Toyota Roadside Assistance - any real benefits?

[Flatcoat]

I am due to renew this today. From what I can see the benefits are similar to a normal AA membership. Does anyone else bother buying it? 

[ernieb]

I use Start Rescue, low cost and always does well in the Which reports. there is an associated app.

[Flatcoat]

41 minutes ago, ernieb said:

I use Start Rescue, low cost and always does well in the Which reports. there is an associated app.

Does that provide European cover and onward travel? 

[Willss]

Don't travel abroad. For my uk requirements Toyota were the same as AA but at lower cost. Went with RAC this year as similar cost and free MOT test provided!

[philip42h]

1 hour ago, Flatcoat said:

I am due to renew this today. From what I can see the benefits are similar to a normal AA membership. Does anyone else bother buying it? 

Yes. As you say it is effectively AA membership but at a rather more affordable price. That said, driving a Toyota I have never needed to call out a breakdown service ... 😉

[Flatcoat]

28 minutes ago, philip42h said:

Yes. As you say it is effectively AA membership but at a rather more affordable price. That said, driving a Toyota I have never needed to call out a breakdown service ... 😉

My AA membership for another car is £69…… including European travel cover. That is why I am trying to work out what the Toyota cover additional provides for the extra £20…… and we do drive abroad. I have twice needed the service, once for a puncture and once for a stuck open sunroof. 

[philip42h]

35 minutes ago, Flatcoat said:

My AA membership for another car is £69…… including European travel cover. That is why I am trying to work out what the Toyota cover additional provides for the extra £20…… and we do drive abroad. I have twice needed the service, once for a puncture and once for a stuck open sunroof. 

That sounds like a bargain! If I look at the most basic level of AA cover it starts at £85 per year and goes up as I add things like Home Start, National Recovery etc.. The Toyota Assistance seems to provide me with more for less, but, as I say, I haven't yet had cause to test it ...

[P_J]

I've got the option of taking on the 3 year servicing plan, which includes Toyota Assistance for 2 years (on top of 1 year for new purchase), and 1 MOT. 
Trying to work out if its cost effective to do this (I got stung with a previous deal, in that the out-of-plan servicing cost was cheaper than on the plan, and the benefits didn't really offset it). 
Can anyone tell me the approx cost of renewing the Toyota Assistance plan, and maybe rough ideas of servicing costs? 
My dealer is not keen to tell me the year on year servicing costs and only wants to offer the plan, which is £27-28 per month (depending which way the wind was blowing when I asked). 

[PeteB]

One thing to be aware of, if you change cars, the latest Roadside Assistance fee is non refundable and non transferable.

After 21 years them them willingly transferring or refunding, I made the expensive and very annoying mistake in November 2022 of renewing for 2 years even though I had the Highlander on order from September that year, confident in the knowledge the nice Toyota people would add any remaining time to the year that came with the new car.

It was originally scheduled to be delivered in June 2023, but actually arrived in October.  I therefore lost well over a year's membership and the guy I spoke to on the phone was unsympathetic and tried to say it was only a goodwill gesture that previous balances were transferred, but I don't think that's true.

There were also a couple of instances when I changed cars unexpectedly, once due to a write off, the other when the dealer offered to sell me a demonstrator at a very keen price with the exact spec I would have chosen, and luckily that was during the time transfers were routine.

[Nicolai]

If it is similar to what is offered in DK, I called them last week as I overlooked a ditch due to piled up snow. Went pretty rapid, however, I was told that they do not drive your car home to your house or anything like that. They get you out of the ditch and then "have a nice day". 
Other services in Dernmark offer to pick you up and / or take you home. It's a part of the Relax warranty in Denmark, though. No renewal required.

[philip42h]

2 hours ago, P_J said:

I've got the option of taking on the 3 year servicing plan, which includes Toyota Assistance for 2 years (on top of 1 year for new purchase), and 1 MOT. 
Trying to work out if its cost effective to do this (I got stung with a previous deal, in that the out-of-plan servicing cost was cheaper than on the plan, and the benefits didn't really offset it). 
Can anyone tell me the approx cost of renewing the Toyota Assistance plan, and maybe rough ideas of servicing costs? 
My dealer is not keen to tell me the year on year servicing costs and only wants to offer the plan, which is £27-28 per month (depending which way the wind was blowing when I asked). 

Service costs are given here: https://www.toyota.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-aftercare/service-pricing#/. So:

• Intermediate Service: £240
• Full Service: £370

You can get a 'quote' for Roadside Assistance here: https://www.roadsidecover.com/toyota. They'd charge me £89 per year if I were to renew 'now'.

I go for the service plan because:

• It allows me to pay monthly rather than find a lump sum at service time.
• It fixes the price at today's costs and thus protects against inflation.

There is no discount, and you do end up paying up front for the service.

[Eddiefh]

6 hours ago, Flatcoat said:

My AA membership for another car is £69…… including European travel cover. That is why I am trying to work out what the Toyota cover additional provides for the extra £20…… and we do drive abroad. I have twice needed the service, once for a puncture and once for a stuck open sunroof. 

