Millennials are better at car maintenance than their parents, study finds
Older drivers are believed to be wasting nearly £400m on garage bills
IT’S A commonly held belief among older drivers that young people don’t know a dipstick from a crankshaft, but new research suggests that Britain’s youngest drivers — in the Generation Z and “Millennial” social groups — would be much more confident at tackling a spot of DIY car maintenance than those in Generation X.
Half of 17 to 24-year-olds surveyed about their mechanical confidence said they’d find it easy to performs basic car maintenance themselves.
However, among their parents’ generation, aged over 45, less than a third said they would find it easy to repair a simple problem with their car.
By being nervous of performing a spot of DIY car care, older drivers are believed to be wasting nearly £400m on garage bills.
The rise in confidence amongst young drivers is attributed to the revised driving test and the increase in ‘How To…’ videos available online.
Since 2004, the driving test has meant candidates have had to demonstrate a basic level of knowledge of how parts of a car work, and last year this was updated to include operating a sat nav and tackling questions about how some of a car’s safety features work.
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Online instructional videos on YouTube are used by 95% of 18 to 24-year olds, whereas only 68% of those aged over 35 use them to help tackle a problem with their car or home.
The research was carried out by LV, the car insurer. It estimates that by not knowing to how fix simple problems with a car, on average, UK households with more than one car could be spending over £390m on mechanics fees unnecessarily.
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For advice on performing simple car maintenance tasks, see Driving’s collection of Haynes How To… guides: driving.co.uk/car-clinic/haynes-how-to/
