(Mon 07 Jan 08)

Independent insurance company Warranty Direct has some alarming figures about the cost of repair bills due to potholes.

Warranty Direct has compared statistics from the UK and the US and found that damage caused by poorly maintained roads "could be a key factor" in up to a third of mechanical failures recorded over here. In the US the proportion is about one in eight.

The manufacturer with the worst incidence rate in the UK is Jeep, for which 47% of failures are pothole-related. In the US the proportion drops to just over 9%.

Why should this be? Warranty Direct points out that the UK road maintenance budget in 2006 was £10,000 per mile, whereas in the US it's around £15,000 per mile.

"Even though the UK has just 250,000 miles of road compared to America's 4 million," says Duncan McClure Fisher of Warranty Direct, "we are still a poor relation when it comes to road maintenance budget – and we're paying for it in repair bills."

Last year, the company launched a website to campaign for an increase in road maintenance funding, and you can find it at www.potholes.co.uk.

Previous: Porsche Panamera Hybrid                    Next: Terrorists Force Dakar Cancellation