Did you know that the average UK car driver spends 20 minutes per week cleaning their car? With the season of spring-cleaning upon us, we were keen to find out which car drivers are the cleanest and which are the messiest. Our UK’s messiest drivers study found that VW drivers spend the least amount of time cleaning their cars.
Bad Credit Car Finance providers Go Car Credit launched a photo competition to find the UK’s messiest car. UK drivers submitted photographs of their messiest vehicle interiors to our Facebook page. We can now reveal the winning entry, that was selected by a panel of Go Car Credit judges, was Tammy from Norfolk with her Vauxhall Astra. The winning image contained empty McDonald’s packaging, lateral flow tests, empty drinks bottles, sweet and crisp wrappers, an ice cream stick, discarded clothing, magazines, and paper towels.
We’ve showcased some of the best (or worst) submissions below.
1: WINNER – Tammy from Norfolk with her Vauxhall Astra
2: Runner Up – Kelly from Otley with her Volvo V40
3: Runner Up – Carrie from Leeds with her Mercedes ML 320 CDi
Although the winning entry was from a Vauxhall driver, our study revealed VW drivers are the messiest overall. We surveyed 1000 car owners to find out how long they spend cleaning and maintaining their vehicles each month.
Which drivers are the messiest?
The survey found that VW drivers are the messiest, spending the least amount of time cleaning their cars (14.5 minutes / week). This is 27.5% less than the national average. Renault and Nissan drivers were not far behind, spending roughly 16 minutes per week cleaning their vehicles, 20% less than the national average. As well as being messy, VW drivers may also neglect vehicle upkeep, as VW drivers were found to spend the least amount of time maintaining their vehicles.
We then looked at the data regionally to see if we could find the messiest drivers in the UK. South-East drivers spend the least time cleaning their cars, dedicating only 15 minutes per week to cleaning their vehicles.
Which drivers are the cleanest?
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Bentley car drivers are the cleanest, spending twice as much time cleaning their cars as the average person (40.86 minutes / week). Bentley drivers were also very car proud, spending 50% more time cleaning and maintaining their cars than cleaning their own homes. Bentley drivers also spend the most time maintaining their vehicles (44 minutes per week compared to 19.54 minutes of the average driver).
Mini drivers were the most house-proud car owners. They showed the biggest difference, spending over 4 times as much time cleaning their homes than their cars (20.79 minutes cleaning their cars compared to 114.37 minutes cleaning their homes per week).
Looking at differences between the owners of specific car brands, the research revealed that Aston Martin drivers were the most car proud, spending 84% more time cleaning and maintaining their cars than cleaning their homes (64.57 minutes compared to 25.86 minutes).
Londoners Spend the Most Time Cleaning Their Cars
Looking at regional difference, Londoners were the cleanest car owners, spending 27 minutes per week cleaning their vehicles, spending 7 minutes more than the national average of 20 minutes per week. House-proud Scotland saw the biggest difference, spending 108 minutes cleaning their homes compared to 17 minutes cleaning their cars each week.
The survey found that male drivers spend 25% more time cleaning their cars than female drivers (18.27 minutes compared to 22.75 minutes per week).
To make it easier to compare the results, we created a ranked table of car brand owners and the time they spend cleaning and maintaining their cars:
We wanted to see just how messy people let their cars get and we found a whole range of messy motorists. Although this campaign was a bit of fun, we do recommend car drivers take care of their vehicles for health and safety reasons.
