Besides the towing capability, I am trying to justify not needing to purchase AAA. I wonder if MB roadside assistant change a flat tire without any cost as well.
I have Extended Life Warranty for 7 years, and my '24 GLE already have a spare tire in the back.

 

I have AAA only because I have always had it. You can go online and see exactly what MB roadside assistance covers. It does include towing. You probably don’t need AAA.

 

Towing is the only big difference justification for me it seems like. MB roadside assistance towing is only to the nearest MB stealership while AAA can tow 100 or 200 miles to anywhere.
Though I also wonder what people's experience with MB roadside assistance with changing a flat tire. Hopefully they don't upsell me of towing to dealer when all I need is to change to spare tire if that was the problem.

 

You’re overthinking it. If it’s a warranty issue, wouldn’t you want it towed to a MB dealer? I would think that if you have a spare, they would change it. If you’re worried about roadside assistance, adding it to your insurance may be cheaper.

 

Both the MB Roadside and my auto insurance (bundled with homeowners) only tow to the nearest "service center." Since the car is under warranty, both interpret it as an MB Dealer.

I pay extra to go 60 miles past the nearest MB shop because that's my choice. Cost about $100.
I've had to be towed twice, once with my insurance, and once with MB. MB charged at the end on the ticket, and I paid the driver for the insured towing.

MB will change a flat, I think for free. They'll sell you a tire, fill your gas, etc., and charge for it. (Tire - if in stock - good luck.)

 

I still have AAA.

Here are the reasons:

1. The discounts on lodging pay for it many times over. Basically 10% off any hotel room.

2. AAA is often faster than MB Roadside (or any other roadside)

3. MB Roadside will only tow to an MB dealer. I had a flat in my S560 with so spare and had to be towed, I didn't want to be towed to MB and pay $500 for a runflat tire when I could go to my tire shop and get the tires I want. MB refused, so I called AAA.

 

Roadside assistance does change a tire if you have a spare. I have had the experience. CAA is the Canadian AAA and they are the company used by MB in Ontario for roadside assistance.

 

When you say 10% off any hotel room, how does this work? Say if I randomly go on a vacation to somewhere, does AAA reimburse me ten percent? Or is it only for accidents situations?

 

You have a 24 GLE if it breaks it best be, being towed to the dealer.

AAA is for cars out of warranty. I have a few beaters and that's why I keep AAA.

 

AAA is not quick in my area it's always a 2 hour wait, and I live in NY. When my Porsche broke it was a 3 hour wait because they couldn't find anyone who wanted to tow a high end car.

 

When you book the room AAA rates are typically an available room rate class, you just get the 10% discount right upfront. Its the same as say the AARP discount.

I doubt MB Roadside would be faster...they just call the same people AAA does. In any event though, if you have both you can see who will be faster.

 

My insurance company allows me to call around for a towing company, which they'll hire even though it's not in their list of vendors.

Mercedes also uses outside vendors, and I'll bet they also will allow you to shop around.
I had a pretty long conversation with the call handler, after I pushed the SOS button. In that case, I didn't need a tow, but it sounded like she had flexibility to contact outside resources.

I'm pretty sure either one would pick up a tire if it's available and you found one.

I'm not very good at waiting for a dispatcher.

 

For the price of a few good cups of coffee a month, AAA is well worth it imho.

 

I have a 2022 GLE AMG 63 S that got a hole in the radiator in between Billings and Missoula, MT. Only 2 Mercedes dealers in MT.... Missoula and Billings. They said they would tow it to the dealer in Billings. However, I was headed for our Lakehouse in Idaho and said I wanted it towed to the dealership in Missoula. They agreed if I paid for the extra mileage. I think it was around $100 extra. The tow was 225 miles and 3.5 hours. I don't think AAA would have done that as they are mileage limited. Anyway, hope to not have to go through the same thing again.

