One in 10 motorists ‘driving with warning light on dashboard’

One in 10 motorists are driving around with a warning light showing on their car’s dashboard, a new study suggests.

Car maintenance experts Fixter surveyed 2,381 drivers, 89 per cent of whom said they had driven around knowingly with a warning light on in their car. Additionally, the average time that motorists said they had waited before fixing the issue averaged 16 days – with 57 per cent of respondents saying the wait for payday led to delays over repairs.

Further still, 10 per cent of those who took part in the survey said their car had a warning light on at the time but the vehicle was still being used, while only 26 per cent of those said they understood what it meant.

When it came to car maintenance, more than a third (35 per cent) said they knew how often they should replace their car’s brakes, but only 26 per cent claimed to have successfully changed a tyre. Meanwhile, a staggering 81 per cent didn’t know how many miles they could cover before their car needed an oil change.

Fixter spokesman Matt Lewis said: “When you’re going through the process of learning to drive, you learn the basics of taking care of your car, from how to check the oil levels to what the warning lights on your dashboard mean. To hear that so many drivers aren’t concerned when these lights appear, or even know what some key components of their car do, is shocking.

“If any warning lights appear on the dashboard, drivers should see a mechanic as soon as possible. A warning light could mean a myriad things and none of them are good – particularly if it’s a red warning light. It might not be serious to begin with, but waiting 16 days can make the situation a whole lot worse.”