Britain’s motorists face a bill of £78 million next month as vehicle owners pay the price of essential repairs needed to get their cars through an MOT according to Halfords Autocentres.
March is the single busiest month of the year for MOT testing, with almost 2.7 million vehicles* (28% more than the annual average) due to be examined by garages - of which over 1 million are expected to fail.
Figures from the leading independent garage network, which carries out 400,000 MOTs a year, reveal that an average spend of just over £72 per vehicle is now needed to rectify vehicle faults before they receive their annual roadworthiness certificate.
Rory Carlin from Halfords Autocentres said: “The cost of motoring means that hard-pressed owners need to seize every opportunity to reduce their bills.
“Government figures show that the MOT failure rate is rising annually but a significant number of those failures could be avoided by carrying out some simple checks beforehand.”
Faulty headlights, tail lights and indicators are the biggest causes of failure according to the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency – with inadequate brakes, worn or damaged tyres and obscured vision caused by chipped or cracked windscreens and mirrors also featuring prominently.
Rory Carlin added: “We’re encouraging motorists to take action against failure rates by tackling those simple jobs that can be resolved relatively cheaply when they first occur - rather than simply hoping for the best when it gets to MOT time, which can lead to bigger unnecessary bills in the long run.
“A simple five minute check to examine the most common causes of MOT failure could save owners money and help avoid the inconvenience of failure and re-tests after any faults have been rectified.”
Halfords Autocentres has produced a series of helpful videos that form a step-by-step guide to preparing your vehicle for its MOT which are available at www.youtube.com/halfordsautocentre, the first of which is below.
