ADAC Reviews 

So our only 12v car output didnt work anymore, we went by ADAC and after 5 minutes of waiting they fixed it for free and gave us an extra fuse. Thanks for helping out a couple of roadtrippers!!

ADAC apparently sent me a "valuable offer" in the mail that masqueraded as junk mail. According to an ADAC person I talked to, I had to reply to the notice and decline the "valuable offer"; otherwise, ADAC would consider my lack of a reply as consent to start billing me about €33 per month for insurance I don't want or need. After visiting an ADAC office to cancel my ADAC membership, the person told me all billing would stop. It didn't. ADAC is still draining my bank account of about €33 per month. Thieves.

Very big and reputable Automobile Club.
I am a member for years and they are SUPERB.

Most of the negative reviews come from Brits who are expecting full cover in their home country but it does not work as they wish.

Very happy with my ADAC Plus family for my worldwide cover.
In the UK I have The AA Full cover.

Needed my ADAC travel insurance during a trip to Thailand, everything worked out great, no problems!

I paid for ADAC cover for years but never used it. I paid the extra for the top level, which included vehicle repatriation and onward travel for myself and fellow passengers.

One Saturday night, as I was driving to the ferry to get back home from a trip abroad, my car broke down. I called the ADAC, the guy didn't speak English so he just said "no" and put the phone down. I called back, got a different guy, he also didn't speak English.....he put the phone down too! At this point I started worrying. After about 20 minutes I got through to someone but unfortunately they wrote my location details AND phone number down wrong, so 1.5 hours later the breakdown company hadn't arrived. I called ADAC back and had to give my location details again.

When the breakdown driver found me, he said he was finishing his shift in 10 minutes and didn't have time to help. He had a (very quick) look and declared the car unsalvageable. I had to arrange for a tow truck to take me to the nearest garage. I called ADAC back to enquire about the onward travel details, as we had a ferry booked that night. The guy laughed at me down the phone and was very rude. He spoke to me as though I was stupid to expect them to cover the cost of getting me to the ferry on time! I explained my boyfriend was starting a new job on Monday & we had to get there, he said "who is stupid enough to go abroad when they have a new job on Monday?". I was nearly in tears at this point and the tow truck driver even commented on how rude ADAC were.

I had to leave the car behind and rent one to get us to the ferry on time, then bring the rental car back a week later! It turned out the original problem with my own car was a faulty relay. It cost about £2 to fix and took 15 minutes, but we couldn't have known that because the breakdown driver didn't want to spend any time looking for the problem.

When I complained to ADAC they told me that the call centre people couldn't have hung up on me and that it must be a faulty phone system. No, I was there and I know what happened. They said they're a German company and customers shouldn't expect them to speak English. Fair enough, but then don't provide policy literature in English versions if you're not trying to attract English customers. All in all a horrible experience and I would never use ADAC again. I definitely don't recommend them!

In December 2015 or January 2016 I signed up for a comprehensive insurance on my car. I was also sold membership for myself and two kids because I was told there was great offers and discounts to be part of the club. One of the benefits was some kind of priority roadside service.

In 2016 I called because I had left the lights on in my car. This was from Ettlingen on the main street; Ettlingen is not some Hamlet, it is a reasonable sized town with a few reasonabley large sized businesses. You may not know where it is, but if you worked for a company that offered roadside assistance, you might have a map or access to Google to find it. For two hours and numerous phone calls, I was unable to get the operator to understand my location. I gave her the street name, the name of three streets that connect directly to that street and the name of two very large national companies that are located on that street and all I got back was her telling me she could not find the street or the address on any map she had. I gave up and started to walk home when a old man who lived nearby offered to jump start my car. This old man was not an employee of ADAC but some random stranger.

Later that year, I had battery problems again. I called and asked for a jump start - it was below zero and I had not used my car for a few weeks, so clearly the battery was at fault. I was told that roadside assistance would take 3-4 hours. I started to walk to work (20kms, but I do this often and quicker than 4 hours). My neighbor later helped jump start my car. She is not an employee of ADAC, just another random stranger.

