interstate who would you call? AAA has
negotiated contracts and service level agreements with providers and
they know exactly who to call.

>
> At the worst, I can imagine needing a tow perhaps twice a year, and
> that would be in a bad year. Given that it costs about $125 for a
> tow, I'm not sure how it's a catastrophe to have to pay for it yourself.
>


It isn't financial. If I compared the difference (from memory) it is
probably a wash.




> More to the point, unless the insurance company is negotiating special
> rates with tow truck companies (which, I admit, is possible), they are
> paying the same rates as you and yet making money despite all their
> overhead. Therefore, on average you should expect to pay less if you
> simply pay the costs yourself on the rare occasion that it's necessary.


The service providers work on an negotiated rate schedule which you
aren't going to get.



>
> To put it another way, the purpose of insurance is not to get free
> stuff: it never works that way, because the insurance company makes
> a profit, and you must therefore wind up paying more *on* *average*.
> The purpose of insurance is instead to protect you from large expenses
> that could damage your financial stability or at least throw you off.
> I just don't see how having to pay $125 typically less than once a
> year can threaten to throw anyone off all that much.
>
> All in all, if I had to choose between the two, I'd much rather have
> insurance for the repairs themselves. You can bet that after you
> spend that $125 to be towed to a shop, the repair bill is going to
> come to a lot more than $125 most of the time. Seems to me that's
> the type of unexpected expense to protect yourself from. Not that
> I'm aware of a company that offers this type of insurance, but it
> does seem more desirable.
>
> - Logan

  #33  
Old July 19th 05, 02:41 PM
George
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wrote:
> George wrote:
>
>>I
>>was driving at highway speed on the Interstate on a busy Friday
>>afternoon when the engine simply stopped. Fortunately I was in the far
>>left lane so I was able to coast off the road without cutting thru
>>traffic. I had the car towed in to the garage. It started and ran OK.
>>The computer did not have any stored codes. They eventually found a
>>failing crankshaft position sensor.

>
>
> the engine would not re-start out on the side of the Interstate, but
> would after cooling down? MIght have been a thermal effect which may
> recur some sad day.
>
> I am not one who automatically presumes dishonesty on the part of
> service vendors. But I also will not automatically presume that a
> successful "repair", is a the same as a "cure". There's an old saying
> that "a conclusion is where you were standing when you got tired of
> thinking". For example, did they subject the position sensor to a
> battery of tests, *in a test jig outside the engine*



You do know that is completely ridiculous. The failure that the car had
could have been caused by a number of components. It is totally
impractical to remove all of those components and perform some sort of
exhaustive analysis on them. And more importantly it is outrageous to
perform periodic testing on such components because it typically does
not produce a reduction in failures.

Instead the mechanic performed a reasonable and customary repair. He
plugged his analyzer in and went for a ride until the computer produced
a service code. The service code was for a specific sensor. He replaced
the ~ $40.00 part and the car has worked fine since. What else exactly
needed to be determined?


The Space Shuttle level inspection/maintenance process you advocate just
doesn't make sense for a passenger automobile. And even with the extreme
level maintenence the shuttle does have problems.

>
> You're happy because they fixed the complaint within a reasonable
> budget. THat's a very normal & rational thing. We should not mistake
> their actions for a complete diagnostic work-up.
>
> A real diagnostic work-up for evaluating a vehicle isn't easy to
> find.... it takes LOT of expensive equipment, and a learning curve for
> the mechanics. Money, and more money, which could only be recovered by
> charging for... no repair work. Bev, over in another thread, already
> displayed a VERY typical consumer reaction to such an offer: "I don't
> want to pay for information about the mechanical condition of my
> property". She is really in the center of the Bell curve. How many
> people get their homes inspected outside of a trying-to-sell situation?
> How many people keep even the simplest track of MPG or of (eg) battery
> specific gravity, or condition of crankcase oil? THese things are
> quite cheap to do.
>
> Go into any auto-parts store and look at the tremendous number and
> variety of after-market products which cater to activities which
> enhance the COSMETICS of a vehicle. They get the shelf space because
> they have a high profit margin (ie, the chemicals involved are not
> spectactular, but they've been marked up spectactularly); and because
> they move well. People get pleasure in burnishing the appearance of
> their vehicles. I don't see many people blueprinting their engines, or
> the auxiliaries.
>
> It used to be that the AAA of Massachusetts owned and operated an
> actual Diagnostic Center. You paid a few hundred dollars for a
> top-to-bottom evaluation of your vehicle, by Master Mechanics using the
> best instrumentation... no repairs, you paid for RELIABLE INFORMATION.
> I don't know if it still exists.
>

  #34  
Old July 19th 05, 04:17 PM
Steve
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Logan Shaw > wrote:
>Call me crazy, but I don't quite get why it's worthwhile to buy
>insurance for this in the first place.
>At the worst, I can imagine needing a tow perhaps twice a year


Yikes, maybe twice a lifetime would be a more reasonable worst-case.
How many people here have ever had to be towed?

