‘Higher car repair prices for women’ myth pulled apart

Study which claimed that women are charged £45 more than men has been dismissed by WhoCanFixMyCar

‘Higher car repair prices for women’ myth pulled apart
A female voice on the end of the phone, or a female first name on an online enquiry, doesn’t affect the price quoted, say WhoCanFixMyCar.

Examining the prices at independents across the country, researchers reported that a standard repair would cost a man £571 compared to the average £616 for women.

However, the comparison website for vehicle servicing and repair studied its database of 113,000 previous users, 6,600 registered garages and 4,000 weekly tailored repair quotes, found that the average female quote is ten per cent lower.

Alex Rose, Marketing Director at WhoCanFixMyCar said: “Across 64,000 data points, encompassing everything from an oil change to more complex work such as clutch replacement and even full resprays, the average quote to women was £208, compared to £233 for men – something which immediately calls the earlier research into question.”

Most popular vehicles

Superminis are up to two times more popular amongst women, whilst saloons such as the 3 Series, Mondeo, Vectra and Passat are around two times more likely to be driven by men, according to WhoCanFixMyCar.com data.

Alex added: “Stripping back purely to top-selling, evenly male/female popular vehicles and most popular repair types, the true underlying trend emerges.

“The results confirm what our 40,000 repair outlets will have known all along: a female voice on the end of the phone, or a female first name on an online enquiry, doesn’t affect the price quoted.

“The 1.3 per cent difference in women’s favour shown here is too small for us to see as a true indicator of any bias.”

Improving the approach to female customers

The data indicates that men are most likely to deal with garages and women, whilst happy to request work, are less likely to report more complex issues such as clutch replacement, timing belts and water pumps.

Alex added: “It’s clear that the UK’s car maintenance industry can do without coverage suggesting that garage owners and managers jack up prices for female customers for a start, and we’re pleased to see that this myth can now be safely dismissed.

“However it appears that service and repair outlets could still do better at attracting ‘direct’ female business, above all when the issue is seen as particularly complex.”

To find out more about WhoCanFixMyCar and to sign up, click ‘More Details’ below.

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