There’s never a good time for something to go wrong with your car, but expensive repair bills somehow crop up at times when you want them least. What’s your biggest ever repair bill?
As a former two-time Alfa Romeo owner (glutton for punishment), I’m fully aware of the horror moment when a mechanic hands over a repair bill that makes your jaw almost drop to the floor and your wallet clench in distress.
I’ll not forget the knee-buckling receipt for my Alfa GT diesel when I took it to a franchised dealer for a minor service. £1,200 for a non-major service almost floored me, and the experience was further compounded when the car had an electrical fault on the way home from the dealership and went into limp mode. If anything, I could have used the four-sheet-long repair bill as tissues to wipe away the tears…
Cars Editor, Claire Evans, is just as familiar with the situation:
‘My Renault Modus suffered a faulty electrical control unit that pushed my annual service bill over £600 for 2012. Until it was fixed, I had to indicate left to turn the windscreen wipers on and right to turn them off!’
The most expensive car repair bills
But it’s an experience I know many motorists face each year. And we find out the severity of annual repair bills each year in the Which? Car Survey.
Last year, 47,500 of you told us about the 57,000 cars you own, including what the most common faults were on your cars, and how much your annual repair bills totalled.
And for some car owners, the results were rather costly.
Land Rover Discovery 3 owners had it worst, with an average annual repair bill of £478. According to our data, 23% of all Discovery 3s suffered from suspension component faults, which would be one of the main reasons for the costly repairs.
Tell us about your most costly repair bill
The Which? Car Survey 2014 is ready for you to fill in now so you can tell us about your repair bills in the last 12 months, as well as how satisfied you are with your car over the last year of motoring.
What you tell us about your car has a direct effect on which cars we recommend and which we don’t, so we would love to hear from you. And if you do fill in the survey, you’ll be entered into a free prize draw to win £2,500 – the equivalent of free fuel for a year.
And as well as filling in the survey, leave a comment below to tell us what your most expensive repair bill has been in all your time of motoring. Can you beat my £1,200 shocker?