Confident Cardiff drivers revealed

The research shows the cities with the least confident drivers in the UK, with Belfast taking the title with a score of just 29 out of a possible 100. With a score of just one for vehicle maintenance, the city’s drivers clearly struggle with basic tasks that are key to keeping a car running smoothly and helping it stay on the road for as long as possible – less than half (46%) say they can confidently identify dashboard warning lights, the lowest of any UK city, while only half (50%) are confident inflating their own tyres.

Edinburgh follows in second, with a confidence score of 31 out of 100, and recording the lowest score of any city when it comes to confidence with manoeuvres, while Southampton completes the top three score of 34 out of 100 thanks to below-average confidence scores across the board.

The research also reveals the tasks that UK drivers find the most challenging.

Driving abroad ranks as the driving task where Brits lack the most confidence, however, the majority of the top 10 tasks are related to basic car care and maintenance, with 55% of drivers confident in replacing a headlight bulb, while slightly fewer than 3 in 5 (59%) are happy to change a flat tyre.  

Matt Clamp thinks this could be down to how driving has developed over the past few years. He says: “Today’s roads are arguably more complicated than they were a few years ago. Drivers are dealing with more traffic, larger vehicles, new road layouts, clean air zones and increasingly complex in-car technology that can be a distraction.

The tasks people are less confident in are often completed less frequently than manoeuvres, such as bay parking, which ranks as the task drivers are most confident with (94%). The lack of confidence likely stems from inexperience in completing these tasks, rather than a lack of ability or knowledge.

Matt Clamp concurs, “Nervous drivers often avoid the situations they find most difficult, whether that’s motorways, busy roundabouts or city-centre driving. The challenge is that avoiding them can sometimes make confidence harder to regain. The key is not to avoid the situations you find challenging, but to gradually build experience in them so they become familiar again.”