 

For the MB roadside assistance, sometimes, it's the dealers themselves that participate in the program and will tow you to their service place. So, it's not always the same people as AAA, depending on your region and participating dealers. Additionally, for in-warranty repairs on inoperable vehicles, MB roadside assistance provides way more than "10% discount on lodging":

Trip Interruption

Trip Interruption keeps you ready for the unexpected. A Mercedes-Benz dealer will reimburse you up to $300 per nightDisclaimer[5] for lodging, food and related travel expenses if your vehicle breaks down under these conditions:
•You’re more than 100 miles from home
•Your vehicle is inoperable and covered via warranty
•Your vehicle must remain overnight for repairs

 

I agree that using the Mercedes Roadside assistance is preferable to AAA, especially if you do a lot of traveling in remote areas. The one thing to remember is that towing may be included but some of the other benefits work only if it is "warranty" related. In my case, where a rock went through one of the radiators, it was not a warranty issue so the other benefits were not covered.

 

My AAA membership is for any vehicle I own or am a passenger in...

A few years ago I was riding in a friend's BMW that broke down. Based on my AAA gold card, they towed the car 96 miles to the BMW dealership closest to my friends house.

Don't drive from home without it...!

 

It depends on what AAA membership you have. The Premier will tow you 200 miles, and then its $7 a mile over that.

 

Question @SW20S , why do you think we (anyone with a new or CPO) mbemz should be extra for AAA (aside from #1 above) if we already have Mbenz roadside assistant for free (at least I have it for free with my CPO)? My understanding is that ALL service providers in the US (maybe most of them) use the same network for roadside assistant whether it's ATT, Mbenz, BMW, AAA, Verizon roadside programs. --> Was that also your understanding? In fact I heard a few people on BMW forums saying that when calling BMW roadside assistant, it was a AAA team that showed up.
Another question "MB Roadside will only tow to an MB dealer": I think they'd still tow somewhere else if you live hours or 100s of miles away from Mbenz dealer. isn't?

 

The devils in the details. AAA will tow you "up to" 200 miles. "Up to" are the magic words. They will not tow you to a dealer if there is a "repair" shop closer (their opinion). If your car is under warranty, you want the dealer to work on it. AAA doesn't care if it is under warranty or not. Anyway, the answer of which is better is totally dependent on everyone's specific circumstances. There is no one answer for everyone. This discussion has done a reasonably good job of pointing out the pluses and minuses which are situational for each person.

 

Oh yeah, all MB does is call AAA essentially. Lexus was the same way. AAA covers you though in any car, rental cars, cars of friends you are traveling in. I was at my wife's family's home visiting and one of their cars wouldn't start, AAA came out and jumped it for free because I was there. On top of that, it actually makes me money every year because all I need to do is save 10% on a $1,500 hotel stay to pay for it. Plus the flexibility to tow the car to someplace other than an MB dealer for things like tires etc its worth it IMO.

Has not been my experience at all. They will tow it wherever I tell them to within that radius and they will tow it wherever I want outside of it they just charge. They will absolutely tow it to the dealer if you tell them to.

The opposite of this, MB roadside WILL NOT tow it anywhere BUT the dealer. Under no circumstances. I just went through this last year when I had a flat with no spare and I wanted it towed to my independent shop I have tires from TireRack installed at and MB refused. My only option was to have them take it to MB where I would be forced to pay their insane prices for a runflat tire I didn't want. So I called AAA.

Since not only is AAA free but actually makes me money through discounts I see no reason not to also keep it.

 

I get the same lodging discount by asking for "Best Available." It's the AAA rate or better.

AAA just calls tow companies on their list, as do most other Roadside Assistance programs.
To my knowledge there is no "AAA Towing Company" that MB calls.
MB also uses a list of local DOT certified companies - but there are others that I can "nominate."

My bundled insurance has the most flexibility in my experience. And if I want I can get a special deal to Italy.

So I have three ways to get towed, none of which are AAA. The third Way is I pay for the tow and file for reimbursement.

AAA doesn't work for me but it works for others.

 

Depends on the hotel chain, in my experience the "best available" rate is still higher than the AAA/AARP rate. In any event its only $150 a year...