No more "free air"

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33442, 25 January 1974, Page 21

No more "free air"

The tradition of free air and water at British service stations may soon become a memory, the Press Association reports from London.

One London garage has already started charging 30c a time* for checking customers’ tyres, 30c for a radiator check, 30c for topping up the battery, and 8c for checking the oil.

But the proprietor has said that if motorists check

BRITISH - BUILT TVR sports-cars now carry a five-year guarantee against chassis rust. The bodies are fibreglass.

their own tyres and radiators. they can have the air and water “as a gift,” although the garage does have to stand the cost of providing the compressed air. radiator water, and distilled water for batteries.

British Prices Board officials have said they are not concerned at the prospect of garages charging for such services.

Meanwhile, the British Automobile Association has reported that it now costs some British motorists more to run a car than to buy a house.

The association has said that in the last 10 years the cost of running a 2-litre car has risen by 71 per cent, and the cost of running a car between 2000 c.c. and 3000 c.c. has risen 87 per cent.

The association estimated recently that a car between 1000 c.c. and 1500 c.c., covering 10,000 miles a year, was costing its owner the equivalent of $22.25 a week

to run: about $ll6O a year. Increased petrol prices are likely to increase these running costs by about $2 a week in the near future.

The figures in New Zealand are probably not much different: about a year ago it was estimated that the average New Zealander spent $lOOO a year running his family car. Rising costs are encouraging more British motorists to carry out maintenance themselves, sometimes with rather mixed results.

According to an Automobile Association survey, about half Britain’s motorists now clean and change their own spark plugs, and between 30 and 40 per cent deal with such jobs as fanbelt replacement and oil, oil-filter and ignition points replacements.

A quarter of the country’s drivers now do their own tune-ups and brake adjustments, and 12 per cent take their cars to a garage less than once a year.