At no time during the year did I receive any special offers - their magazine is the standard syndicated collection of articles and adverts one gets from similar types of organisations the world over, the club website had no offers in my area (the same area I signed up in) and at no point have I ever been asked or offered a discount or any deal based on membership. There are no signs that I have noticed in cinemas or clubs or stores that offer deals for members, so clearly, the 'plus' option is a scam. The only store i found that offers some kind of benefit was the ADAC store itself. I cancelled my membership at the end of the year as it was a money pit with no return service or value.

I continued the insurance. As I was new to Germany, I was charged the rate of an 18 year old driver with no driving experience. I am 44 and have been driving since I was 18. I have my license from that time proving I passed a drivers test and have held a license since then, but this meant nothing to them as my German car driving license was dated with the conversion date of the same year.

So, a little over 2 years and I paid them over €3000 for vehicle insurance. I thought this was a bit high, but it was comprehensive and I considered that it is new for me to drive in this climate and region, the car is old - 2003, but has low mileage and was in good condition so I took the hit.

Fast forward to last week, when I was driving and a wild boar ran out into the street and hit my car from the side. This was my first claim from ADAC. On Thursday morning, I called to check what I need to do - there was damage to my car, it was driveable but not pretty, there was no other injuries, the boar ran off into the forest, there were other cars hit and I had a witness who was passing by on a bicycle. As instructed, I logged the accident with the police and sent all paperwork and photos to ADAC for consideration. The policeman told me verbally that I should not be seen driving that car as the bumper was hanging a bit off and the side looked bad (even though it was functional, it was just not pretty).

I called and was told somebody would call me back.

On Friday, I called and was told somebody would call me back.

I had no plans for the weekend, so I did not chase this up.

On Monday - nothing, no return calls, no communication. I fired off an email from their website explaining my situation, I received a return email stating the complaint had been received and would be answered in good time.

Tuesday, I had heard nothing, so I called and was told that as I was not a member of their club, I was not entitled to priority service and I had to wait for a call. I explained this was unacceptable and wanted to be transferred to an agent that could help or at the least give me the name and number of this person that was supposed to be returning calls. I was transferred twice before the call was dropped. One of the agents told me flat out she had no idea where I was - I am in a city of 300000 people. She could not find this city on a map, I asked her if she could Google the city name, she told me she could not. I would take time to remind the reader at this point, this company, ADAC, sells roadside assistance.

I called again. This time I was told that there was nobody available to help, that the car was too old to repair and an agent would be dispatched to see the car damage, but this might take another 48 hours. I was again reminded that since I had not maintained my membership, they would be only applying 'best efforts'...

Everybody goes on holiday next week, I have a car that is driveable, but likely to get pulled over as it looks dodgy. I realise I should own two cars or have alternative plans and sometimes this is how the universe works, but I did pay ADAC over €3000 over two years, and here we are.

If you are considering ADAC for insurance of any kind or any deals or membership program, I would suggest, based on my experience that you place your money in a little pile in the center of your lounge and set fire to it. This way, you will get some heat and light and that would be better value than supporting this organisation that is clearly trying to charge the absolute maximum possible for the least possible return.

Seriously, there are many, many other insurance organisations to choose from, I don't know for sure if any of those others are circuses or not, I definitely know what ADAC is.

Signed up for a Family membership. Cancelled it one year later (before the deadline). Got another bill. Why?

Because even though I singed up and put the names of my family members (wife and two kids) that should be protected by my contract, ADAC states that it is a contract with each person individually. So I should have sent a cancellation, that does not say "I cancel MY membership", but the letter should have mentioned each person's individual membership. I will write another cancellation letter now.

Thought on the side:
Did my wife sign a contract? No, but since the ADAC sent her a letter congratulating her to her membership, she should have complained at that point, that the did not want to have it. But of course she did not want to undo this (we wanted to have the family insurance). So she silently accepted it and there was the individual contract.

One More Thing
BEWARE: even your children have contracts, that will cost money once they turned 19 (the first year when being 18 is free).

Did they tell me or was this information about individual contracts and children somewhere visible? No of course not. Instead you can find it in the small print somewhere deeply hidden towards the end.

Fantastic company! Trust? 0!