Crash
The other Saturday I received that call that you always dread.
“Dad, my car has been totalled. Don’t know where I am?” – then the phone cuts out.
The worst thoughts cross your mind. Is he injured? Will he ever play football again? Is anyone else involved? Was it his fault? Is he in a dangerous location? Can I get there?
As it happens, I was halfway up the M1 on the way to Coventry City FC with my other son. Eventually I got my wife to intervene and liaise from home.
My son was leaving football training in his Ford Focus on a small local road. Traffic ahead stopped as a vehicle was turning off. A van smashed into the back of his car at speed and pushed his car off the road and into a tree. The car suffered severe rear and frontal damage but the main structure remained solid. He managed to get out with a few cuts and bruises but some weeks later his is still suffering back and neck pains whilst seeing a physio and hasn’t played semi-professional football since. Hopefully he will get back to full health soon, but it is still early days.
Sort
My wife was on the phone to AA Accident Assist when the pictures of the smashed car were texted through. She stopped dead in her conversation and the AA call handler said “Madam, are you OK. Would you like to take a minute?”
Without a doubt, things slowly started looking better after the one call to AA Accident Assist. Yes, I know the blurb says, ‘one call takes care of it’. Well, it did. They arranged recovery of the car and driver, liaison with insurance companies on both sides, disposal of car, loan rental car, insurance settlement for car etc. At a time of pressure and uncertainty it is fair to say that Accident Assist delivered 100%.
I did feel somewhat vindicated with my choice of a five-star EuroNCAP car when my son said,” Dad you were right when way back you said it was best to get safest car we could afford with best crash test record and space at the back.” I hate to think what a smaller car would have looked like after such an impact.
Replace
After a week or so we started thinking of a replacement car. Ironically the price we paid for the 2017 Ford Focus some three and a half years ago had gone up due to the chip shortage and reduced new car sales. Searching the AA Cars used car website became a nightly occurrence. I must say the functionality is great as it is easy to refine make, model, fuel type, proximity, cost, mileage, engine size etc. The other bonus is the free vehicle checks to give reassurance on mileage, how many owners, any outstanding credit, write-offs, colour changes etc.
Now my son has always been a good driver, and indeed received some media attention as the first learner driver to drive legally on a motorway but had never really expressed a particular interest in different types of cars. That now changed and he clearly had his eyes on a Mercedes A-Class if it was black or silver, automatic and petrol. This was quite a change. But he was aware it would cost more than the insurance payout but had done his sums on what he could afford.
Having checked the EuroNCAP Five Star safety ratings I widened the search on AA Cars. The pressure was now on as the rental car was going back on Monday.
But again, AA Cars delivered. A 2018 Model, silver, low mileage and automatic was located at a dealership in North London. I paid a visit to a cramped used car forecourt in Edgeware and the car lived up to its shiny AA Cars image. As ever, it is in my nature to bargain, and I always win. Not in this case. The owner was incredibly honest and showed me what he had paid for it at British Car Auctions about five days previously and then had an MOT done and cleaned it. I then knew, as I thought, I was getting a deal so bought the car there and then. It also comes with free AA membership, but we are pretty covered there.
Thoughts
I have been incredibly impressed with both these AA services. Now some may say, well you work for the AA so what do you expect? What I can say is that I didn’t pull rank and that the service from both AA Accident Assist and AA Cars was outstanding.
It is great in life when a very bad experience is then turned around by excellent customer service. I am proud to say that the AA delivered on both counts. Thank you.