Hey Cool Car Fans,

I get pretty busy as The Cool Car Guy tracking down vehicles and getting paid to solve problems for my clients.  This week I had an interesting situation take place with a client who had purchased a 2008 Volvo S60 with about 75,500 miles on it.  It was a used vehicle that is now six years old and in Colorado we are a very dry climate as a high desert region.

What this means is that hose can often crack, even on vehicles that have lower miles since this vehicle was only driven about 15,000 miles a year.  That is actually pretty low miles for Colorado where people like to live in the suburbs, work in the city and go to the mountains on the Weekends, so they tend to put on about 18,000 to 20,000 miles a year.  It wasn’t an expensive vehicle either, but as anyone who has owned a Volvo or other European car when something goes wrong it can be expensive.

The radiator hose ended up blowing on the vehicle and it damaged the radiator that needed to be repaired.  My client did some research on their own and they were going to get it installed at the Arvada Car Wash where it was shipwrecked for around $600 on site with refurbish parts.  I made a few phone calls and the cost was about $700 at a shop, but I put a call into my friends over at Tires Plus in Lone Tree where I get quite a bit of work done on vehicles.  They gave me a huge discount because of the amount of work that I do with them and they agreed to fix it for $440, including parts and labor.  I told my client that I would also pay the $40, so that they would be looking at a new radiator and hoses for $400.  Everything sounds good and my client is super happy, but then the problem arose.

“HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM.” 

The vehicle could not be driven because the radiator was toast, so it needed to be towed.  Unfortunately, my client didn’t have towing on his insurance.  I made a few calls to towing companies and I don’t know if you’ve checked into the cost of towing a vehicle, but I ship vehicles across the country all the time and getting one towed is ridiculous!  The first place a called with a discount for me as The Cool Car Guy they wanted $85 to hook it up and $4 per mile to tow it.  The distance between the two locations was 28 miles, so my client was looking at $197 to get it towed.  I called the next place and they were $80 to hook it up and $3 per mile, so $164 to get it towed.  That was enough for me, so I decided to call AAA and see how their program worked.

AAA offers a basic membership for $75 that includes four roadside assistance calls and they will tow your vehicle up to 4 miles with that membership.  They offers some other benefits as well, but that’s not what I was interested in finding out on this call.  I was trying to see if I could help my client solve their problem.  By the way, I’m doing all of this for free for my client while he’s working at his job, for those of you who wonder why people use my service.  The second package is called the Plus Membership and it’s $125 for this membership, but it includes up to 100 miles of towing included in the package.

Wow!  That’s less than a tow truck, but could he become a member today and actually use the service.  The answer is that he would have to wait until the next day when the service became active to get the membership benefits.  However, why not wait one more day and get your vehicle towed up to 100 miles for $125, plus get a year of AAA benefits?

That’s a great deal!

So for those of you driving older cars, you should make sure that you have towing on your insurance because it can be a costly experience or get a AAA membership with the Plus feature.  They also offer a car buying service like Costco, but they still can’t compete with The Cool Car Guy because this is all I do.

By the way, his wife ended up calling her Farmer’s Agent and they added towing to her policy that cost them $90 to get it towed.  The AAA was still the better deal because of the additional benefits, but they wanted it towed and fixed in one day.  Either way, problem was solved and their Volvo is getting fixed complete with a warranty from Tires Plus for the repair.

You can check out AAA’s Membership Programs by clicking here.

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy