Need a tow? 24/7 towing in Santa Maria, CA
Stuck, stalled or locked out? We bring a tow truck, a flatbed, a winch line or a jump pack to you at any hour - in town, in Orcutt, out on the farm roads or along the 101.
Call us, answer four quick questions, and we handle the rest
Here's how a call to Santa Maria Tow Truck goes, day or night. You tell us your location and what you're driving. Then you tell us what went wrong and where you'd like the car taken. By the end of that call, you'll know which truck is coming, the full price, and a realistic time frame for its arrival.
In the Census Bureau's count, 67.1 percent of people in Santa Maria speak a language other than English at home. If Spanish is easier for you, the same help is on our Spanish page: ¿Necesita una grúa? Lea esta página en español.
The four questions we'll ask you
- Your whereabouts. Your street and the closest intersection, which parking lot you're in, or the highway plus the last exit sign you saw - on the 101, exit numbers match the mile markers.
- Year, make and model, and what drives it: the front wheels, the rear, all four, or an electric motor. The answer picks wheel-lift or flatbed.
- The problem. It won't start, it died while you were driving, you were in a collision, you're stuck, a tire is flat, or the keys are locked inside.
- Final stop. Your own mechanic, the dealership, home - or, if you haven't decided yet, tell us and we'll help you choose first.
The truck we bring depends on your wheels
A two-wheel-drive car, pickup or van usually rides on the wheel-lift: the boom picks up the drive axle, wheel straps cinch the tires, and the other axle rolls behind the tow truck. The drive end gets checked first: drag a front-wheel-drive car by its front wheels, as AAA's comparison notes, and the transmission can be damaged.
Anything with all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive or an electric motor goes on the flatbed instead, and so does a car that sits low, a car that can't roll, or a motorcycle - chocked at the front wheel, strapped at the frame and never parked on its center stand. The deck lowers to the pavement, our winch draws the vehicle aboard, and it travels with no tire touching the road. Each carmaker gives its reasons in its own manual, and our flatbed page lays them out carmaker by carmaker.
Some calls are over the moment the engine turns again. A battery gives about 30 percent less at freezing, 32°F, AAA says, and the valley does get the odd frosty morning; curbs slice tires, and keys end up on the seat. That's roadside help - a boost, a spare put on or your door opened, and every truck we send carries a booster pack, a floor jack and door-opening tools. When the fix at the car doesn't take, we switch to round-the-clock emergency towing.
We keep to light-duty work: everyday vehicles from motorcycles up to pickups and vans. Driving something heavier than that? We'll say so on the first call, so you're free to phone a heavier outfit right away.
Free quote
Choose the kind of help you need in Santa Maria, CA
Tap whichever card fits what happened to your car. On each page you'll see the gear that job takes and what moves its price - and, often enough, a way to get rolling again without being towed.
24/7 emergency towing
Stalled or crashed on the 101, the 166, Highway 1 or Broadway - or on your own block? Call at any hour and you'll hear our timing before you hang up.
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Roadside fixes, no tow needed
A jump, a spare bolted on, a few gallons of fuel or a door opened: most of these visits end with your car running right where it sat.
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Wheels-up flatbed towing
Every tire rides off the pavement: the right way to carry an all-wheel-drive or electric car, a lowered classic, a motorcycle or a car that no longer rolls.
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Winch-outs from sand and mud
Axle-deep in dune sand, sunk on a muddy field road or tipped into a ditch? We pull you onto firm footing first, and a tow follows only if the pull reveals damage.
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How your tow is priced
What shapes our quote, the rules California applies to tows someone else ordered, and what a tow yard's invoice has to show you.
Learn moreGive us your exit number: the roads we cover around Santa Maria
Through Orcutt and Santa Maria the 101 has nine exits. They start at 165, Clark Avenue, and run through Union Valley Parkway, Santa Maria Way, Betteravia, Stowell, Main Street, Donovan and Broadway to 175, where the 166 branches east and the freeway crosses the Santa Maria River into San Luis Obispo County. Break down anywhere along there, and our driver loads your car right beside moving freeway lanes.
