Follettmotors VW Audi Blog

A survey carried out by Direct Line Insurance reveals that 69% of drivers who have visited a garage in the past five years were unable to understand the terminology used. Among women drivers the figure was 82%.

Among those who admitted to being confused, a third said that they were too embarassed to admit that they did not understand what these terms meant and paid the bill regardless.

Direct Line spoke to 2,140 motorists and asked them to define a number of technical terms including “Isofix”, “lift-off oversteer” and “hybrid powertrain”.

The outcome of this lack of understanding, according to the survey, is that four out of ten survey particpants said that they found the uncertainty about car repairs so stressful that they would rather visit the dentist and ,more worryingly, that survey participants suspected that garages’ use of such complex technical terms was a deliberate attempt to mislead and confuse customers into ,perhaps, paying for unnecessary work.

From our point of view the survey results are interesting in several respects.

Firstly, it suggests that garages themselves are entirely comfortable with the use of such technical terms and also the increasingly complex nature of modern cars.
Yes; it is fair to say that the the use of such arcane technical terms has proliferated in line with the increasingly complex nature of modern cars. It is not the purpose of this blog post, though, to argue the rights and wrongs of that or even to suggest that modern vehicles are overly dependent on electronics….but we do see how the use of such arcane terms can be very confusing for a “layperson” (- they may also, it has to be said, be greeted with the same degree of ‘raised eyebrows’ by those working on the cars themselves !)

Secondly, the survey also seems to suggest that garages may also be guilty of using such terms to deliberately confuse customers.
We can’t comment on work practices at other garages ….but we do see that many of our own customers nowadays have less knowledge and understanding about the vehicles that they own. Controversial as it might sound, unless an owner has at least some basic understanding about their own vehicle - even at the most fundamental level such as checking the oil - of course there is every possibility that there is opportunity for confusion, whether or not that is an accidental or deliberate outcome.

From our point of view - and this explains in part our decision to create this blog - it is vitally important that an owner should have at least some basic understanding of their vehicle.
When you do get work carried out, ask to see the parts which have been replaced and ask as many questions as you can.
If you don’t understand something; ask or at the very least consult a glossary such as those which appear on the official
Audi and Volkswagen websites.

Knowledge is power!