Cars with mechanical defects

155,000 are driven despite a broken speedometer.

Vehicle defects were responsible for around 2,500 crashes in 2008 and one in 30 fatal accidents, according to figures from the Department for Transport.

More than one in five drivers – 22 per cent – confess they have known about a safety-related fault for more than six months. Nearly a third of motorists (31 per cent) claim they can’t afford to fix the problem while more than one in ten (11 per cent) say they just haven’t had the time to get the repairs done.