Do you have car emergency car recovery services where you live? And are you a member?

I've been a member of the AA since I was first driving and they have been invaluable over the years. I think it's quite necessary as you can get stuck anywhere if something happens.

Recently we have needed to use the AA quite a lot.

My wife lost power in her Volvo driving home a couple of weeks ago.. We called the AA out and there was a hole in the turbo hose pipe (that feeds the air into the turbo). It had rubbed on the engine metal shield. The AA did a temp fix by gluing a patch over the hole, which got the car working again. We managed to get a replacement pipe from an Amazon seller for about 30 pounds and fitted it ourselves. So that wasn't too bad. And without the AA it would have cost a lot more at a garage to discover the issue.

Then last week the clutch went on my car. I was reversing up the drive to park it after getting back to work and it was stuck in reverse and the clutch was stuck on the floor. The AA said the slave cylinder had gone and he showed me it was leaking out of the bottom. The AA got the car to a local garage. It turned out the clutch had gone as well as the slave cylinder, so that was an expensive repair. But I've been using a great local Polish garage which are brilliant. Lovely owner and his costs are far lower than anywhere else. I finally got the car back yesterday with the nice light new clutch.

Then this morning my wife left for work and rang me to say she had broken down. Lost her power steering and lots of warnings. Then the car wouldn't restart. I guessed the alternator or battery. So she now has my car
(that I only just got back yesterday) so she could get to work. I called the AA out again and I had to wait a couple of hours with her car where it had broken down. The AA tested the battery and alternator and said it wasn't charging the battery so looks like the alternator. He charged up the battery for 20 minutes than I drove it to the same Polish garage again. So now waiting to hear from the garage to see how much it will cost.

Thankfully I have borrowed one of my Dad's cars since my clutch went so we currently still had it as a spare car. I was about to drop it back to him this weekend so we were very lucky we still had it as a spare when her car went wrong today.

I don't know what people do if they break down without AA, RAC or similar breakdown cover.