Are you being serviced?

Kwik-Fit says that millions of motorists are on a collision course with a huge repair bill after its research found that 4.1 million, or one in eight, British car owners are failing to get their car serviced on a regular basis. Worse still 761,000 (2%) motorists said that they never service their car.

Of those motorists that service their cars irregularly – 2.5 million (8%) of motorists only service their car when they feel it needs it, 1.3 million (4%) do so when they can afford to with a further 331,000 (1%) servicing only when they remember to. This seems to ignore the servicing intervals provided with each car.

David White, customer services director at Kwik-Fit explains: “While MOTs check a car’s roadworthiness once a year, regular maintenance and servicing is just as important. Servicing helps to keep a car in good, safe, running order and minimises the chances of developing problems that could be both costly and inconvenient to repair. Spending a hundred pounds or so on a service can often avoid huge bills later on – that’s why it’s called proactive maintenance.”

The majority (51%) of motorists that service their car irregularly said that the biggest reason to service a car is to get it through an MOT. Only 27% of them cited safety as a reason, less still (10%) said performance. And despite cars being the second biggest purchase most people make in their lives, only 3% cited ‘maintaining the car’s value’ as a good reason to get it serviced.

Fortunately most motorists are more organised. Over 12.5 million car owners (40%) follow the manufacturer’s recommended service intervals, 11 million (36%) service their cars on an annual basis, 1.2 million (4%) every 12,000 miles and one million (3%) bi-annually.

Whether you service you car regularly or not, all motorists should be interested to hear that at Kwik-Fit they will save up to £25 by having their car MOT’d and serviced at the same time by specially trained service technicians. Indeed 19.9 million motorists said they often try to combine servicing with an MOT, and five million motorists said they would certainly try to do so if it saved them money.

David White summarised: “Our research shows that motorists can be pretty disorganised when it comes to looking after their cars. That’s why Kwik-Fit is constantly looking for ways to make motor maintenance more convenient and less of a chore. By combining MOTs and servicing we’re achieving exactly that – by enabling motorists to get their cars into shape in one sitting – and at the same time benefit from cost savings.”