IT WAS THE caravanner's worst nightmare. Just one week to go before a long-planned late summer holiday on Anglesey, and our normally ultra-reliable Škoda Octavia Scout developed a gearbox fault, which meant we couldn't tow our Coachman 450.
Annoying and disappointing in equal measure, this left us in something of a quandary over what to do next.
Time to hire a tow car
Cancel the whole trip, or track down a hire company able to supply us with a suitable vehicle to take its place? My husband Colin – who really does love a challenge – insisted on the latter and immediately got on the case.
Most local and regional hire companies said they didn't hire vehicles with a towbar, because it was an insurance risk. Only one said we could hire a car, but we'd have to arrange our own insurance. Our provider said it couldn't offer us cover.
Colin eventually found a rental firm that would hire and insure a car – for
