Almost two-thirds of van drivers have had their wing mirrors clipped on narrow streets or while parked in a car park.
Research by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has calculated that damage to wing mirrors has cost UK van drivers £655m in repair costs in their lifetime, without taking additional losses due to vehicle downtime into account.
The analysis found 62% of van drivers have had their wing mirrors damaged, with over a third admitting it has happened multiple times. The most common cause of wing mirror damage is driving down a narrow street (62%), followed by onstreet parking (21%), and public car parks (15%).
Replacement wing mirrors are the single most common repair that Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles technicians handle each year; glass and mirrors account for 10 times more repairs than any other part.
To help tackle this, the manufacturer is advising van drivers to fold in their wing mirrors when parked – and to explore models with automatic folding mirrors.
James Allitt, head of aftersales for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, said: “As one of the most common repair jobs, we know that a broken wing mirror is all too common for van drivers and leads to frustrating downtime.
“The impact of wing mirror damage on finances and business operations shows how important it is to manually fold in wing mirrors, and how cost-effective automatic folding mirrors can be to van drivers and fleet managers – that’s why they’re fitted as standard on our latest models, including Transporter 6.1 and Caddy Cargo.”
