A guide to selecting the best breakdown cover for your motor in 2022

YOU can reduce the distress of breaking down by getting one of the best breakdown cover policies in 2022.

When it’s cold, wet and windy and your car conks out, there’s nothing worse than being miles from home with no quick fix.

You put yourself in a whole new world of pain without breakdown cover, and your dealership cannot help you fix it — so we're taking a look at why you should get breakdown cover, and who you should buy it from.

Is breakdown cover worth having?

If you don’t have breakdown cover, your only choice is to call a recovery service and pay for a tow to a local garage. The cost can quickly run into the hundreds of pounds, and you'll need to work out how you’ll get home and retrieve your car at a later date if the garage can’t fix it.

Plus, you might end up paying top dollar for repairs that you could get done significantly cheaper elsewhere. Breakdown services have various plans, from coming out and towing you to the nearest garage or even dropping you at a station and fronting the cost of your train fare so you can continue your journey.

Knowing that you can get help (even if you’re in someone else’s car) makes breakdown cover is a no-brainer for peace-of-mind.

The best breakdown covers for 2022

1. GEM Motoring Assist

• GEM Motoring Assist Breakdown Cover, from £65.42 per year -

GEM Motoring Assist has been rated highly for how good its buying process is. It was the winner of AutoExpress' 2019 Driver Power Survey (it has been in the top three every year since 2012) with the magazine stating that it was impressed by how communicative and friendly staff were, and the value for money that its policies represent.

GEM claims that it is up to 63% cheaper than similar breakdown providers, and it definitely looks good on paper — its discounted price of £65.42 per year works out at just £5.45 per month.

However, this year it found itself in third, due to the fact that staff can occasionally take a while to reach you.

GEM's value for money has also been boosted by an offer that gives you 12 months of breakdown cover for the price of 10.

2. RAC

• RAC Breakdown Cover, from £9.50 per month -

The RAC is one of the best-known motor repair companies, and claims to be the biggest provider of breakdown cover in the UK, with nearly 12 million personal members and business customers.

It offers three levels of breakdown cover: Standard, Advanced and Ultimate, and, at the time of writing, it is offering a number of deals and discounts that make them look very attractive — new buyers of Advanced insurance — which costs £15 per month — get one month free, and buyers of Ultimate insurance, which comes with up to a week of alternative transport and a dedicated rescue line, get three months free — a saving of £57.

3. The AA

• AA Breakdown Cover, from £8.66 per month -

Generally classed as the RAC's main competitor, the AA has become a household name across the UK in its 116 years on the UK's roads. It also claims to be the country's largest breakdown company, reporting that one of its iconic yellow vans reaches a customer in need every 10 seconds.

It has one of the highest levels of roadside repair, with the company saying that between September 2019 and August 2020, 78 per cent of customers had their car repaired without having to be taken to a garage.

The AutoExpress survey found that the top result of a callout was a permanent fix, with 52.2 per cent of AA customers surveyed saying that their car was fully repaired at the roadside. While that's lower than the figure on the AA website, it's still very impressive — it was only beaten in the survey by Admiral, which managed 52.4 per cent but finished below the AA due to issues with its communication with customers.

Which is the best car breakdown service?

The million-dollar question. On an annual basis, the quizzes drivers on their experiences.

In 2020, LV= Britannia Rescue came out top, usurping GEM Motoring Assist, which took the top spot in 2019.  The motoring magazine's survey gave it a 83.24 per cent rating, with 64.3 per cent of customers saying that help arrived within an hour of them calling. The magazine noted that both call centre staff and technicians are super-friendly.

In order of customer satisfaction, Auto Express Driver Power found the top five most appreciated breakdown services to be:

1. - 83.24%
2. - 77.42%
3. - 77.27%
4. - 67.3%
5. - 66.47%

However, the best breakdown cover totally depends on your circumstances, the model and condition of your car and the timing of your accident or breakdown.

If you travel to Europe often, has received good feedback on reliability.

The other thing to bear in mind is the network of the brand. Both and have an incredible network of employees trundling around the roads of the UK in those famous yellow vans.

works by harnessing the power of several smaller breakdown services and pulling them together. While this, in theory, should create a broader network, Autoaid has less control over the standard of customer service, response time and proposed solution.