Eight in ten British motorists have experienced damage to their vehicle’s body at some point, whether now or in the past.
Analysing those who have experienced car damage in their lifetime, 81% of these stated that they’d experienced paint scratches/scuffs on their car, making this the most common damage type, they told pollsters for JTape automotive repair products.
This was followed by dents at 61% and cracked windshields at 27%.
Tree sap and bird dropping damage both made the top 10, albeit lower down in the ranking with bird dropping damage at 19% and tree sap at 8%, showing that cars aren’t even safe from nature!
Over a quarter (26%) of participants said that they’d experienced vandalism or intentional damage to their car, which is an unfortunate figure.
More than 2 in 5 (41%) UK drivers are currently driving around with damage to their car’s body in some way, although the majority (59%) do not have damage to their car.
Just under ¼ (23%) of Brits also admitted they’d either written off their car themselves, or had their car written off by another driver. The majority (77%) hadn’t experienced this, though, which is good news for them!
How quick are Brits to get their car damage fixed? It seems over half (51%) of our participants get their car body damage fixed pretty swiftly, with 35% getting it fixed within 1 month of the initial damage, and 16% doing so within 1 week since the damage!
Almost 2 in 5 (37%) have attempted some sort of DIY on their car’s body, whether it’s using a paintwork pen, painting their car or fixing a dent. The majority (63%) haven’t attempted to do so.
More than half (58%) of our survey participants stated that they take measures to prevent car body damage, whether this is driving carefully (61%), parking on the drive (57%) or avoiding parking under trees (34%).
