Over 23 Million UK Motorists Delay Fixing Car Faults
A recent study has discovered that more than 23 million drivers (71% of the UK's total) are putting their lives at risk by delaying a trip to a garage despite being aware of a fault with their vehicle, according to consumer research commissioned by esure car insurance.
The poll found that one in three motorists admitted ignoring car defects to avoid paying for repairs. Around one in five (19%) even ignore warning lights on their car dashboard, while 10% admitted to ignoring the faults until their cars' MOT was due.
Thirty-one per cent claimed that they didn't have time to take their car to a garage while an astonishing 8% confessed to only having problems rectified if and when their car became completely unusable.
Almost a half (44%) of those asked said that they would prioritise spending their monthly income on leisure activities like clothes shopping and booking holidays rather than fixing a known fault on their vehicle.
Neil Rudge, Aftersales Director for the Holdcroft Motor Group, advised that any driver who noticed a fault on their car should have it investigated and fixed by a reputable dealership as quickly as possible. The reasons for this he said were 'Safety - number one, and saving money long-term - number two'. The safety issue is clear but potentially spending money to save money? He explained 'The problem with the vehicle may be covered by either a manufacturer warranty or a dealership warranty such as those offered by Holdcroft. In this case there may be nothing to spend by the customer at all to fix the fault' but he went on 'even where the problem isn't covered by warranty it is often more cost-effective to fix a fault as soon as it becomes apparent as left un-rectified it could lead to consequential damage that may be more expensive to fix in the longer-term'
Perhaps even more worryingly the study revealed that over 24 million motorists (72 per cent of drivers) did not know what all the important warning symbols meant on their car dashboard. Consequently, nearly half of all motorists (49 per cent) have ignored an `emergency' flashing light on their dashboard because they couldn't work out what the warning symbol meant.
Many warning lights are individual to specific car manufacturers or even particular car models - but only 13% of motorists have read their vehicle's handbook to decipher the symbols.
Women were found more likely to avoid a trip to the garage for financial reasons (37% vs 29% of men) with three times the amount of women admitting to spending money on new clothes rather than fixing a fault with their car.
More women ignore in-car warning symbols (57% vs 47% of men), with only 18% confident they knew what the symbols meant, compared to 38% of men.
esure commissioned the independent online research company MyVoice to survey a cross section of 1,000 UK drivers aged 18 and over between 5th and 10th February 2008.
