American Automobile Association
The term auto club, in the U.S., generally refers to the local affiliate of AAA (formerly known as the American Automobile Association; in 2002, the organization changed its official name to simply the initials). In the early days of motoring this may have indeed been a club, today it is essentially an insurance company which provides emergency towing and road service to motorists who pay an annual membership fee. Local AAA affiliates provide other services such as selling automobile liability insurance and providing free or reduced-price publications to members, such as maps and hotel and motel rating guides.The AAA is also a lobby group. It lobbies the American federal government and state governments for increased spending on roads and automobile safety, and against gas taxes and emissions regulations. They use their large membership to assert that a large percentage of Americans agree with them. Their opponents argue that the AAA does not tell prospective members that it is a lobby group, and that the members join in order to have emergency towing privileges, not because they agree with the political positions of the organization, and that the AAA exploits their members' ignorance.
In Canada the AAA (called "triple-A") operates as the CAA ÃÂÃÂ the Canadian Automobile Association. Members of either one generally enjoy the same privileges in both countries.