comparethemarket.com reveals the questions we ask the most about our cars
— The most common car query is 'When is my MOT due?' with 58,000 searches a month
— MOT questions generally are the most common among Brits with over 70,000 overall searches on the topic a month
— When it comes to car maintenance, queries around jump-starting a car and which oil to choose both rack up 10,000 monthly searches
— For those looking to sell a car, the most popular query is finding out how much it's worth. People looking to buy a car most commonly ask 'What car should I buy?'
— Questions around tax, maintenance and the cost of a car are all among the most-searched questions
01 JULY 2020 (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE): New research released today from comparethemarket.com reveals the car questions Brits ask the most online, with 'When is my MOT due?' emerging as the most common query.
The findings from comparethemarket.com's Car Questions research can be viewed in full here: https://www.comparethemarket.com/car-insurance/content/most-searched-car-questions/
The research analyses Google search data to discover the number of monthly searches to reveal what we want to know most about our motors.
Top 10 most-searched car questions overall:
Rank Question Category Searches per month
1 When is my MOT due? MOT 58,000
2 How much is my car worth? Selling 43,000
3 How much is my car tax? Tax 17,000
4 How to jump-start a car? Maintenance 10,000
5 What oil for my car? Maintenance 10,000
6 Who can fix my car? Maintenance 9,000
7 When is my car tax due? Tax 8,700
8 What is my car worth? Selling 8,600
9 What does SUV stand for? General 6,900
10 How much to tax my car? Tax 6,500
General car queries
When it comes to general questions about cars, Brits are most stumped by what SUV and BMW stand for with 6,900 and 4,800 searches respectively.
When we're not decoding automotive abbreviations, many of us are trying to find basic information on our vehicles. 'What model is my car?' had 3,300 searches and 'What colour is my car?' 1,800 searches.
MOT time
With the Government allowing a six-month MOT exemption during the COVID-19 pandemic, this may be contributing to MOTs being one of the top things we're turning to Google for information about (over 70,000 searches).
'When is my MOT due?' (58,000 searches) is the most-searched question, followed by 'How long does an MOT take?' (4,600 searches) and 'What does MOT stand for?' (3,500 searches).
Selling your car
When it comes to selling our motors, the main thing people want to know is how much they can get for their car (43,000 searches).
Other common queries include how much they could get for scrapping it and how to SORN a vehicle if they don't want to sell it right away.
Taxing your car
The majority of people searching for car tax questions are trying to find out how much they're going to have to pay (17,000 searches).
There are also queries on when car tax is next due (8,700 searches) and what tax band a car might fall into (3,300 searches).
Car maintenance
While it's always good to leave the more complex car maintenance to the professionals, some of it can be done at home.
The joint most common queries are 'How to jump-start a car?' and 'What oil for my car?' with 10,000 searches each.
While most of the searches related to fixing cars and battery life, there were also 1,800 monthly searches for 'How much to wrap a car' suggesting people are looking to modify their motors.
Buying a new car
When we're looking to buy a new car, questions include things like 'What to look for when buying a car?' (1,100 searches) and 'When is the best time to buy a car?' (400 searches).
However, the most-searched query is a lot more open-ended, with 4,500 people simply searching 'What car should I buy?'.
Dan Hutson, Head of Motor Insurance at comparethemarket.com, said:
œDuring these unprecedented times, people may be concerned about how the COVID-19 pandemic may affect the way they drive, insure and maintain their cars. Google can be a great place to find answers on car queries, although it's important to make sure you're getting your answers from a reputable source, such as the Government website, DVLA, RAC or the AA.
