What's the news?
The days of saving money by performing maintenance and simple repair jobs at home could soon be gone according to a study by Warranty Direct. The survey looks at the top 10 best-selling cars of 2012 and finds out how long basic repair jobs, such as headlamp and brake pad replacement, take for a fully-qualified technician to perform.
The results are fairly shocking, as replacing the headlight on an everyday Vauxhall Corsa takes a trained professional 36 minutes; with both the BMW 1 Series and 3 Series topping the list at an hour each. BMW does regain some ground when it comes to a quick 15-minute oil and filter change, but the C-Class takes a Mercedes-Benz mechanic 54 minutes to undertake the same task.
Now with longer repair times comes the increased cost of having the work done, especially with garage costs climbing as well. Take the Audi A4, for example. Warranty Direct claims that a 20-year old Audi A4 can have its £6.12 headlight bulb replaced at home in around 10 minutes; while today's A4 requires the purchase of a whole new light cluster at a cost of £21.56, which then takes a trained Audi mechanic 45 minutes to install.
"The days of changing oil, filters and replacing light bulbs on the driveway are fast becoming a thing of the past - in some cases, they already are," commented Duncan McClure Fisher, Managing Director of Warranty Direct.
The reason for this is that modern cars are growing increasingly dependent on diagnostic machines to calibrate replacement parts with on-board vehicle technology. Replacing front brake pads generally takes a trained technician just shy of 45 minutes to change on a vehicle, but diagnostic equipment needed to calibrate some vehicles is sure to see this job taking longer and longer.
Anything else?
Other repair jobs measured but not included in the survey included the time taken to replace a timing belt on a Focus. In 1980, a Ford Escort could have its belt replaced at home in just under an hour; today, it needs a garage to spend nearly three hours to change the same component on the Focus.
James Giddings - 25 Jul 2013
