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Do you have CAA membership?
If so, I would ask for flatbed towing. Also I think they are only suppose to tow cars that are licenced. Reality is just put an old set of plates on it and claim something is wrong with the car. Tow truck driver usually won't ask many questions as they want the business
Do you have CAA membership?
If so, I would ask for flatbed towing. Also I think they are only suppose to tow cars that are licenced. Reality is just put an old set of plates on it and claim something is wrong with the car. Tow truck driver usually won't ask many questions as they want the business
Things may have changed, but years ago the car had to be registered in your name for 90 days before it was eligible for free towing.
x2 - car had to have a valid plate, many years ago, when I tried this.
And at the same time, CAA picked up my plated X5 when the Rear air suspension crapped out. It sat on a cottage road with the hood up, and keys on the rear tire for 4 days. Obviously I got another ride home, and I thought it would be a few hours of unattended-ness.
Then the dealer took three days to confirm receipt of the vehicle.... "Oh Mr Big Smoke, we noticed you car was towed in...."
For a $2200 warranty repair, you would think they would paid more heed.
Uhaul has Tow Dolly's for 44.95/day, flatbed trailers for 54.95. The boys and I used to own a tow dolly that we would use to go pick up cars, running or not, then when it wasn't used for 3 or4 years, we sold it for what we paid for it. Probably had it for 15 years LOL.
I just renewed my CAA membership , supposedly they only tow cars with a valid plate and a car that is " legitimately " broken ... but the again money talks ... lol
You would need the PLUS membership which allows up to four 165 km tows yearly and costs $135.00 for the year.
The way it works is that you can tow anybody's vehicle, but the owner of the card / service has to be present and show it to the driver.
My guess is it's still cheaper than calling a tow truck and less trouble than using a rental dolly !
My last call they had an issue with it being towed to a residential address. But when i mentioned it was a 911, they understood that it was specialty and I probably did the work myself so it was okay. I've never had an issue getting towed to my home in the past, so not sure if it was just that telephone operator or a new policy. I've never had a driver question anything, but I always tip them at the end.
But as others mentioned, make sure the car has some type of plate..... and at least appears like its a running vehicle.
CAA dispatch said they do not do pickup from one residential address to another residential address. (Last time I broke down was in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning more than a decade ago on the Conestoga parkway in Kitchener, I got it towed home no questions asked) That threw me for a loop. Said I would call back with the name of a garage.
Called back 10 minutes later, with the address of the garage I sometimes use for my cars in Waterloo, it was about 5-10km further than my house, but within the range I am allowed for CAA Plus.
They asked the year make and model on the phone. CAA would send me text updates as to when the driver would arrive.
Text came that driver would arrive in 25 minutes (10:02am) My 2nd call went in sometime after 9:30 am, about 30 minutes out from the sellers house. Time to boogie.
Arrived at the sellers house about 5 minutes before CAA. Put the plate from my Porsche on the Miata, but driver did not check, nor did he ask for my card or DL. It was loaded without incident on a flatbed tow truck. After it was loaded up, I asked the driver (young but competent guy) to drop off the car at my house which was on the way to the garage.. He said no problem and entered the address in his phone instead of the computer on his truck. Gave him a $20 tip before he left.
Driver indicated he needed to head back into Stayner for something and then would be heading to my house.
Saved me $55 plus tax, buying a 12V winch from Princess Auto and jerry rigging someway to get a non running car onto a uhaul trailer.... also 2 trips into town to get and return the trailer.
Overall success.
Got home about 45-60 minutes before the driver, and got the car pushed into the garage.
My weekly driver (my job is now part-time from home, so daily driver is a bit of a misnomer) loses it's garaged parking spot for the next few months....
Went to the dark side last Sunday, bought a CLS55 AMG from a guy in Whitby. Car was not on the road for a while, not insured. The seller called CAA, removed the plates, and car was delivered an hour later to the mechanic at 400/Finch. I wasn't there at the pickup but the car surely arrived without plates.
Those flames surely add double digit HP!! I once had a Jeep towed from N. of Mtl. in the middle of Dec. to the eastern GTA with CAA. 200km's at a time, however this was 25 years ago and I have been fortunate enough to have never used them since so guilt free on the extra long tow. Good luck with the project.
x2 - car had to have a valid plate, many years ago, when I tried this.
And at the same time, CAA picked up my plated X5 when the Rear air suspension crapped out. It sat on a cottage road with the hood up, and keys on the rear tire for 4 days. Obviously I got another ride home, and I thought it would be a few hours of unattended-ness.
Then the dealer took three days to confirm receipt of the vehicle Towing services.... "Oh Mr Big Smoke, we noticed you car was towed in...."
For a $2200 warranty repair, you would think they would paid more heed.
I cannot start up my car and it's in my parking lot in Espoo now. I need to take it to a nearby workshop, but the prices of towing service are ridiculous. Alppilan Autokuljetus wants 120e and Falck 160e. Anyone knows a cheaper option than that? It's a 6km ride... (none of my friends is available for manual towing at the moment). Thanks everyone.
11-21-2019 | 12:32 PM
CAA to deliver used car
