PRESS RELEASE

Release date: 22nd  August 2013

Yorkshire women doing more to look after their cars

Women in Yorkshire are more willing to learn about car maintenance than men according to a local independent garage, which has seen no men attend its free car maintenance workshop since launching the initiative five years ago.

Trust My Garage-approved Motor Marque launched its free evening car maintenance classes at its garage in Leeds for women in 2008, and following the success of this, the course was opened up to male motorists. Disappointingly, no men attended the workshops being offered so the garage went back to running women only courses. It has concluded that women in the region are more willing to learn about basic maintenance checks than the opposite sex.

“Although we have full attendance at our maintenance classes, they are always only attended by women. I think there is a stigma attached to cars that men should already know how to look after them and carry out basic checks and our attendances reflect this,” said Rae Ellis, Business Development Manager at Motor Marque.

Recent national figures released by Trust My Garage show that men are generally ahead of women when it comes to checking the basic components of their cars regularly. The countrywide independent garage scheme polled 100 male and 100 female drivers in the UK to see what regular maintenance checks they carry out on their vehicles and concluded that men carry out more maintenance checks on their cars than women.

When it comes to checking engine coolant levels, 12% of men carry out maintenance once a week as recommended compared to just five per cent of women. The survey also places men above women when it comes to carrying out checks on their tyres with 17% of male drivers stating that they check their tyre tread depth once a month, as recommended, compared with just five per cent of female drivers. The survey also found that men are four times more likely to check their tyre pressure regularly than women.

Rae Ellis thinks that most men are already well versed in regular car maintenance but warns that women are now fast catching up with them.

“There is a general preconception that men know a lot about cars and therefore don’t need to learn to look after them, and many are indeed already really good at carrying out regular maintenance checks. However, as technology develops there are more and more things we can all learn about our cars that will not only help them last longer, but also keep motorists safer on the roads. Women are starting to a lot more interest in their cars and are getting better at looking after them because they no longer want to be baffled by it all.”

Terry Gibson from Trust My Garage added: “It’s great to see women starting to give men a run for their money when it comes to car maintenance and initiatives like Motor Marque’s free maintenance classes are a really great benefit for drivers.We always advise motorists to make good use of their local independent garage by having their cars regularly serviced and maintained.  It’s then easy to carry out simple, regular basic  checks yourself, giving drivers peace of mind whenever they are out on the roads.”

-ENDS-

About Trust My Garage

TRUST MY GARAGE (TMG) is a scheme developed for independent garages by the Independent Garage Association (IGA) to recognise the high standards of independent garages throughout the UK.

For further information, please contact:-

John Edden, Bridge PR & Media Services on 024 76 520025, or e-mail john@bridgepr.co.uk