If the car will still move, use that last bit of momentum to get it onto the shoulder, switch on your hazards, and have everyone leave by the doors nearest the shoulder. If it has died in a travel lane, phone 911 at once and stay in your seat, belt on and hazards blinking, until the CHP has the lane blocked. On this part of the 101 there's no Freeway Service Patrol, so the help that comes is a CHP unit and a tow truck.
In town the 166 is Main Street, and heading west it becomes West Main on the way to Guadalupe. East of the 101 it climbs the Cuyama River canyon, and the next services are 52 miles away in New Cuyama. The road has closed for mudslides and flooding in early 2023, for a flash flood on September 19, 2024, and for grass fires. Break down out there in July, when New Cuyama averages a 94.6°F high, and the wait is long - so tell us the last mile marker you saw and whether you're carrying water.
Broadway is the 135, the road that runs west of the 101 as a bypass. It starts in Los Alamos as Bell Street, shares pavement with Highway 1 south of Orcutt, then heads north through Orcutt, past the Santa Maria Town Center at Broadway and Main, and meets the freeway at exit 173. Betteravia Road, exit 169, links the freeway to Broadway past the Enos Ranch and Crossroads parking lots.
Where Highway 1 splits from the 135 it heads for Vandenberg's main gate, about 17.6 miles from town. At its other end it runs northwest to Guadalupe and along the inland edge of the dunes up to Grover Beach. It flooded between Division Street and Oso Flaco Road in January 2023, and on February 4, 2024 it was shut from Black Road to Solomon Road.
Farm dirt, dune sand and marine fog
Farming is Santa Barbara County's leading industry, and strawberries have been its top crop 22 years in a row, so the valley floor is mostly fields with dirt lanes between them. Nearly all of Santa Maria's 13.95 inches of yearly rain falls between November and April, and after a storm a pickup that slips a wheel into soft ground needs a winch-out from mud, sand or a ditch near Santa Maria: we pull it back out slowly, and it goes on a truck only if the car can't be driven afterward. The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes give us the same job with sand underneath instead of mud.
Our fog is the marine layer rather than tule fog: low stratus cloud blown in off the cold Pacific and trapped under a temperature inversion, sometimes for days on end. A car sitting on a damp shoulder in it is easy to miss, so turn on your hazards and have everyone wait well away from it. Under California's Move Over law, CVC 21809, drivers who see amber lights flashing on a stopped tow truck must change lanes when it's safe, or else slow down - and since January 1, 2026, that duty extends to every car pulled over with its hazards blinking.
You get one price before we roll - here's how we build it
Before a truck leaves, you'll have a single price from us, built on four things: the truck your car needs, the miles it travels, how long the job keeps us on site, and any winching or extra effort ahead of the hook-up. If the scene doesn't match what we heard - say, the two-wheel-drive pickup turns out to be a 4x4 sunk in dune sand - we stop, explain what changed and get your OK on a new price before doing anything more.
No California law puts a dollar ceiling on a tow you book directly with us; the price you agree to is the price. The state's rules are aimed at tows someone else orders. Under CVC 22658, a private-lot tow may not cost more than the rotation rate set for local law enforcement - a figure the CHP approves for each Area and keeps to itself. The same section limits you to half the normal towing charge when you reach the car after it's hooked but while it's still on the lot, counts only one day of storage if you pick the car up within 24 hours, and requires the yard to take cash or a bank credit card.
CVC 22651.07 spells out what an itemized towing invoice has to include: dispatch, arrival and finish times, every charge listed separately, the number of storage days, any gate fee, and who ordered the tow. For the rest, read how we put a towing quote together.
Find your town and its distance from Santa Maria
At the 2020 Census Santa Maria had 109,707 residents spread over ZIP codes 93454 through 93458 in northern Santa Barbara County. We cover every part of it, from the Town Center, Enos Ranch and the Crossroads to the airport on Terminal Drive, Allan Hancock College and Marian Regional Medical Center, plus Orcutt, the unincorporated town of 32,034 on the city's southern edge.
