Folks:
Two weeks ago while driving up for my mother-in-law's 90th birthday, my 2011 BMW 328i picked up a noticeable misfire after stopping for a quick snack at a Burger King in King City, CA. Long story short, I drove it less than 1/2 mile, quickly looping back to the Shell station across the street. I didn't want to do further harm or burn up the cats.
My wife drives a lot for her job so we have the Premier membership that I pay extra for. The Premier membership's primary advance is that they will tow longer distances for free, not response time. I was 55 miles from home. I should add that I've been a AAA member for over 20 years. Not only do they insure my cars, they insure both our homes.
Anyway, I called for a flat bed tow. After one polite followup call, and two reasonable but irritated followup calls, my roadside assistance arrived 4 1/2 hours later! Four and a half hours later?! Totally unacceptable. On my third call the AAA woman even said, "Wow, that would make me angry too!".
I called a towing company near our hometown residence and was arranging an out of pocket tow ($550), when the AAA roadside assistance guy showed up in his flat bed truck. He was great, I have no issue with the service he provided me. And he was equally surprised at how long I had been waiting. He told me he just started his shift and that I was his first call, FWIW. My initial roadside call was shortly after 1PM.
Don't you think 4 1/2 hours is too long? King City is not a large city, but it's not some podunk little town either. And besides I was stranded just 50 miles in either direction from much larger cities. Also too, I had the benefit of being at the Shell station. I was in a safe area with food and water, and a nice little table to sit at.
To be stuck roadside in the middle of nowhere halfway between Templeton and King City would have been far worse. On that stretch of road there are two short sections where there is no cell service. Had my wife been stranded like that I would have been outraged.
Scott
PS I scanned the car when I got home. #5 coil bad. I called around and the Bosch coils are extremely failure prone. Even the BMW dealer told me they replace Bosch coils with Delphi coils (the Delphi coils look like they are better quality, Delphi on left in picture). I ordered them from Pelican Parts and replaced all six, along with a new set of plugs since I was right there in the area.
Two weeks ago while driving up for my mother-in-law's 90th birthday, my 2011 BMW 328i picked up a noticeable misfire after stopping for a quick snack at a Burger King in King City, CA. Long story short, I drove it less than 1/2 mile, quickly looping back to the Shell station across the street. I didn't want to do further harm or burn up the cats.
My wife drives a lot for her job so we have the Premier membership that I pay extra for. The Premier membership's primary advance is that they will tow longer distances for free, not response time. I was 55 miles from home. I should add that I've been a AAA member for over 20 years. Not only do they insure my cars, they insure both our homes.
Anyway, I called for a flat bed tow. After one polite followup call, and two reasonable but irritated followup calls, my roadside assistance arrived 4 1/2 hours later! Four and a half hours later?! Totally unacceptable. On my third call the AAA woman even said, "Wow, that would make me angry too!".
I called a towing company near our hometown residence and was arranging an out of pocket tow ($550), when the AAA roadside assistance guy showed up in his flat bed truck. He was great, I have no issue with the service he provided me. And he was equally surprised at how long I had been waiting. He told me he just started his shift and that I was his first call, FWIW. My initial roadside call was shortly after 1PM.
Don't you think 4 1/2 hours is too long? King City is not a large city, but it's not some podunk little town either. And besides I was stranded just 50 miles in either direction from much larger cities. Also too, I had the benefit of being at the Shell station. I was in a safe area with food and water, and a nice little table to sit at.
To be stuck roadside in the middle of nowhere halfway between Templeton and King City would have been far worse. On that stretch of road there are two short sections where there is no cell service. Had my wife been stranded like that I would have been outraged. Scott
PS I scanned the car when I got home. #5 coil bad. I called around and the Bosch coils are extremely failure prone. Even the BMW dealer told me they replace Bosch coils with Delphi coils (the Delphi coils look like they are better quality, Delphi on left in picture). I ordered them from Pelican Parts and replaced all six, along with a new set of plugs since I was right there in the area.
