Q.The Need for Roadside Assistance

[URL="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/profile/8291"]Vinyw[/URL] Like most here have pointed out RSA is a good thing to have. It's like insurance, you might not use it, in fact you'll be glad if you didn't, but you'll still happily pay the premium every year for peace of mind. I had a clutch failure in the middle of town in Pune few months back. This was when the RSA came in handy. Because although I was in the middle of the city, I didn't have the means to take the car to the Authorised Service Center. Mahindra arranged for a flat bed pick up and had the car transported to the Service Center promptly. Depending on the specific offering, RSA also comes with other facilities such as arranging for a taxi to take you a specific number of kilometers from the site of the break down, arranging for keys to be delivered or fuel in case you run out of it, and also in some cases a daily allowance for stay in case you're stranded. Since your car is 4 years old, you have two options- you could opt for Honda's official RSA where the company will arrange for a pick up to the nearest Honda Service Center. Alternately a lot of insurance companies offer premium insurance policies which include a RSA as part of the policy. Since Honda has a decent service network, my advice would be to stick with the company RSA option.

[URL="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/profile/8291"]Vinyw[/URL] A car well serviced and maintained should not require Road side assistance in a perfect scenario. However, the scenario is not always perfect. There can be many things that would call for road side assistance in spite of being service regularly. There can be minor accidents, under body hits and even issues due to errors from the service center(they are also humans after all).Now, inside city limits where the workshop is easily accessible this may not be an issue, but as you mentioned that you do long drives it can be helpful. I have also been been maintaining my car regularly as per the manufacturers recommendations in an authorized service center but still I have required to contact the RSA in the last one year(40,000kms). Once , I had parked my car very close to a rock, which could hit the underbody. As I had parked it behind it, I thought I would reverse while coming out. However, while coming back, I forgot about the rock near the front and moved ahead. The rock hit the underbody where a gear mounting was placed and displaced the mounting. The RSA was called and they came and refitted the mounting. Recently, during monsoons I was driving down to Mumbai. Had got the car serviced just before the trip and had replaced the wiper blades too. 5 am in the morning, 150kms into the journey, the driver side wiper stopped working after being on for 5 minutes. I checked and found that the wiper arm nut had come lose. The spanners in my toolkit were not enough to fix it. In this case, I waited for the rain to stop and took the help of a bike rider. As it was a smaller nut, the toolkit in the bike had the right size spanner and that helped me fix the issue. So, if you do long journeys often ,its good to get an RSA. Sometimes, on weak battery, they also help to jump start the battery while you can get it replaced.

[URL="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/profile/8291"]Vinyw[/URL], Roadside Assistance or RSA comes in handy when you have a breakdown, yes, but in todays time and age and the way cars and bikes are being built, there is less need for them. Most manufacturers, including Maruti, Honda, Hyundai and even the luxury brands such as Mercedes, Audi have an RSA programme that they offer with new cars. There are plenty of options also available in the market otherwise. All are more or less similar when it comes to services and products offered by them. If you are one of the hands on person and don't mind doing small things, like changing a tire or push starting a car, I do not think you need a RSA package. It also depends on what car you use and how long it has been with you. The older the car, chances of it breaking down increase.