Outside town, check the road miles from central Santa Maria below. Distance is the biggest part of any quote, so it helps to know where yours falls:
- Orcutt: 6 miles
- Nipomo: 7 miles, off exit 179 at Tefft Street
- Guadalupe: 9 miles, straight out West Main
- Arroyo Grande: 16 miles
- Vandenberg Space Force Base: 18 miles via the 135 and Highway 1
- Grover Beach: 18 miles
- Los Alamos: 18 to 19 miles, off exit 155 at Bell Street
- Pismo Beach: 22 miles
- Lompoc: 25 to 26 miles
- San Luis Obispo: 29 to 31 miles
- Buellton: 33 miles
- Solvang: 36 miles
- New Cuyama: 54 miles east on the 166
- Santa Barbara: 63 miles
Don't see your town? Give us a call - if we can reach you, we'll tell you what the extra miles cost before you decide.
Frequently asked questions
I'm stranded at 3 a.m. - is Santa Maria Tow Truck open?
Yes. Our phone is staffed 24 hours a day, and a call at midnight from the 101 is priced and dispatched the same way as one at noon from Broadway. How long you'll wait comes down to where our truck is and what the road is doing that night, which is why you get a time window on the phone rather than a promise in minutes. Keep in mind that no Freeway Service Patrol works the 101 here at any hour.
My car needs a tow in Santa Maria - what will it cost me?
Santa Maria Tow Truck gives you one price on the phone, worked out from the distance, the truck your vehicle needs, the time the job takes at the scene and any winching. California sets no dollar limit when the tow starts with your call; its rules cover tows arranged by someone else. For those, CVC 22658 says a private-lot tow can't cost more than the rate approved for local police rotation tows, which the CHP sets for each Area and doesn't publish; if you catch the truck while your car is hooked up but still on the lot, the most you owe is half the normal charge; and one day of storage is all you owe if you collect the car within 24 hours.
I came back to an empty curb in Santa Maria - who has my car?
Call the Santa Maria Police Department's non-emergency number first: (805) 928-3781 ext. 2277. If police had the car towed, SMPD Records releases it at ext. 2294, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., to the registered owner carrying a valid license and current registration, and the City adds an administrative release fee to whatever the yard charges for towing and storage. If the car was on a state highway outside the city, try the CHP Santa Maria Area at (805) 608-6310: the tow company can hand back a stored vehicle, but an impounded one stays put until the CHP signs a release.
If it vanished from a private lot, look at the sign by the entrance. Under CVC 22658, that sign has to tell you which company does the towing and how to call it.
My car drives all four wheels, or runs on a battery - how do you move it safely?
Santa Maria Tow Truck moves all-wheel-drive and electric cars on the flatbed, with all four tires riding clear of the pavement - the method the carmakers themselves call for. Subaru's owner's manual warns that its all-wheel-drive models must never be towed with only the front or only the rear raised, because of how the center differential works. A Nissan service bulletin bars tow dollies for its AWD automatics. Tesla's instructions for the Model 3 favor a flatbed and keep every tire off the ground. Expect us to ask about your drivetrain early in the call, since it settles which truck we send.
I'm outside Santa Maria - does your coverage reach my town?
Santa Maria Tow Truck covers far more than the city itself. Besides Santa Maria and Orcutt, we work Nipomo (7 miles by road), Guadalupe (9), Arroyo Grande (16), Grover Beach and Vandenberg Space Force Base (18 each), Los Alamos (18 to 19), Pismo Beach (22), Lompoc (25 to 26), San Luis Obispo (29 to 31), Buellton (33) and Solvang (36). We also make the trip to New Cuyama, 54 miles out the 166, and Santa Barbara, 63 miles down the 101, priced by the distance. Call and ask.
Ready to call? Keep these four details in front of you
With those in hand, an accurate price comes before any truck is dispatched.
- Your whereabouts - a cross street, a parking lot, or the highway and the last exit sign
- Your ride - make, model and year, plus AWD, 4WD or electric if it applies
- The problem - won't start, stalled while driving, crashed, stuck, flat or keys locked in
- Its next stop - your mechanic, the dealership or home