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Cost-cutting motorists could be risking lives17 June 2011by Peter Tait A recent survey of 1000 respondents commissioned by Swiftcover has found that many motorists could be putting themselves and others at risk by neglecting vehicle safety to reduce their motoring costs. Assuming that the survey sample was representative of the population in general, 750,000 drivers are skipping their annual service to reduce costs. While it is reasonable to argue that this does increase risk, these cars would still need to pass their MOT tests and, if the age of the car is such than an MOT is not yet required then the lack of wear and tear on these younger cars would also protect their drivers against the vehicle becoming unsafe to drive. The survey found that as many as 61% were looking to reduce their motoring costs this year. Consistent with this, in our own research, we found a similar figure (63%) prioritised getting cheap car insurance over getting the best car insurance cover for their needs. In the Swiftcover study sample, a third were planning to drive less to save money. That's less than the proportion aiming to reduce their car use as reported in some other studies, notably a recent large study commissioned by Admrial insurance where over a half were planning to cut their car use. Swiftcover found that it was the 35-44 year olds that were most likely to want to cut their car use, despite this being an agegroup that can be especially dependent on their car for essential tasks including work use and the ferrying of children. They also found that 1.5m people had resorted to buying their tax disc six-monthly rather than annually, so increasing the cost of their road tax. While Swiftcover described this as a false economy, presumably these people were struggling to meet the full cost of annual taxation. On the other hand, if these drivers can afford to fill their car's fuel tank to keep their car running, they can probably afford to meet the cost of annual road tax in one installment too. Pensioners, that are entitled to free bus passes, have been using their cars less, with 20% admitting to leaving their car at home in favour of using public transport instead. On the other hand, if a third of the whole survey sample were using their car less, but only a fifth of pensioners were using their car less, it is also the case that pensioners are more resistant to using their car less than younger people. The reasons for this would probably relate to the effects of age on physical capacity, with, by necessity, more older people being dependent on their cars to get around. Only a fifth of young male drivers were willing to slow down to conserve fuel, while only 9% of the study sample said that they would shop around for car insurance, a much lower figure than that quoted by previous studies, such as, for example, the recent Gocompare study that found that only a quarter remained with the same insurer. Three per cent had even cut their frequency of car washing to reduce this motoring costs. Presumably at least some of these were using automatic car washes. Obviously, the important message from the above figures is the safety message, as Swiftcover points out in its own report on the survey. Furthermore, if minor faults are undetected owing to the lack of routine servicing then these can become more costly to fix later on thereby, quite often, rendering the lack of servicing a false economy. |
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