Queen most trusted public figure to fix a car

If your car breaks down and an official motorcade drives by, who would you hope had come to your rescue?

A new industry poll of more than 2000 consumers, concerning the Automotive Technician Accreditation (ATA) scheme, revealed some surprising results. People thought the Queen would be more likely than David Cameron to be able to undertake basic car repairs, beating the Tory leader 16% to 13%. Gordon Brown, meanwhile, languished at only 9% - beaten by even Simon Cowell, who received 11% of the vote.

"We had to laugh" admitted Nigel Beaven, the spokesperson for the ATA scheme. "People may know that during the Second World War, the Queen trained to become a fully qualified mechanic. However, with today's modern, high-tech cars, finding an automotive technician you know you can rely on can be a real challenge."

The poll also revealed that most people have no idea how to check whether their mechanic was up to the job, with eight out of ten people admitting they think it is difficult to tell a good mechanic from a bad one.

Tellingly, 82% of those polled thought that an industry wide standard for mechanics would improve the reputation of the motor repair industry.

"It was interesting to learn that nearly half of the people polled didn't know how to find out, from an objective source, whether a mechanic was competent," said Beaven.

The poll also had some interesting insights on what the public considered important when choosing where to have their car serviced or repaired.

Not surprisingly, over 80% of people polled thought price was an important consideration. However, about the same number also thought it was important to select a company that employed professionally accredited individuals.

Meanwhile far fewer people - less than half - thought it was important to have somewhere comfortable to wait while their car was being worked on.

"The poll shows that there is a consumer demand for the clear identification of competent technicians," explained Beaven. "With nearly 19,000 technicians holding accredited status, if you employ an ATA technician then its worth shouting about.  Customers can then relax, safe in the knowledge that they are in good hands".