Car repairs and servicing: key facts

Repairs and servicing market

• Household spending on car and van repairs, servicing and other work is £6.55bn a year (National Statistics 2002/3)

• The car repair and servicing industry is spread across 26,000 traders - 15,400 independent garages, 6,300 franchised dealers and 4,200 fast-fit and auto centres (Mintel 2001)

• There are 25 million cars in Great Britain (Department for Transport)

Importance for consumers

• The cost and quality of car servicing impacts on most people; three in every four GB households have regular use of at least one car (Department for Transport 2002)

• Potential for harm to consumersShoddy work can lead to unroadworthy cars that risk of death or serious injury; Lack of consumer information and expertise means it’s hard for consumers to assess quality of service and value for moneyConsumers are vulnerable when their car breaks down and they just want to get back on the road – often making them less demanding and assertive than usual.

• Actual harm to consumers Car repairs and servicing are the 13thmost complained about category in the Trading Standards 71-category league table (24,000 complaints in 2003)Typical loss to individual consumers is £125 for each unsatisfactory repair or car service.

• Complaints are just the tip of a much bigger iceberg – a DTI car repairs and servicing taskforce estimates consumers could suffer to the tune of £4 billion a year.Evidence from mystery shopping exercises by government, consumer bodies and the car repair and servicing industry consistently confirm widespread failures – faults missed, work done that isn’t necessary, charges for work that hasn’t been done, shoddy work, poor customer care and non-compliance with agreed standards.

• Government mystery shopping in 2002 showed that 40 per cent of garages missed or did not replace at least one item on their service schedule. In the case of cars owned by women, a higher percentage (58%) of garages failed the test.