'Just taking the car for a spin, darling...' to Mars and back
The buzz of buying a car means drivers can't help popping out to take it 'for a quick spin' purely for the thrill of driving it. New research has revealed the extent of this driving phenomenon with 'spinners' in the UK racking up over a billion...
The buzz of buying a car means drivers can't help popping out to take it 'for a quick spin' purely for the thrill of driving it. New research has revealed the extent of this driving phenomenon with 'spinners' in the UK racking up over a billion kilometres a year in pleasure drives - equivalent to driving beyond the outer limits of the Solar System!
Network Q, the UK's leading used car retailer, studied the motoring habits of a thousand drivers and found that they made an average of 4.18 drives when they got their latest car, covering an average of 26.7 km per spin.
By combining the annual sales of used cars (6.8 million), including Network Q (298,600) with the total sales of new cars in the UK in 2005 (2.4 million) the 'spinning sensation' accounts for a total of 1.022 billion km, equivalent to:
¤ driving round the world at the equator 25,452 times;
¤ travelling to the Moon and back 1,333 times; and
¤ driving to Mars and back nine times.
'Spinning' is more popular as we get older, peaking with the 35-44-year-old age group (5.08 trips), before dropping again.
According to Mike Brown of Network Q: "When we get our latest car home it's very difficult to resist the urge to take it for a spin. It's in these journeys we can get acquainted with the car and its performance.
"If you don't want your spin to be cut short or get any nasty surprises, our advice for peace of mind is make sure you know enough about a car first and always buy from a reputable dealer."