For mine with Toyota (aa) it was £80 same as last year on the same car , aa would increase next year if you went with aa direct , you can then haggle on year two but if you do nothing it will go up possibly double . 
I renewed mine mid December out of ease really especially as it didn’t go up , think if your a aa member you get an app so you can see how fare rescue is after phoning a breakdown. 

[P_J]

Thanks Phil. 

https://www.roadsidecover.com/toyota states: 

With Toyota Roadside Assistance, you’ll get the benefit of:

Roadside Assistance, 24/7, in the UK and Europe
National Recovery and At Home cover
Onward Travel including alternative travel options
Plus full support from the AA – they’re the UK’s No. 1 breakdown service provider and have been Which? recommended 5 years running^

So this is the usual 'cover all' policy I go for, though I cover two cars/people for me and missus (depending on which AA/RAC offers discount the best). 
So I could drop the missus onto a single policy for a bit on next renewal. 
And with the service plan, I'd get this for 3 years, according to https://www.toyota.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-aftercare/service-plans: 

From £28.00 /month

3 Year Plan 

For new vehicles under 12 months old.†

•Three scheduled services.

•One MOT test.*

•Two years of Toyota Roadside Assistance (in addition to the 12 months Toyota Roadside Assistance included within each new car purchase).

So on paper it looks pretty fair. 
You can get decent offers on AA/RAC around the same cost but not always guaranteed. 

[ColinB]

After the joint membership through the AA for my wife and myself went over £300 I changed to the Toyota Assistance at £89 each for a better level of cover, albeit tied to each of our cars. I cover my bike separately as the AA were more than useless after a whoopsie meant that my bike had to be recovered - which isn't covered by the AA. 

[Willss]

3 hours ago, philip42h said:

Service costs are given here: https://www.toyota.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-aftercare/service-pricing#/. So:

• Intermediate Service: £240
• Full Service: £370

You can get a 'quote' for Roadside Assistance here: https://www.roadsidecover.com/toyota. They'd charge me £89 per year if I were to renew 'now'.

I go for the service plan because:

• It allows me to pay monthly rather than find a lump sum at service time.
• It fixes the price at today's costs and thus protects against inflation.

There is no discount, and you do end up paying up front for the service.

For info.  Some dealerships add an interest/service charge to the monthly fee, others don't. Bit naughty IMO and worth looking out for.  My dealership will do MOTs for £40 if you ask nicely when booking. They want full price on service plan.

[Flatcoat]

I have renewed the Toyota/AA roadside assistance. I phoned AA to see what they could offer if I transferred my (about to be sold) Merc policy to the RAV. Like for like cover best price offered was £116. Their standard cover was £69 if I paid today. Happy enough save for I have a dealer provided service plan and occurs to me I need to ensure I am not double covered. 

[Cyker]

The main benefit is it's the highest level of AA cover for a single vehicle, but pre-haggled down to the lowest price. You can get this price with AA if e.g. you are an OAP and can haggle new-member discount on top of that, and whatever other discounts etc. etc., but it's a big PITA and you'd have to go through that every year. The Toyota one gets rid of all that fuss and you just pay that lower price.

Toyota Roadside has changed a lot over the years; Originally it was just a side benefit for Toyota's own Club membership, which also included discounts for things like wine, airport parking and a load of other stuff, and was covered by the RAC rather than the AA. Back then it was something like £52 I think, which was a no-brainer bargain!

Eventually, the other stuff was stripped away, but since hardly anyone used them anyway they weren't missed.

But then the price started rising, but as sweeteners they had offers like a discount for 2nd vehicle or buying 2 years in advance.

The current offering is a lot less attractive - I think it's £89 or nothing - No discounts for a 2nd vehicle or buying 2 years - and they also got rid of the Toyota team so you have to deal with the AA directly for everything; I've found their manner much less helpful than the old Toyota team ladies. As others mentioned, they also changed the terms so it can't be transferred to another vehicle, and no refunds past the standard 14 day cooling off period. All that left a sour taste - Paying a third more than I did previously for less. Wasn't so keen.

Thanks to other forum members recommendations, I switched to Start Rescue which was the same cost as what the Toyota Roadside originally cost, with similar coverage  

[marlinleg]

Having purchased a ex demo  Rav4 from the main Dealership last year 8/3/23 the AA cover was £90 this years renewal from th AA and the same cover from Toyota direct the same cover 

[Willss]

I just looked at policies for my auris.

I want at home cover, national recovery (so if I'm away I get taken back to a garage I trust close to home rather than just dumped at the nearest garage), onward travel (for holidays etc).

The Toyota cover includes all this. Even with AAs standard 40% off offer, to get the same level of cover would have cost me £50 more going direct to AA. 

Bought through Toyota on the assumption that I'm not replacing the car this year as premium would obviously be lost.

[marlinleg]

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