And as for slighly offtopic comment: have you noticed how hard it is to get various road side assistance companies to actually do something useful?
Few weeks ago slightly aged tire on my not so slightly aged car not only went flat but essentially disappeared on highway (in ~150 kph). As my car was recently broken into I did't have a spare (you are not required to carry spare in Czech Republic, but you are legally required to have some way of fixing broken tires, be it spare, quick-fix-kit or road side assistance subscription). So I correctly assumed that quick-fix kit is of no use when you don't have an actual tire to fix and tried to call road side assistance company which I subscribe to that even offers help with tire replacement. They told me that they cannot do anything else than tow my car somewhere (for like an 2 EUR per km, times two, which was out of question assuming I was like 400km from home) and fix the tire in 2 business days, so I canceled my subscription and went to get spare tire by some other means. In the end my girlfriend called her parents who got me spare tire by some networking and fast talking means in like half an hour, you simply got to like rural areas and people who are always ready to help.
I've seen a few good stories. A friend's old (ok, antique) Jaguar broke down in the middle of a Jag rally up the country. He called the AA, and the guy they sent out was a collector and fellow specialist, who re-wired the loom then and there, at the side of the road. It wasn't a great fix obviously (he couldn't get into top gear, or something like that), but it meant he could keep going with the rally and get it done properly later. Absolutely amazing.
Best experience I've had was in Turkey. Broke down on a Sunday evening, tow truck saw us at the side of the road and gave us a lift to a garage. An official Toyota garage. Shit. The manager of the garage comes out, calls the chief engineer, so now we have four people's time on a Sunday evening to pay for. Turns out we need a new, Toyota-specific part, or we can't drive away, and they have it. At this point they can just name a price, we do not have a choice. It was 100 USD, all-in, parts, labour, and the tow. That price that would be reasonable on a weekday! They must have known that they could charge however much they liked, and they didn't. Much appreciated.
I remember when we were in Mongolia, an axis of our minibus broke. At three in the morning. Our local guides drove around in the second car, and managed to acquire one in an hour or so; the third guy they asked had an axis to spare. The first two guys had some pointers for finding the third guy in the first place.
That's just how it works out there, their ability to fix anything astounded me. We had a new exhaust bracket made by our chef, using an old tire, his kitchen knife, and the poker out of the fire!
You can't generalise from that, at least not internationally. I'm a member of the ÖAMTC (one of the road-side assistance non-profits in Austria) and I've had universally good experiences with them. They're very quick to arrive and know exactly what they're doing, and always friendly. And I've called them out for pretty minor things - I suck at fixing cars myself.
Few weeks ago slightly aged tire on my not so slightly aged car not only went flat but essentially disappeared on highway (in ~150 kph). As my car was recently broken into I did't have a spare (you are not required to carry spare in Czech Republic, but you are legally required to have some way of fixing broken tires, be it spare, quick-fix-kit or road side assistance subscription). So I correctly assumed that quick-fix kit is of no use when you don't have an actual tire to fix and tried to call road side assistance company which I subscribe to that even offers help with tire replacement. They told me that they cannot do anything else than tow my car somewhere (for like an 2 EUR per km, times two, which was out of question assuming I was like 400km from home) and fix the tire in 2 business days, so I canceled my subscription and went to get spare tire by some other means. In the end my girlfriend called her parents who got me spare tire by some networking and fast talking means in like half an hour, you simply got to like rural areas and people who are always ready to help.