15 Nov 2026
The voice of the independent garage sector

Parts freeze

/>worksh

/>Research from an insurance company suggests that motorists with older cars could be

/>with an unwanted repair bill of several hundred pounds this winter, as the UK’s freez

/>weather makes some car parts a whopping 283% more likely to f

/>The warning comes from specialist insurer, Warranty Direct, which analysed data f

/>its 50,000 live automotive policies to reveal that ignition coils are almost three ti

/>more likely to fail between December and February than between June and Aug

/>Overall, the 50 components identified the firm as most likely to cause a breakdown

/>winter will, on average, add an extra £408.60 to your outgoings in what is alread

/>costly time of year, although some repairs can cost as much as £1,

/>The news comes on the day following announcements from both the AA and the RAC

/>say they have had the busiest days in their history, with the RAC replacing a battery o

/>every minute at one po

/>According to the report, more than double the number of fuel injection pumps go awry

/>winter, at a cost of £321.93 each and electrical components like central locking, heat

/>and wiper motors are also much more suscepti

/>The most expensive items on the warranty list of winter woes are torque converters

/>automatic clutches – oil lubricating torque converters takes longer to reach operat

/>temperature, while wheels spinning on slippery roads does nothing for automatic clu

/>assembly – both of these will set your customer back well over £1,