Half (51%) of Brits fear being overcharged when it comes to looking after our cars, yet 48% admit they have paid for a service or repair item without understanding what it was for. What’s worse is that 40% of us have pretended to understand something the garage has told us for fear that a lack of knowledge would be used against us and result in a bigger bill.

Nearly 7 out of 10 (69%) admit to not understanding the terminology used by garages at least some of the time and less than 1 in 10 say they always understand what they’re being told.

Very few (17%) of us feel comfortable when talking about the mechanical or technical elements of our cars: 8 out of 10 ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’ feel out of our depth. Less than a third of us would always question something we don’t understand; 1 in 5 say they fear being ripped off if they speak up, while 6% are too embarrassed to ask for clarification.