According to an article I read recently, the state of the UK’s roads has become a popular talking point, somewhere up there with our other favourite subject ‘The Weather!’ which is handy seeing as the two generally work in unison to make our motoring lives more challenging!

How? You may ask can the council spend so long closing roads, filling in holes and re-surfacing them, for all these craters to open!  Seriously! Sometimes driving down our local ‘A’ road it feels more like a country lane, and don’t get me started on those…. they aren’t fit for a horse and cart let alone a vehicle!

First let’s get back to our good friend the great British Summer…. when it does decide to Grace us with some warmth, it also likes to dry out the Bitumen in the Asphalt which leaves us with Cracks in the tarmac.  Enter Autumn & winter.  The sheer weight of the vehicles pounding the road force water into the tiny cracks or holes in the road or pavement.  When temperatures drop that water freezes, expands and forces the asphalt to move, crack and crumble, cars continue to drive over this area and the fragments break off…. ‘a Pothole is formed’.

It’s a vicious circle really, which continues seasonally and gives us lots of reason to moan or indeed make a game out of whom can find the biggest pothole?

This problem is exacerbated further by increased traffic.  Figures released by the department for transport show that Britain’s roads are at their busiest ever in 2015 with Vans accounting for most of the growth as online shopping and home delivery become more popular and, particularly Rural roads which appear to be taking a bit of a bashing!

For us drivers it can present quite a problem.  Hitting a pothole is one thing, to some it’s merely a rather bumpy and unpleasant ride, at the wrong speed its downright dangerous!  Further-more so many of us are unaware of the long-term damage it’s doing to our vehicle and indeed the knock-on effect it has to other components.

Not only can it knock your suspension out of line causing your car to handle very differently but if you don’t get that checked you could be wearing out your tyres prematurely and also using more fuel.

The answer of course is to drive with more caution, this problem is not going away! but for those times when you do hit a pothole or curb there are new technologies available in the motor industry that can help greatly.

Here at Athertsone Garage Service Centre we offer a wheel alignment check for free using our state of the art computerised wheel alignment checker.  This allows you to see for yourself the correction needed and decide if you would like the work carried out!  It’s quick and could form part of your regular service to ensure your car is running at its most efficient.

For further information please feel free to call us on 01827 713169 and speak to one of our skilled Technicians.