UK drivers lose 37 million finding garages to fix their cars

New research by online car repair marketplace, ClickMechanic, has revealed that every year British motorists lose 893,461,500 hours – that’s more than 37 million days – trying to find a garage or mechanic to fix their car.

With more vehicles on Britain’s roads than ever before it stands to reason that there are more drivers to experience breakdowns and other problems. By the end of March 2016 there were 36.7 million vehicles licensed for use on GB roads – more than 900,000 had registered in that single first quarter of the year alone.

According to ClickMechanic’s research, men are the greatest deliberators, with 16.4 per cent of males taking a whole day (8+ hours) to book their car into a garage, verses only 2.8 per cent of females. Perhaps it’s not too surprising, then, that 16.7 per cent of men confessed to having taken time off work in order to facilitate getting their car repaired.

Of the 1000 people surveyed, only 23 per cent were likely to get a single quote for the work needed, with 18-24 year olds being the most likely to shop around; almost a third (31.6 per cent) within that age group said that they would spend time calling multiple mechanics.

23.3 per cent of those surveyed had needed to get their car repaired at least twice in the last three years. While over a third (37.9 per cent) of drivers said that they had their car serviced annually for the last three years, more than a quarter (26.7 per cent) had only had it serviced once in the same time period.

Anyone who’s ever experienced car trouble will know that it’s rarely a straightforward issue to get their vehicle fixed. A first choice mechanic may be fully booked; a second is likely too expensive; and the third may lack the experience you need, or have a reputation which you’re reluctant to trust. All of this can lead to drivers spending as much as eight or more hours just trying to find a suitable mechanic, without even taking into account the time of the actual repairs. ClickMechanic co-founder Andrew Jervis, comments: “We all rely on our vehicles to get around in the UK, so the problem with repairs is that you can sometimes feel like you’re at the mercy of whichever mechanic can fit you in. It’s easy to imagine prices being hiked because the mechanic knows that you need them – very few operate that way, but it can be hard to shake the feeling for some drivers! That’s why so many people spend time shopping around.

“With ClickMechanic, we enable drivers to instantly get an industry standard quote on our website for the work they require meaning customers can feel reassured they are not paying over the odds. We then allow them to quickly book in with one of our vetted mechanics from all across the UK. Because the mechanic will attend the driver’s property (or wherever their vehicle happens to have broken down) there’s no need to worry about a tow truck. And because all jobs are quoted in advance, unless there’s something that you’ve not told us, there are never any nasty surprises at the end.”