The Slow Death Of DIY Maintenance
Do it yourself or more commonly referred to as DIY was a very popular way of shaving a few extra pounds off of a garage bill. In the past a large percent of people where capable of carrying out DIY work on their vehicles now however this appears to be changing, the art of DIY is progressively becoming a long lost art and this is down purely to the fact that cars are now computers on wheels. The days of changing oil, filters and replacing light bulbs in the comfort of your driveway seem to be a distant memory, with the cost of labour soaring to reach £96/p hour on average down to the demand for garages to do the work rather than themselves.
The main reason people avoid DIY is down to the complicated tech that’s in cars now but it’s also mixed with a slight bit of laziness. Tasks that used to take mere minutes such as changing a headlamp can now take even the most qualified an average of ninety six minutes which was timed on a Renault Clio, also things like changing oil or a filter can push towards the forty minute mark. All this time needed to carry out maintenance on the high tech vehicle can add up and land you with a pretty hefty bill, as technology is moving forward so is the cost of living and this is just another example of this.
Back in 1994 it took only ten minutes on average to change a headlamp, I’m sure people wouldn’t mind taking 10 minutes out there day, or even if not it only would of cost a garage £6.12 to do such maintenance. What would it cost now? The bill would be well over £100 down to labour time increasing in price dramatically and also the cost of the materials.
Is it partially to do with laziness or lack of knowledge? A survey from the AA showed that 7 in 10 driver didn’t even know how to check the engines oil level, and even more shockingly 1 in 10 didn’t even know how to open the bonnet! The survey also showed several other shocking results and it summed up realistically that DIY is dying a slow and painful death with many people happier to hand their keys over to a garage and just pay the bill.
It’s not just cars everything that revolves around tech is becoming harder to tinker with, if you’re not an expert there’s a large chance that you don’t know what you are doing with whatever appliance it may be. It can often cost more to call one of these professionals out to fix your broken appliance than just to buy a new one all together, with the increase price of parts also continuing to rise.