Car Repairs: One Pothole Could Cost You Two Months Salary
How Much Do Pothole Repairs Cost?
One pothole could cause damage costing almost two months of an average UK salary*.
According to our database of 30,000 car warranty customers, axle and suspension damage is one of the most common causes of repair claims.
The top repair cost for a suspension claim was a Land Rover Range Rover Sport, coming in at a whopping £3,863. This was closely followed by £2,768 for a Mercedes-Benz S-Class and it's not just luxury car owners who are forking out for potholes. We recorded a £1,697 suspension repair for a Ford Galaxy.
The Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance Survey (ALARM), published last month, revealed that more than 24,000 miles of UK roads need repairing within the next year**, putting many cars at an increased risk of suffering suspension and axle-related damage.
Councils are currently spending £20.6 million a year in maintaining UK roads, but this a £556 million shortfall in the budget needed to keep on top of Britain's roads. There is currently a 14-year pothole backlog that would take £9.1 billion pounds to clear.
2018's Budget And Pothole Spend
If you're thinking about making a claim against your local council for pothole damage you should first file a Freedom of Information request to see when the road was last inspected. We've made an example letter to make things easier.
Why Are Potholes So Bad?
The state of UK roads has worsened significantly thanks to the prolonged cold spell of snow and wet weather earlier this year. Potholes are created when water gets into cracks in the road, freezes and expands, breaking open the road surface. Once the water melts again the road surface is weakened, road traffic speeds up this breakdown process. With weather conditions now improving, the perilous state of the nation’s roads is now becoming clear.
Overall, the average cost for a suspension claim has risen 10% to £305.05 in the last three years, which is equivalent to 58% of an average weekly wage in the UK*.
Top 10 most expensive suspension/axle claims in the last 12 months***:
Duncan McClure Fisher, said: “Potholes can prove to be a costly problem for motorists, causing damage that can run into thousands of pounds. With the ALARM report showing that a huge number of roads are still in poor condition, this is a problem that could plague many British drivers for months to come.”
Those drivers unfortunate enough to suffer pothole damage can approach MotorEasy for a repair quote with our ‘do-it-for-me’ service doing all the legwork of finding them a local garage they can trust and even negotiating better parts and labour costs on their behalf.
Customers are also assigned a MotorEasy technician who will look after the repair process for them and can organise collection and drop-off of their vehicle to the garage.
MotorEasy offers an online suite of motoring services and products to cover all aspects of car ownership and maintenance. Customers also benefit from their own private online account area, where they can store all their vehicle documents and receive notifications for important dates, such as MOTs, services and insurance renewals.
* https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/wages
** www.asphaltuk.org/alarm-survey-page
***Maximum vehicle age 10 years
Further Reading
Potholes Repairs: How To Report A Pothole Or Make A Claim
