Summer motoring 2012: horror stories

* Holiday woes for drivers * Makes sure you're covered * Part of our driving abroad series...

Summer motoring 2012: horror stories

In the final part of our summer motoring 2012 series, we look at what can go wrong. Breakdown company, Green Flag, shares a few of its customers horror stories while driving abroad

The crashing concierge
An owner called Green Flag to say they needed a wheel change on their car, but later discovered that maybe there was axle damage as well. The concierge at the hotel was parking their car but managed to drive over a security barrier (think posts that shoot out of the ground) and wrecked the underside of the vehicle. The vehicle was repatriated and the hotel took the responsibility for the incident and paid the familys personal costs.

Gearbox woes
The gearbox on a drivers Skoda Octavia broke on the way to a skiing holiday in the Alps this year.

He called Green Flags specialist linguist team who arranged for his car to be recovered to a local garage in a nearby village where he discovered the gearbox was beyond repair.

The Skoda stayed at the garage, while the driver headed on in a Green-Flag supplied hire car. A week later he drove back to Calais and left the hire car at the ferry terminal drop off before getting into a Range Rover Vogue hire car for his trip home, all provided by the breakdown service.

When the car had been repaired, Green Flag then paid for him to travel out to pick it up and head on home.

Rat infestation
A driver left his vehicle standing for three months in Italy and rats had chewed through his cables and plastic pipes. It was debatable if this was actually covered, because his vehicle hadn't been maintained. However, the breakdown company attended and recovered the vehicle to a local garage for repair.

Breaking down abroad can be an expensive event, but follow the advice in our summer motoring 2012 series and you should be able to escape take your car on holiday without any trouble at all.

Driving abroad - what you'll need
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