What’s under the bonnet?

How good are UK drivers at looking after their cars?

Ever wondered whether Northerners or Southerners are better at looking after their cars?

We’ve carried out a survey of drivers all across the UK to find out who’s the most confident when it comes to car maintenance.¹

Across 13 different tasks and checks, on average 3 in 4 drivers felt comfortable doing them.
East Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber drivers are more confident than London drivers.
Drivers aged 18-24 are the least confident looking after their cars.

From opening the bonnet to changing the oil, we asked drivers if they’d be happy to do it themselves. We also looked at which UK regions use Google the most for DIY car fixes.

Read on to find out which regions came out tops and which tasks are the hardest and easiest for drivers.

How confident are UK drivers with car maintenance?

Man looking under car bonnet

We asked over 16,000 drivers to complete a survey to see how confident they are looking after their cars. For each task, we asked them to rank how comfortable they felt doing it themselves.

Across 13 different tasks and checks, on average 3 in 4 drivers felt comfortable doing them. These are the tasks and checks respondents thought were simplest:

Opening the bonnet
Topping up windscreen fluid
Checking tyre pressure and engine oil level

For each of these, over 90% of people we asked said they were confident handling it by themselves.

Which car tasks do drivers find the hardest?

The 2 checks our survey respondents deemed the hardest were:

Checking power steering (46% were confident)
Changing oil and oil filter (31% were confident)

1 in 3 drivers also said they wouldn't be confident changing a flat tyre or checking for a safe level of brake fluid.

Here are the total results:

Survey task	Drivers who felt confident with the task
Open the bonnet	98%
Top up windscreen washer fluid	97%
Check tyre pressure	93%
Check engine oil level	91%
Top-up engine oil	86%
Check tyre tread depth	84%
Check antifreeze/coolant level	78%
Top-up antifreeze/coolant	76%
Change windscreen wiper blade	75%
Change a flat tyre / fit spare wheel	63%
Check for safe level of brake fluid	63%
Check power steering is working	46%
Change oil and oil filter	31%
Average	75%

1 in 3 drivers said they wouldn't be confident changing a flat tyre or checking for a safe level of brake fluid.

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Which region's the most confident with car maintenance?

Car tyre being inflated

Drivers in the Yorkshire and Humberside and the East Midlands regions scored highest in the survey. Over 77% of them felt comfortable carrying out the tasks we asked them about.

Motorists based in London and the South East scored the lowest with 71% and 74% respectively.

Survey task	East Midlands drivers who felt confident	London drivers who felt confident
Open the bonnet	99%	97%
Top up windscreen washer fluid	99%	95%
Check tyre pressure	94%	92%
Check engine oil level	94%	89%
Top-up engine oil	89%	84%
Check tyre tread depth	87%	76%
Check antifreeze/coolant level	80%	73%
Top-up antifreeze/coolant	77%	72%
Change windscreen wiper blade	76%	70%
Change a flat tyre / fit spare wheel	64%	58%
Check for safe level of brake fluid	65%	57%
Check power steering is working	48%	38%
Change oil and oil filter	33%	25%
Average	77%	71%

Which age group's the most comfortable looking after their car?

Windscreen wipers

It seems like age is a deciding factor when it comes to car confidence, with more experienced drivers responding more confidently.

77% of drivers aged over 65 claimed they could carry out the tasks listed in the survey. Only 65% of drivers aged 18-24 said they would be comfortable with the same tasks.

Survey task	Drivers aged 65+ who felt confident	Drivers aged 18-24 who felt confident
Open the bonnet	98%	97%
Top up windscreen washer fluid	98%	90%
Check tyre pressure	94%	87%
Check engine oil level	92%	87%
Top-up engine oil	92%	87%
Check tyre tread depth	85%	68%
Check antifreeze/coolant level	80%	71%
Top-up antifreeze/coolant	78%	62%
Change windscreen wiper blade	76%	62%
Change a flat tyre / fit spare wheel	67%	35%
Check for safe level of brake fluid	69%	45%
Check power steering is working	45%	46%
Change oil and oil filter	33%	21%
Average	77%	65%

Broken down in the UK? We’ll rescue you, even if you’re not a Member.

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Do drivers know when to call a mechanic?

Open car bonnet

Last year, more than 11,000 people called us out for a problem with their car when it turned out their vehicle was fine or they just needed some advice and reassurance.²

Of those, nearly 1 in 10 of the cases our mechanics attended were because the driver didn’t press in the clutch or brake pedal to start the car.

Other top reasons why people called us out include:

Seeing a warning light on the dashboard although the car was safe to drive.
Worrying about a leak which turned out to be the air con dripping.
Not being able to turn the ignition on because the steering lock was on.

Not everyone’s confident with problem-solving their vehicles and we’ve all been flummoxed by complex tech at times. If in doubt, it’s always best to call out the experts for a second opinion.

Are do-it-yourself drivers turning to Google?

When it comes to understanding how your car works, it seems like Google has the answers. We looked at how many people search Google for help with their car to see which drivers are willing to do it themselves.³

Which region has the most self-sufficient drivers?

Yorkshire and Humberside lead the way when it comes to solving car problems online. Almost twice as many people in that region search Google for driving-related help as in Wales, which has the lowest number of searches.

Out of every city in the UK, London has the highest proportion of people searching online for ways to carry out tasks and checks on their vehicle. Sheffield has the lowest number of people searching Google.

What’s the most commonly Googled car query?

No matter where you live, the query that’s searched for the most is how to find out what oil your car needs. That’s followed by people asking Google questions on how to check tyre pressure.

How does the UK compare to the rest of the world?

Our analysis also looked at global search trends on Google. We focused on other English-speaking nations to see how the UK compares in terms of self-sufficiency when it comes to car maintenance.

According to our data, the UK’s searches are higher per population than any English-speaking country, closely followed by Ireland and Australia. The 2 countries that searched the least per population were the US and South Africa.

Globally, changing a tyre or a wheel was the most common search. It came out highly in the top 3 nations of UK, Ireland and Australia, as well as in New Zealand.

There's no harm calling the experts

Whether you’re a dab hand under the bonnet or are slightly unsure, it never hurts to call in the experts.

With AA Membership, you get unlimited call-outs (as long as it’s not a recurring problem) so you can call us whenever you need to.

Read our advice for car checks you can do yourself:

Sources

¹ Based on an AA Populus Survey in August 2020 with 16,305 respondents

² Based on internal AA call out data between 10/11/2019 and 10/11/2020

³ Based on Google data split by city, region and country to determine search volumes. All data used was true as of October 2020.

Published: 11 December 2020 | Updated: 11 December 2020 | Author: The AA