What's the news?
Insurance company 123.ie has conducted a survey of Irish drivers to see how happy they are and the results are somewhat startling. A surprisingly high 92% of people responding to the online SMILES index on driver happiness stated that their car is essential to their way of life, although an equally high 73% of drivers complained about the rising costs of fuel.
Despite this, just 3% of consumers taking part said that they would get rid of their car if faced with financial difficulties. Instead, almost half (48%) said they would first drop holidays, while almost a quarter would do away with household luxuries in order to keep their car.
The same survey indicated that 29% of people, when asked about what irritated them on the road, placed the blame at poor driving from others. Another third of people surveyed considered others disregarding the rules of the road as an annoying trait. Some other interesting results indicate that 60% of Munster drivers find paying road tax the most annoying thing about car ownership, while Dubliners are twice as likely to base their car purchase on performance more than price.
The index was launched to mark the start of the Smiling Miles campaign and the hunt for Ireland's happiest driver. Calling on consumers to submit their nominees for the Smiling Miles campaign, Padraig O'Neill of 123.ie said:
"Motoring should be a happy experience for consumers given the amount of money and time we spend on our motoring. The fact that other road users feature so highly on the www.123.ie SMILES Index as being the source of annoyance is very interesting. Put simply, if every road user feels that every other road user is showing no respect, then there is clearly an opportunity for us all to improve our driving behaviour and habits. That was the catalyst for us to launch the Smiling Miles campaign and seek votes for Ireland's happiest driver."
Anything else?
123.ie is looking for people to share their happy and positive motoring stories via email and these will be posted on its website over the coming weeks. You can do so by emailing smilesmiles@123.ie.