Spaniards spend more on bars and restaurants than on vehicle maintenance

Investment in car maintenance continues to decline. According to the 1st Report “Look after your engine for life”, which has studied the situation of responsible vehicle maintenance in Spanish families over the last five years, the amount we spend on vehicle maintenance continues to fall, even though the Spanish economy has been growing at significant rates (+3.2% in 2016) over the last three years, unemployment has slowly but steadily decreased (-10.8% in 2016) during this period, and household spending (+2.6% in 2016) has risen slightly.

The report by Eurotaller states that only “in 2016, family investment in responsible vehicle maintenance fell by 15.9%, to an average spend of 507 euros a year“, while “spending in bars and restaurants rose by 9.1%” (to an average of 2,780 euros). To add fuel to the fire, the report highlights that, over that same period (2016), defects detected by the ITV roadworthiness tests on passenger cars rose considerably, both among minor defects (+8.3%) and especially among the more serious ones (+13.1%). Far from looking after their cars, we are increasingly neglecting them.

According to the same report, if we broaden the view of the problem and analyse the last five years of economic developments, the state of road safety is clearly compromised due to the low concern Spaniards show for maintaining their vehicles. Thus, between 2012 and 2016 average spending at workshops fell by 21.7%, while the number of defects detected in passenger cars by the ITV rose by 34.7%. By contrast, over those same five years, average household spending increased very slightly, from 28,152 euros on average in 2013 to 28,200 euros on average in 2016, though with a deep dip in between following the sharp fall experienced in 2013, which brought average spending down to 17,098 euros.

While average spending on car maintenance has fallen from 647 euros on average in 2012 to 507 euros in 2016, average spending in bars and restaurants has risen from 2,459 euros in 2012 to 2,780 euros on average in 2016.

“The increase in road accidents, together with the growth in defects detected by the ITV in recent years, makes it very difficult for society to accept that the improvement in the economy and the rise in families’ average annual spending are not accompanied by greater care for the car,” says Carlos Calleja, director of Eurotaller. The “direct relationship that exists between carrying out regular and responsible car maintenance and safety at the wheel” obliges all of us to remember the responsibility that proper maintenance of the vehicles we own entails towards the rest of society.