Many of the larger breakdown recovery companies will recover your vehicle even if you are not a member, provided you sign up to be a member when they recover you car. This can often work out cheaper than calling out a local company.
If you simply want to move your own car (a classic vehicle or race car perhaps) the simplest option is to use a car transporter trailer. A good quality used trailer can cost as little as £500 depending upon the size and features.
Try for a brand name supplier such as Brian James, Ifor Williams etc as you know that these trailers have been manufactured to do the job properly. Home made trailers are OK, but do you know the person who built the trailer, how good are their engineering skills?
Ideally you want a trailer with twin axles, overrun brakes and with a low load angle and slide away ramps. Strapping ramps down can be a real pain once there is a car already loaded on the trailer! Ensure the trailer has commercial grade tyres as these have stiffer side walls and can take the extra weight. Also, make sure the trailer has a brake locking device. This stops the over run brakes from coming on when you are trying to reverse the trailer. It is hard enough trying to reverse a trailer as it is without having to force against its brakes at the same time!
Another point to consider is that if you decide to use a car transporter trailer you will require a suitable tow vehicle, preferably a large 4x4, these can be expensive.
An alternative to a trailer is a car transporter. These can be purchased for not much more than a trailer. They are normally based on a commercial vehicle chassis, i.e. Ford Transit, Mercedes Sprinter etc. At the lower end of the price range you can expect these transporters to be fairly agricultural and not particularily suitable for long journey's.
More importantly however you should consider the weight of the transporter. For you to be able to drive it on a normal car licence and not require a tachograph the transporter AND its load (i.e. a car) must not weight more than 3500kg. In reality most converted transporters weight over 2000kg on their own, add to that the weight of driver and passengers, full tank of fuel plus tools etc and you can see that they are really only suitable for smaller light weight cars.
Spending a little more money allows you to purchase a custom built car transporter, as shown in the picture on the right. This transporter is based on a slightly smaller cab of a VW T4 transporter and cost £4000 to purchase second hand. The entire rear end has been custom buit from aluminium and kept low by using two rows of small wheels. Having two axles also helps to reduce axle load on each axle and tyre, making blow outs less likley.
Even as a custom built car transporter this one weights in at 2000kg (2 tonnes) so it is limited to medium sized saloons by weight.