Motorists running on empty

Escalating fuel prices and panic buying has led to a surge in motorists driving their cars with hardly any fuel, according to Britannia Rescue. This has driven an increase in cars breaking down due to running out of petrol.

In just the last three months, 340,000 drivers have suffered a breakdown due to running out of fuel - up 10 per cent from this time last year.

With the average UK motorist paying £50 to completely fill their tank, up by £11.50 from 2007, half (47 per cent) of all drivers admit to running their car with the bare minimum of fuel. In fact, one in five (20 per cent) drivers say due to high fuel prices they can no longer afford to fill their tank up, with single parents (37 per cent) and young professionals (26 per cent) hit the worst.

As a result, an increasing number of motorists are gambling to see how far they can travel on limited fuel. In the past three months six in 10 (59 per cent) drivers have allowed their fuel level to fall so low that they've triggered their warning light.

A quarter (26 per cent) of motorists interviewed said they drive their car on hardly any fuel at least once a month and nearly one in ten (8 per cent) admitted to driving on empty ‘all the time'.

Recent dramatic rises in fuel have resulted in motorists having little idea of how much fuel it actually takes to run their car. Less than one in twenty (4 per cent) correctly estimated that the average car could drive 100 - 110 miles on £10 worth of fuel.

So desperate are drivers becoming to save petrol that one in five (21 per cent) said they no longer use their vehicle's air conditioning and close to four in 10 (38 per cent) said they drive slower in an attempt to save fuel.

To add to this fuel misery, the recent four day strike from Shell caused huge queues at service stations affecting a sixth (15 per cent) of all motorists. An estimated 150 filling stations ran out of fuel with a quarter (23 per cent) of drivers saying their local garage had run dry.

Despite government warnings not to panic buy during the strike, over 3.7 million motorists disregarded these pleas and filled their tank up to avoid running dry. Just 11 per cent of motorists adhering to Government advice to only buy fuel when necessary.
Emma Holyer, Spokesperson for Britannia Rescue, said: "Increases in fuel prices are hitting drivers hard, especially against a background of rising food and housing costs. But whilst it is now more costly to fill up at the pumps running a car on empty can damage a car's fuel pump - requiring repairs that will make a full tank of £50 petrol seem like a bargain.

"Drivers who run their car on empty are also at high risk of breaking down. Not only is this extremely costly if you don't have breakdown cover and also very inconvenient, running out of fuel on the roads that don't have a hard shoulder can create major safety hazards for other drivers."

For more information, log on to britanniarescue.com