THE STATE OF BREAKDOWNS

The months you are most likely to break down
Over the last three years, there have been a total of 614,279 breakdowns on England's 'Strategic Road Network' (which comprises all motorways and some A roads), which is a huge amount, especially when you take into account that there have been far fewer people on the roads during the various stages of lockdown in the last 18 months or so and works out as 561 breakdowns a day.

Looking at how this breaks down throughout the year, it's the summer months that see the most breakdowns, with August having the most overall, with 63,420 over the last three years, accounting for just over 10% of all breakdowns, followed by July, with 60,382.
On the other hand, the earlier months of the year have the fewest breakdowns, with April having the least, with 42,661 (6.94%), although this could be slightly impacted by there being fewer cars on the roads in April 2020, when the UK's first lockdown was just starting.

The days you are most likely to break down
Looking more specifically at days of the week, Friday was the most common day for breakdowns, with just over 100,000 over the last three years, accounting for 16.4% of breakdowns in England. But on Saturdays and Sundays, breakdowns were actually lower, with 81,218 on Saturdays and 77,597 on Sundays, which is 23% fewer than on a Friday. The roads you are most likely to break down on
We also wanted to know which were the roads that you're most likely to break down on in England, with the M1 taking that dubious honour, with just over 90,000 reported breakdowns in the last three years. The M1 is one of the busiest motorways in the country, connecting London and Leeds, so it's little wonder that there are so many breakdowns recorded on it each year.

However, the M1 isn't the longest motorway in the country, as that accolade goes to the motorway with the second-highest number of breakdowns, the M6, which runs from the Midlands to the Scottish border and saw over 82,000 incidents in the last three years.

And in third place was the M25 which runs around the edge of London and is known for its high levels of traffic, which explain why there are so many breakdowns too.

The regions with the most breakdowns

While it's not the most heavily populated part of the country, the East of England was actually the region which had the highest number of breakdowns in the last three years, with over 136,000. The East region covers some of the Home Counties, as well as all of East Anglia, including towns and cities such as Cambridge, Peterborough, Norwich and Ipswich.



In second place was the North West, with just over 100,000 breakdowns over the three-year period, while the region with the lowest number of incidents is the South West, which had less than half the amount of those in the East of the country, with just 50,000.

The most common reasons for breaking down

We also surveyed over 2,000 Brits to find out what the most common reasons for breakdowns are, and the results were fairly varied!

1. Overheating - 18%

Excluding those who responded with “Other”, the most common reason that people had to seek assistance was for their vehicles overheating (18%). This can happen for a few reasons but the most common is that your cooling system isn't working properly and you'll soon know abou...