RAC Finds Car Repair Bills Near £700 as 25% of Young Drivers Delay Fixes

• The average car repair bill is climbing to almost £700, according to the RAC Report on Motoring 2026, against £650 in the RAC’s previous report.
• 25% of drivers under 25 and 21% of those aged 25 to 44 have delayed necessary repairs for financial reasons, compared with 5% of drivers aged 65 and over.
• 60% of the 2,238 drivers surveyed said maintenance and repair costs rose in the past year, and 7% admitted they had failed to replace worn out tyres.

The average car repair bill is now climbing to almost £700, and younger drivers are the group most likely to leave a fault unfixed. That is the finding of the RAC Report on Motoring 2026, which surveyed 2,238 UK drivers between 14 and 28 February 2026 and was released on 1 September 2026.

The research company Online95 ran the survey for the RAC among drivers who hold a full licence, drive at least once a month and have a vehicle in their household. The headline cost figure came from RAC head of policy Simon Williams, who put the average repair bill at almost £700. The RAC’s previous report put the same figure at £650, so the typical bill has gone up by roughly £50 in a year.

The part of the data most readers will want to check against their own situation is the age split. A quarter of drivers under 25 (25%) said they have delayed necessary repairs for financial reasons. The figure is 21% among drivers aged 25 to 44. For drivers aged 65 and over, it falls to 5%.

Across all ages, 60% of drivers said the cost of maintaining and repairing their car had increased over the past 12 months, and 32% said they were worried about the cost of keeping their vehicle on the road.

Why a Delayed Repair Is Often the Most Expensive Kind

The RAC said the squeeze on repair budgets is likely to be worsened by fuel prices. When the report was released, it put the cost of a tank of petrol at around £89, compared with £74 a year earlier, a rise of £15. A tank of diesel stood at £100, up from £79, a rise of £21. Drivers who spend more at the pump have less left for a garage bill, and the survey shows many are choosing to wait.

Mr Williams said: “With the average repair bill climbing to almost £700, it’s little wonder that so many people are finding it difficult to make ends meet.” He added that kicking the can down the road and delaying repairs, or putting them off altogether, is a false economy, and said a small fault left untouched can grow into a bigger and dearer one.

The survey also asked about two checks that have a legal basis. Among drivers of all ages, 3% said they have deliberately avoided their MOT, and 7% admitted they had failed to replace worn out tyres. Mr Williams said it was concerning that so many drivers appear to be risking breaking the law by not having a valid MOT or by driving on bald tyres. He said bald tyres drastically increase the risk of a collision, as they lengthen stopping distances and are at greater risk of unexpected blowouts.

The rules behind those two figures carry real penalties. The legal minimum tread depth for a car tyre is 1.6mm across the central three quarters of the tyre. A driver found with an illegal tyre can face a fine of up to £2,500 and 3 penalty points for each tyre. Driving without a valid MOT can bring a fine of up to £1,000, with limited exceptions such as driving to a pre booked test or to a garage for repairs after a failure.

The DVSA’s own MOT statistics for April to June 2026 show why tyres and brakes sit at the centre of this. In the DVSA’s figures for cars and light vans (Class 3 and 4 tests), 4.64% of initial tests recorded a dangerous tyre defect and 2.27% recorded a dangerous brake defect. A dangerous defect means the vehicle should not be driven until it is repaired.

What the £700 Average Means for Different Drivers

An average bill of almost £700 works out at about £58 a month, or around £13 a week, if a driver were to set the money aside across 12 months. That is a Motoring Chronicle calculation, not an RAC figure, and the real cost lands in lumps rather than evenly. A set of tyres, a brake job or a clutch can arrive in a single month and wipe out a savings buffer.

That lump sum is the likely reason the age gap is so wide. Drivers under 25 and those aged 25 to 44 are the groups most likely to be paying insurance, fuel and finance at the same time as a repair, with less savings in reserve than older drivers. The RAC data does not state this as a cause, and it does not break the £700 average down by age, but the delay rates point the same way: one in four under 25s and more than one in five drivers aged 25 to 44 have put off a repair, against one in twenty of those aged 65 and over.

The cost pressure is also visible in how many drivers said it applied to them. With 60% reporting higher maintenance and repair costs over the past year, this is not a niche complaint. Nearly a third (32%) said they were worried about what keeping the car roadworthy would cost.

The MOT test itself is one of the few fixed costs in the system. The maximum fee for a standard car test (Class 4) has been frozen at £54.85 for 16 years, so the test fee is not what is driving the bills higher. The rise comes from what the test finds, and from parts and labour for fixing it.

Can You Avoid It?

A repair bill cannot always be avoided, but the size of it and the timing can be managed. These steps follow the RAC’s own warning that a delayed repair often turns into a dearer one.

• Check your tyres every month with the 20p test. Place a 20p coin into the main grooves of the tyre. If the outer band of the coin is hidden by the tread, the tread is above the 1.6mm legal minimum. If the band is visible, the tyre needs checking with a proper gauge and is likely close to the limit. A bald tyre costs less to replace than the £2,500 maximum fine and 3 points that can apply to each illegal tyre.
• Ask for a written, itemised quote and get a second one for anything above a few hundred pounds. A quote should list parts and labour separately, so the two garages can be compared line by line. Ask which items are safety critical and which can wait, and get the answer in writing.
• Treat MOT advisories as a repair calendar. An advisory is a fault that is not yet serious enough to fail the test. Note the items, price them while the car is still passing, and fix the worst first. This turns a surprise failure next year into a planned cost this year.
• Book the MOT early. A car can be tested up to a month (minus a day) before the current certificate runs out without losing the renewal date. That gives time to fix a fault and pass a retest before the old certificate expires.
• Ask about retest terms before you agree to repairs at the testing garage. A retest at the same test centre within 10 working days after a failure is normally free or at a reduced fee for the failed items, but the rules differ depending on whether you leave the car or take it away, so ask the garage to confirm in writing.
• Set money aside monthly. About £58 a month matches the RAC’s almost £700 average. If that is too much, even half of it builds a buffer so a tyre or brake bill does not land on a credit card.
• Check what cover you already have. A used car sold with a warranty, a manufacturer warranty still in date, a service plan or a breakdown policy can cover some of the repairs that fall inside the average figure. Read the exclusions first, as wear and tear items such as tyres and brake pads are often left out.

The RAC’s message is that a bill put off is a bill that grows. For the 25% of drivers under 25 who have already delayed a repair, the data suggests that the cheapest time to act is now, while the fault is still small.

Sources:

• RAC Report on Motoring 2026: young drivers more likely to delay car repairs (Press Association via The Irish News, 1 September 2026)