8:26 am, August 14, 2013
FINDINGS from the 2013 Castrol Professional Car Servicing and Repair Trend Tracker report have highlighted a long-term downward decline in vehicle servicing frequency.
Results show the average figure of retail services carried out per car in 2012 has fallen 27 per cent down from 1.28 visits a decade ago, to just 0.93. Similarly, overall the report shows a 20 per cent fall in workshop visits since 2002.
Meanwhile, the number of retail mechanical repairs carried out on each car has also fallen from 0.77 visits in 2002 to 0.72. As a whole, the instances of routine servicing and repair jobs has fallen from an average 2.06 per car each year to 1.65 in the last decade.
Trend Tracker analyst, Chris Oakham, said: ‘The fall in retail services per car is a result of increasingly longer servicing intervals ageing through the car parc, coupled with a trend of declining average annual mileages.
‘The long-term downward trend in the number of repairs per car is most likely due to real improvements to the quality of modern vehicles, but is also very likely influenced by many owners putting off non-essential repair work when money was tight during the recession.’
Castrol franchised workshop marketing manager, UK and Ireland, Jo Clayton, added: ‘The number of annual visits to workshops is falling every year and this is bad news for aftersales outlets. While more extensive repairs may be required as a car gets older, this won’t necessarily offset the effect of customers visiting the workshop less frequently.
‘Businesses therefore need to do all they can to attract customers to the workshop and make the most out of every visit. Installing an electronic visual health check system can help identify additional legitimate repair work, with clear print-outs to help service advisors in upselling and tracking work for later follow-ups.’
