Part of the tradition is surely that your car breaks down, and you discover that your AA membership expired six months ago. You know, hypothetically, that might be the sort of thing that might happen to a really disorganised person. And, the much more organised partner of a person like that might have to pretend it is his (or her) car and get the AA out to tow it back up the motorway.
I drove a hundred miles or more with my old and rather disabled parents in the back of my car. Just as we got to our destination the rear shock absorber went Ca-SMASH - a ghastly noise. Thank goodness, thank fate or whatever, that I was not half way round the M25 when it gave way. I could so easily have been. With no AA cover. Cold shivers.