  #35  
Old July 19th 05, 04:44 PM
Ted B.
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"Steve" > wrote in message
...
> Logan Shaw > wrote:
>>Call me crazy, but I don't quite get why it's worthwhile to buy
>>insurance for this in the first place.
>>At the worst, I can imagine needing a tow perhaps twice a year

>
> Yikes, maybe twice a lifetime would be a more reasonable worst-case.
> How many people here have ever had to be towed?
>


Once in my lifetime. Situation was, I was stopped in traffic (as in, not
moving at all). I had cars beside me and a guard rail on the other side. A
ford taurus came up fast behind me and didn't stop until it was parked in my
back seat. In several decades and millions of miles (literally), I've never
had to be towed due to mechanical failure, though. -Dave


  #36  
Old July 19th 05, 05:36 PM
Norm
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X-No-Archive: Yes
Steve wrote:
>
> Logan Shaw > wrote:
> >Call me crazy, but I don't quite get why it's worthwhile to buy
> >insurance for this in the first place.
> >At the worst, I can imagine needing a tow perhaps twice a year

>
> Yikes, maybe twice a lifetime would be a more reasonable worst-case.
> How many people here have ever had to be towed?


When you have vintage cars ... often.

--
"The web has got me caught. I'd rather have the blues than what I've
got." <via Nat King Cole>
  #37  
Old July 19th 05, 05:52 PM
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> Yikes, maybe twice a lifetime would be a more reasonable worst-case.
> How many people here have ever had to be towed?


When you drive cars into the ground, it happens more often than you'd
think. :-) Let's see -- green car twice, yellow car twice, first white
car once, not yet for second white car. First white car got broadsided
by a red-light runner so it was being hauled away by the city, green
car had a power steering pump failure and another part (can't remember
which one) failue, yellow car had a bad alternator and a bad water
pump.

The green car died with 276,000 miles, the yellow I sold at 250,000,
the white was totaled in an accident.

--
C

  #38  
Old July 19th 05, 06:22 PM
Steve
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" > wrote:
>> Yikes, maybe twice a lifetime would be a more reasonable worst-case.
>> How many people here have ever had to be towed?

>
>When you drive cars into the ground, it happens more often than you'd
>think. :-) Let's see -- green car twice, yellow car twice, first white
>car once, not yet for second white car.


But wouldn't ya think at some point the towing coverage would be
cancelled by the insurance company, or AAA would cancel the
membership? Hard to imagine they'd go on paying regular towing bills
forever without taking some sorta action...

  #39  
Old July 19th 05, 06:33 PM
Jonathan Kamens
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Steve > writes:
>But wouldn't ya think at some point the towing coverage would be
>cancelled by the insurance company, or AAA would cancel the
>membership? Hard to imagine they'd go on paying regular towing bills
>forever without taking some sorta action...


Most AAA memberships limit the number of tows per year, so it
isn't exactly "forever" -- there's a built in limit on the
amount that one membership can cost the auto club.

Too few people hit that limit for the AAA to worry about it.
  #40  
Old July 19th 05, 07:02 PM
Logan Shaw
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Steve wrote:
> Logan Shaw > wrote:


>>Call me crazy, but I don't quite get why it's worthwhile to buy
>>insurance for this in the first place.
>>At the worst, I can imagine needing a tow perhaps twice a year


> Yikes, maybe twice a lifetime would be a more reasonable worst-case.
> How many people here have ever had to be towed?


Three times that I can recall. In high school, I had an Olds Cutlass
that my parents gave me. It was serviceable, but built in 1980,
pretty much the low point of all time for GM. The car had a
rotor (in the distributor, that is) had a nasty habit of cracking
in two if it got slightly too hot. Pushing the car too hard could
cause it to get slightly too hot, where "pushing too hard" meant
cruising along the freeway at the same speed as regular traffic.
One time I was driving about 50 mph, and the engine just died.
Since I was on a busy section of freeway (and did not yet know
that was the problem), there was no real way to get the car out
of there.

Second time, same Olds Cutlass. Had had the engine rebuilt a
few years before. Apparently the rebuilder wasn't that hot[1].
One day (on my way to show up for my first day of work at a new
job, naturally), the crankshaft just broke in two while I was
driving down the highway. (Actually, I had it towed twice: once
to the service station, and once from there to the car dealer
that got it when I traded it in on something more reliable.)

Third time was totally my fault. I knew it was time to replace
the timing belt on my Toyota, but I kept putting it off. I
really was planning on doing it, but I didn't get around to
it until after having to have it towed. Whoops.

So, all in all, one of them should have been avoided, and one
of them could have been avoided if I'd known more about who
not to take the car to, which I didn't.

- Logan

[1] The day after we took it down to them to have them start
work, I was talking to a classmate whose family owned a
lawnmower repair business. I told him where we'd chosen
to take the car, and he said something like, "You took it
to where? You're going to regret that." And he was right.
I don't know why I didn't think to ask him where to take it,
since he did basically grow up working on small engines...
 




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