Space Invaders - Study Reveals UK's Worst Parkers

LEEDS, England, March 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Audi Drivers Worst in Britain; Drivers of Small Cars Top the League

Drivers of German car brand Audi are Britain's worst according to a survey looking at the parking habits of Brits.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130328/606715-INFO )

Second in the league table of car brands that are parked badly by their owners was Mercedes, followed by Mazda in third - 8,000 cars were analysed during February by online company http://www.StressFreeAirportParking.com, the UK's biggest provider of meet and greet parking at UK airports.

The company looked at cars parked in various city centre and out-of-town shopping centre car parks and found that, per capita of cars on the road for each car marque, Audi-branded cars were streets ahead of their nearest rival in the parking hall of shame.

Almost one in four Audi car drivers (24%) were parked badly, compared to Mercedes (16.6%) and Mazda (14.3%).  The brand whose drivers performed best was Land Rover, with just 2.6% of owners parking badly.

With the advantage of more space, drivers of 'small family cars' should have no problem slipping in between the white lines of a standard parking bay, yet came out as the worst at parking ranked by size of car, followed by 'vans' and then 'superminis'.

The top five offenders for worst parked cars by colour of the car were black (29.6%), silver (27%), blue (15.1%), white (11.9%) and red in fifth spot (5%).

With parking spaces at a premium in most city centres, parking infringements cause major frustrations to motorists unable to park their car because a neighbouring vehicle has straddled two bays - 19 (1%) of the 8,000 cars surveyed straddled two or more parking spaces.

Martin Mansell, Managing Director at online company http://www.StressFreeAirportParking.com, said: "As the UK's biggest provider of meet and greet parking at UK airports, we are responsible for parking hundreds of thousands of our customers' cars every year so we know the importance of good vehicle management.

"We are all aware of the common stereotypes aimed towards certain drivers and what cars they choose to drive; however, our survey, for the first time gives UK drivers a chance to see the real facts.

"Many will be surprised to see drivers of small family cars as the worst offenders when it comes to breaching the parking bay white lines, yet van drivers - second worst culprits - will probably confirm many people's stereotypes."

Top Ten Worst Parked Car Brands in the UK, per capita

1. Audi
2. Mercedes
3. Mazda
4. Lexus
5. Jaguar
6. Vauxhall
7. Suzuki
8. Seat
9. Ford
10. BMW

Source: StressFreeAirportParking.com

Top Five Best Parked Car Brands in the UK, per capita

1. Land Rover
2. Rover
3. Skoda
4. Citroen
5. Kia

Source: StressFreeAirportParking.com

Top Ten Worst Parked Cars in the UK, by class

1. Small Family Car
2. Van
3. Supermini
4. Executive Car
5. Large Family Car
6. Compact
7. 4x4
8. Compact Executive Car
9. MPV
10. Estate

Source: StressFreeAirportParking.com

Statistics taken from 2011 report by the Department for Transport VEOH210 Licensed cars by make, by region, Great Britain: 2011 http://assets.dft.gov.uk/statistics/releases/vehicle-licensing-statistics-2011/vls-2011.pdf

http://www.stressfreeairportparking.com

SOURCE StressFreeAirportParking.com