UK motorists are wasting £2 billion on servicing.
MotorEasy, the car maintenance and repair start-up, revealed motorists getting their MoT test completed before their annual vehicle service could save billions.
Its database of 20,000 vehicles showed that 80% of faults found in service procedures would have been flagged in an MoT - resulting in what the company has called "unnecessary duplication of work and labour costs".
According to MotorEasy, an average MoT test takes an hour, which is essentially saving an hour’s worth of labour on any subsequent service. The average rate of labour in the UK is £77 per hour.
If every motorist got an MoT test before a service and every car required at least one hour’s worth of work, the amount of money saved would total £2,224,742,905.*
MoT testers are twice as likely to pass a car that should have failed (19.3%) than to erroneously fail a car (8%)**, meaning that if a motorist’s vehicle fails the test, it is more likely to have a genuine fault that requires attention.
MotorEasy’s founder Duncan McClure Fisher said: “If you get your car serviced before your MoT, you are potentially wasting money. The majority of faults that could be picked up in the service would have been identified as part of the MoT anyway.
“The problem is that, even if you get faults repaired as a result of the service, you’ll still have to pay for the MoT anyway because that is a legal obligation for all vehicles. So, when booking the two together, you should always request that the MoT is done first so that there is less work to carry out on the service.
“While we know that not every single car will require work at every service or MoT, there’s a good proportion of motorists who are needlessly doubling up on costs. With better planning and organisation of your car’s maintenance schedule, those costs could be avoided.”
The following is an example of a typical car service schedule; items in yellow are not covered by the MoT.
*In the year 2015-2016, the DVSA recorded 28,892,765 MoT tests (excluding goods vehicles and private passenger vehicles with more than 12 seats); 28,892,765 x the average UK labour rate of £77 for an hour’s mechanic time = £2,224,742,905
**Source: DVSA
Rob - 15/06/2017 11:50
Absolute guff! The "found" work would need doing in addition to the MOT or a service so cannot be saved. Requesting a service after a recent MOT would not save either as how many garages would complete a service and agree to not inspect or charge anything as the car has been MOT'd? I don't think manufacturers service schedules include a "inspect unless recently had an MOT". Not all motorists have a regular service either so the figure is a complete nonsense. This advert come article is utter rubbish.