I have a long, convoluted history with AAA, and a long, convoluted story to tell. So, if you choose to spare yourself my meandering verbal babbling, look at the star rating without subjecting yourself to the review, and move on. After I started driving as a teen, I would rely on my father to help me out when my very used car broke down (as it so often did). As a family, we weren't poor, but my parents had been raised in the Depression, and my father was...frugal. One time, I was out and about with my then new (now old) friend (we went to the same high school, were both angry, alienated teens, and bonded over a shared fascination with Bonnie & Clyde, Al Capone and Dillinger), when my battered used car abruptly died near a local restaurant, late at night. I called my father, who appeared with a long towrope. He tied one end of the rope to the bumper of my car, secured the other end to the bumper of his car, and started off on the ride back home (this had happened more than once with me, and I hated the whole towrope routine, always feeling like a down-at-the-heels Okie from "The Grapes of Wrath"). Not long into our journey, the rope broke. I drifted to the side of the road, and my father continued on, disappearing into the darkness. We sat for a minute or 2 in silence before my friend plaintively asked, "Your Dad is coming back, isn't he?" He did, about a half hour later, with another length of rope, as I remember it. At some point, my Dad suggested I sign up for AAA, and I did. First time I had to use it, I was in the Bronx, heading back to NJ, when smoke came billowing up under the hood. I knew if I stopped, the car would never start again, and I had horrific images of all the cars I had seen on the Cross Bronx Expressway stripped of everything valuable. It wasn't quite rational, but I was determined not to stop until I hit NJ, and I weaved in and out amongst the traffic until I reached the "safe" harbor of Ft. Lee. In seconds, a non-AAA tow truck swooped down on me and offered to tow me back to Somerset County for a steep price. I agreed. Near Wayne, I remembered AAA. I had the guy drop me off at a shopping center off Rt. 23, paid him what I owed him, and called AAA. In approx. an hour, a tow truck was there. When I told this guy what had happened, he said, "That was a vulture. They prowl the highway. Once, we sat on the highway, pretending to be disabled, and when the vulture came, we beat the shite outa him." Ah...ok... Some years ago, I was laid off from my union job, which I had had for 23 years. A friend, who worked for AAA, called and asked if I wanted to be a "dispatcher." Didn't know what exactly that was, or what the work entailed, but I was terrified, and grasped at it. I knew what I was in for when I saw the "Right To Work" propaganda sign on the company bulletin board; a half dozen steely eyed independent sorts standing on a hilltop, staring down grimly, just daring any Commie Pinko union types to come around trying to get them better wages, improved working conditions, and a future "safety net." Damn Commies! Thankfully, I wasn't there long, but it was a job when I needed one (however awful it was), and I did make some lasting friendships there with some other luckless wage slaves. I let my membership lapse, and I thought periodically of renewing it, but last week my hand was forced. I drove through a pothole...more like a crater (if you're coming off the NJ Turnpike onto 495...watch out!)...and while I was able to get enough air into the tire to get me back home, the tire was finished. In the predawn hours, unable to sleep, I wasn't sure what to do, and finally called AAA. After some hiccups (my 1st call I got a robot and was transferred to 5 minutes of dead air), I spoke to a very nice (live) representative, who signed me up for an unexpectedly reasonable sum. They couldn't provide me with a new tire, but they could put on the spare (the last time I changed a tire was decades ago: I was high, and it was a breeze...now, in my old age, I don't get high and the thought of getting on my hands and knees in the street to change a tire gives me chills). Within a half hour, the truck pulled up outside, and within 10 minutes, the spare was on (the tow truck operator advised me not to drive more than 50 miles on the spare). Granted, it was the pre-dawn hours, which might explain the quickness of the response, but I was grateful, and able to breathe a sigh of some relief. Of course, my ordeal was beginning, as I had to figure out how to buy another tire on a non-business day with not much money in my pocket. But that's another review for another business for another day. Suffice it to say, despite a certain ambivalence on my part, AAA proved to be a life saver, and I'm glad that I'm a member again. Glad that I no longer work for them, but they definitely provide a necessary service for those who drive. So, for now at least, thanks to the hapless "steely eyed" wage slaves at AAA. Recommended. read more