Kwik Fit

Illegal tyres are behind half the defective vehicles police stop in the UK

Illegal tyres

Experts believe there could be millions of illegal tyres on our roads

Illegal tyres are becoming an ever more regular occurrence when police stop cars for vehicle defects. With winter approaching and the threat of more adverse weather conditions, drivers are being urged to pay more attention to their tyres.

By analysing data from Britain’s police forces, researchers from garage chain Kwik Fit found that half (50 per cent) of the defective vehicles stopped in 2015 had illegal tyres. That’s up by 10 per cent over 2013. Two thirds (65 per cent) of drivers who were given penalty points for a dangerous vehicle had tyres below the minimum 1.6mm tread depth.

A quarter of cars stopped with dodgy rubber (26 per cent) had tyres with the cord or ply exposed. Cords are part of the structure of a tyre. If you can see them it means the tyre is seriously worn and possibly structurally damaged and could be liable to suffer a sudden deflation or blow out.

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i-sapping is a threat to our cars’ health

i-sapping

Using a sat nav app such as Tom Tom on tablets can be a marriage saver (Picture © Fiat)

You may not have heard the term ‘i-sapping’ before, but the majority of drivers suffer from it. I-sapping is when mobile electronic devices are plugged into a car and charged from the vehicle’s battery. However, devices such as satellite navigation systems, smart phones and tablets can leave batteries drained if the cells aren’t in tip top shape.  Continue reading

How fixed price servicing compares with pay-as-you-go

More car makers than ever are offering fixed price servicing

More car makers than ever are offering fixed price servicing. (Picture © Skoda)

Keeping a modern motor maintained can be surprisingly expensive. Car valuation expert CAP Automotive says even a Volkswagen up!, the car it says has the cheapest running costs on Britain’s roads, will cost £848 over the first three years of its life. Fixed price servicing aims to ensure you know what you’re going to pay well in advance so you’re not hit with a huge garage bill out of the blue. But do such schemes make sense, or are they just another way of extracting more cash from drivers?  Continue reading