New DVSA rule could save female drivers who have own car from £475 annual charge

Six in 10 women support regulations to crack down on garages taking advantage of expensive costs as the Cost of Living crisis continues.

Drivers have rushed to demand new law changes to penalise sexist MOT garages ripping female drivers off. Six in 10 women support regulations to crack down on garages taking advantage of expensive costs as the Cost of Living crisis continues.

New data has found that 61 per cent of British women support new regulations to be put in place for mechanics and garages to receive penalties if a woman can prove she has been ripped off. Penelope Silver said she had previously been taken advantage of at a garage and explained how it can be "anxiety-inducing" to get a repair.

She added: "We're still profiled and taken advantage of because we're perceived as lacking knowledge. We shouldn’t have to fight twice as hard just to be treated fairly and honestly." Caura, the car management app, recently conducted a blind survey of garages and service centres, and the gender pricing disparity it identified has been described as 'shocking'.

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The investigation discovered that women are charged five per cent more than men for a vehicle service, even when it's for the same car at the same garage. Carol Hughes added: "When my newly purchased car broke down on the way home, the garage wouldn’t take me seriously until I had a male mechanic repeat exactly what I had told them. I lost so much money and risked my health because they would only listen to a partner."

Daniel Meeghan, UK country manager of Carly, said: "The fact that women are still being treated unfairly in car maintenance is shocking, but it's a reality we aim to change by increasing industry transparency.

"If more women—and all drivers, for that matter—have access to accurate, real-time information about their cars, they can feel empowered to question their mechanics, leading to long-term, trustworthy relationships with car garages." In the Caura study, for a service, Edward was quoted £229 on average, whereas Emma was quoted £241 on average.

And there was a 265 per cent female premium from one garage, where Emma was quoted nearly three-times (£475) more than Edward, who was given a £130 quote for identical work.