Towing or roadside assistance: which one do you actually need?

People use the two words as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and the difference is usually the difference between one short visit and having your car loaded onto a truck.

Roadside assistance is everything done at the side of the road to get your own car moving again under its own power. Towing is when the car cannot do that and has to be carried.

It is roadside assistance if

• The battery is dead but the engine is otherwise fine. That is a jump start.
• You have a flat and a usable spare. That is a tire change.
• You ran the tank dry. That is a fuel delivery.
• The keys are sitting on the driver's seat behind a locked door. That is a lockout.

All four end with you driving away in your own car. If your situation is on that list, say so on the phone rather than asking for a tow, because a tow is the more expensive answer to a problem you do not have.

It is a tow if

• The engine will not start even after a jump, or it starts and immediately dies.
• There is no spare, or the tire is destroyed rather than flat.
• Anything is leaking, smoking, or the temperature gauge is pegged.
• The car has been in a collision, however minor it looks.
• The steering is locked, a wheel will not turn, or the car will not come out of park.

The grey area, and how to handle it

Sometimes it genuinely is not clear. A jump start that works and then fails again twenty minutes later is a charging-system problem, not a battery problem, and it will strand you a second time. A tire that holds air for ten miles is a slow puncture that will be flat again in the morning.

When it is ambiguous, describe the symptom rather than naming the service. Say what the car did, not what you think it needs. Anyone who does this for a living can tell from the description which truck to bring, and it is a far better use of the call than guessing.