Nearly half of UK motorists never parallel park, in order to save embarrassment and avoid damaging parked cars, according to new research.
VoucherCodesPro.co.uk polled over 2,500 motorists, split equally between men and women. The research was conducted in response to a 38% rise in search engine terms relating to car repairs, to discover what was behind it.
Despite the majority of motorists claiming to be confident drivers (69% of men and 54% of women), 48% admitted to intentionally never parallel parking. Of those drivers, 62% were women.
The research has raised questions over whether the current UK driving test is adequately training new motorists, showing that only 32% of women and 51% of men feel confident when performing a parking manoeuvre.
Moreover, 42% of the drivers polled admitted to causing minor damage to another vehicle through poor parking. Over 50% said that they had spent significant periods of time driving away from their destination to find easier parking spots and avoid embarrassment.
It appears that an alarming number of British motorists are suffering from a clear lack of confidence and/or ability, although it seems that very few are intent on rectifying the problem – a huge 86% said that they wouldn’t even consider a refresher course.
George Charles of VoucherCodesPro said: "I was surprised to learn how many Britons admitted to having a lack of confidence when it came to driving and parking. What is more concerning is that Britons do not seem to be addressing their driving weaknesses by saying they'd be willing to take refresher courses despite acknowledging there could be a need for them.
"Although the evidence does not apply to all Britons, it seems that the rise in searches for repairs seems to be attributed to lack of confidence or ability in driving. Nevertheless, no matter the reason for needing repairs, whether it be down to unconfident driving, parking or reversing, it is important to address the problem at the source to ensure similar mistakes are not repeated and they don't end up becoming costly!"
It would be interesting to know if the research showed a trend between a driver’s confidence and the size of their vehicle – performing a parallel parking manoeuvre is a quite a different animal in a Range Rover compared to a Ford Ka for example.
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