Car care more popular than church: Kwik-Fit

It used to be said that cleanliness is next to godliness, yet these days it seems we’re more likely to kneel when washing the Mondeo than in fervent prayer. A study conducted by ICM Research for Kwik-Fit shows that some 6.2 million, or 19 per cent of British motorists, religiously clean and check their vehicle at least once a week. This compares with just 4.2 million Britons who, according to a Tearfund research report from 2007, attend church with such regularity. On a monthly basis the gap grows even wider; the ICM survey of 2,000 UK adults indicates almost three times as many people, or 21.5 million, attend to their vehicular ahead of their spiritual needs. And it may or may not be coincidence that the most popular time to attend to car care chores is between 10am and 11am on Sunday – a direct clash with many church services.

Collectively, motorists spend over five million hours a week on looking after their vehicles, an average of 26 minutes each. Men, on this occasion, take almost ten minutes longer to get job done, requiring 30 minutes rather than a female 21 to complete washing, waxing and vacuuming activities as well as checking oil, water, tyre pressure and screenwash levels.  Regionally, Londoners devote the most time – 33 minutes on average – while motorists in Wales are the least generous at 22 minutes.

While motorists on average attend to car care matters every two to three weeks, 1.1 million – regular churchgoers perhaps – confess to only cleaning their cars once a year at the most and six per cent of motorists, over two million of them, are vehicle maintenance heathens.

The sermon from Kwik-Fit customer services director David White is that “keeping faith with regular car maintenance may not be spiritually rewarding but can certainly save money. Well maintained cars are more likely to keep their value and owners are in a better position to spot faults before they become more expensive to fix and more likely to affect road safety.

“Motorists who’ve spotted a fault or would like a second opinion are welcome to visit their nearby Kwik Fit for a free check,” White continued. “As most of our centres are open on a Sunday there’s the option to have two different types of service in the same day.”