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Road side assistance, BMW or AMA?

tvtommy

New member
Thanks for reading...

Faced with a choice here...my BMW road side assistance package on my 2009 GSA is about to expire. Should I renew with BMW at $99 per year? Or go with AMAs deal?

Any one have experience with one, the other, or both?

Thanks in advance!
 
Interesting as I just received the invite to re-up mine as it was expired. Usually I like to know who actually administers the roadside program. I know "who ya gonna call" I'd like to know "whose a gonna' show up" :dunno OM
 
AMA costs less (~$59/yr as part of your AMA membership), but only tows for ~32 miles to wherever you want to go that is within those 32 miles.
BMW costs more, but delivers you to the nearest dealer. Which may not be the one you want to go to...

my F8GS killed its transmission one Sunday in Denver. BMW would tow me to one of the Denver dealers (and apparently leave the bike outside for 2 days, as the shop was closed on Sunday & Monday). But i live <10 miles form the Loveland dealer, which is where i wanted the bike to be for repairs. I used my AMA to get it most of the way home, tehn a friend met me at an exit with a bike trailer to bring it the rest of the way.

so- benefits and limitations to both. you might want to look into "Option 3"; which could be your car insurance, or some other private towing reimbursement service (AAA, etc.)
 
AMA costs less (~$59/yr as part of your AMA membership), but only tows for ~32 miles to wherever you want to go that is within those 32 miles.
BMW costs more, but delivers you to the nearest dealer. Which may not be the one you want to go to...

my F8GS killed its transmission one Sunday in Denver. BMW would tow me to one of the Denver dealers (and apparently leave the bike outside for 2 days, as the shop was closed on Sunday & Monday). But i live <10 miles form the Loveland dealer, which is where i wanted the bike to be for repairs. I used my AMA to get it most of the way home, tehn a friend met me at an exit with a bike trailer to bring it the rest of the way.

so- benefits and limitations to both. you might want to look into "Option 3"; which could be your car insurance, or some other private towing reimbursement service (AAA, etc.)

Check out Allstate RV Roadside Assistance. If you live anywhere west of the Appalachians, a 32 mile limitation is a joke. All that does is find you the tow service. West of the Mississippi it can be 500 miles. To "nearest qualified service facility" is common. I don't know anybody who will agree in advance to tow you past one dealer to get to one you like better but sometimes a little negotiation with the driver will work.
 
Consider the MOA "Platinum" membership upgrade for $26 per year. Covers 100 miles towing and a number of other things. Details can be found on the web page, the Owners News, or by calling the office.
 
Twice;

Had the need to be towed by BMW plans that simply did not help at all! Too far or nowhere near a dealer that was open for days. They would have towed, but for very large dollars. Getting to the nearest town with a UHaul truck facility has saved my bacon twice and works more user friendly:). One KUDO to BMW assistance, is they REFUNDED my one UHaul trip expenses to the limit of the plan. NICE touch, glad I asked'em:). A warranty job on the bike may have helped...Randy:clap
 
All good info... :thumb

Awesome idea....take me to a Uhaul, place, I'll handle the rest.

So more investigation, a comparison between AMA and MOA packages.
 
AMA costs less (~$59/yr as part of your AMA membership), but only tows for ~32 miles to wherever you want to go that is within those 32 miles.

The towing plan with AMA used to be free if you renewed your membership online.
Now that I'm a lifetime AMA member and no longer have to pay a membership fee I would have to pay for the towing plan if I wanted it.
 
This is starting to look like a no-brainier...

MOA offers towing 100 miles per occurrence.....AMA only does 35.
 
Check out Allstate RV Roadside Assistance. If you live anywhere west of the Appalachians, a 32 mile limitation is a joke. All that does is find you the tow service. West of the Mississippi it can be 500 miles. To "nearest qualified service facility" is common. I don't know anybody who will agree in advance to tow you past one dealer to get to one you like better but sometimes a little negotiation with the driver will work.

Hi Paul, Have you had any experience with the Allstate Roadside Assist? It's my understanding that Allstate is the provider of the BMW Roadside Assistance and my experience (and that of many others) is that their contractor quality control is pretty terrible. Their contractors are supposed to meet a minimum criteria to be considered a BMW Roadside Assistance tow provider - suitable equipment, experience and skill, ability to safely store the bike if needed, and no owner requirements like ride-along or release of liability. I've encountered contractors sent out did not meet any of that criteria.

You can compare different policies for distance and reimbursement limits but if the tow contractor dispatched is basically a opportunistic criminal none of that matters. I've had a BMW Roadside tow contractor tell me that I would be required to sign a complete release of liability for any damage they caused to my bike and that I would have to pay them and get reimbursed from BMW Roadside. When you're stranded these criminals pray on your situation. In my incident this year I ended up having to arrange for my own tow and fight to get reimbursed from BMW Roadside - which they eventually did to the max limit of their policy.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to find out how good the contractor quality control is at any of these companies and I would guess the companies themselves don't know how much fraud is going on amongst their contractors.
 
Another vote for the MOA Platinum. :thumb

I had to use it once. It was efficient and painless.

:dance:dance:dance
 
MOA emergengy service

I had a bike die in northern Nevada last Spring. I tried to use the MOA Platinum insurance and discovered it wouldn't do squat for me. The person on the other end of the line was curt and not at all helpful. I was in a tiny town without much at all. I asked that the bike be taken to a larger town - anywhere in that town - as my expectation was that services (a shop or the good folks in the Anonymous book) would be available. Nope. I needed a specific address where I would be looking to go, or there would be NO towing. Well, not having any experience or contacts in that town, I was SOL. I rented the only truck in town and hauled my bike home -- and completely burned through my tour budget. :-(
I subsequently went with the "regular" MOA membership when I renewed. The Platinum plan I'd been paying for was simply a waste.
So, I guess I'm now in the market for an emergency towing service, too.
 
I had a bike die in northern Nevada last Spring. I tried to use the MOA Platinum insurance and discovered it wouldn't do squat for me. The person on the other end of the line was curt and not at all helpful. I was in a tiny town without much at all. I asked that the bike be taken to a larger town - anywhere in that town - as my expectation was that services (a shop or the good folks in the Anonymous book) would be available. Nope. I needed a specific address where I would be looking to go, or there would be NO towing. Well, not having any experience or contacts in that town, I was SOL. I rented the only truck in town and hauled my bike home -- and completely burned through my tour budget. :-(
I subsequently went with the "regular" MOA membership when I renewed. The Platinum plan I'd been paying for was simply a waste.
So, I guess I'm now in the market for an emergency towing service, too.

100 Main St. Every town has one. And if it turns out to be a vacant lot... "gee, i guess i had bad information. just set it down there, i'll take over from here."
 
I had a bike die in northern Nevada last Spring. I tried to use the MOA Platinum insurance and discovered it wouldn't do squat for me. The person on the other end of the line was curt and not at all helpful. I was in a tiny town without much at all. I asked that the bike be taken to a larger town - anywhere in that town - as my expectation was that services (a shop or the good folks in the Anonymous book) would be available. Nope. I needed a specific address where I would be looking to go, or there would be NO towing. Well, not having any experience or contacts in that town, I was SOL. I rented the only truck in town and hauled my bike home -- and completely burned through my tour budget. :-(
I subsequently went with the "regular" MOA membership when I renewed. The Platinum plan I'd been paying for was simply a waste.
So, I guess I'm now in the market for an emergency towing service, too.

Another reason to have a GPS. You can look up places anywhere (restaurants, motels, repair shops). You can always modify the tow by negotiating with the driver when you get into the town.

Sorry about your bad experience. The lady that handled my incident was very friendly and helpful. The tow service could not have been better. I'm sure every service has their good and bad times. I think a lot of the national services want addresses for their paperwork. If you had given them one (when traveling by motorcycle, sometimes you are required to be resourceful), I'm sure you would have been happy with the service.



:dance:dance:dance
 
Another reason to have a GPS. You can look up places anywhere (restaurants, motels, repair shops). You can always modify the tow by negotiating with the driver when you get into the town.

We were riding in the absolute middle of nowhere in South Dakota on a state highway - 23 or so miles north of an interstate interchange where there was nothing but weeds when Voni's bike suffered total electrical death. We called the tow service. They sent a driver with a trailer equipped for motorcycle rescue.

He had been told to haul us to the Harley dealer in Pierre. Since it was Sunday (why is it always Sunday?) and the dealership wouldn't be open till Tuesday I told him to just haul it to the nearest decent Motel. I told him that if I couldn't fix it in the motel lot the Harley shop wouldn't be able to do it any time soon either. He offered to just haul us to his shop but I didn't want company at that moment so Voni convinced him to just drop us at a motel. This was just before the start of our ill fated 49 State/10 day ride where my beloved K75 got totalled.

Fuller story here: http://web.bigbend.net/~glaves/ridereport.htm
 
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