The Motor Ombudsman’s online Knowledge Base recorded over 640,000 article views last year
The Motor Ombudsman’s Knowledge Base, the reference tool designed to provide consumers with responses to some of the most common queries on car ownership and dispute resolution, has recorded 641,127 article views in 2022. This is the highest number seen for The Motor Ombudsman’s free online resource in a single year after being unveiled in 2019, and represents a 75% increase on the volume witnessed in 2021 (367,444).
The Motor Ombudsman’s Knowledge Base features 10 individual categories, which are home to nearly 200 informative bite-sized Q&As, covering subjects spanning The Motor Ombudsman’s core roles and activities, to distance sales and electric vehicles (EVs). Highlighting its continued popularity as a “go-to” resource for motorists since launching, there have been close to 1.3 million views across the Knowledge Base during the past four years (refer to the table below).
2022 analysis
In 2022, the article which was consistently the most popular across all four quarters of the year related to whether a vehicle can be returned within the first two weeks of buying it, topping the first three months of the year with over 15,000 views alone. Other topics making up the top four most frequented Q&As (all in the New and Used Car Sales category) related to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 legislation and how it affects a vehicle purchase, whether it is possible to get a deposit refunded after buying a vehicle, and what steps a customer is able to take if they have been sold a faulty car. The highest ranked Service and Repair article related to what actions a vehicle owner can take if work by a garage is taking too long.
During the year, several Q&As made new entries in the top 10 classification as the “go-to” reads, which included an article in the Distance Sales area of the Knowledge Base on whether a finance agreement will be cancelled at the same time as returning a vehicle after delivery, what a consumer is able to do if they are unhappy with a garage’s work (in the Service and Repair category) and what to do if a new car develops a fault whilst still within the warranty period (New and Used Car Sales).
The top 10 most viewed articles for all of 2022 and by quarter may be viewed in the tables below:
Quarter 4 – 2022 analysis
All from the New and Used Car Sales category, the top four most popular reads in the fourth quarter of 2022 remained the same as in the June to September 2022 period, as indicated in the table below, with the Q&A around the possibility of returning a car within two weeks of buying it remaining a leading topic (around 8,800 views). Climbing one place to fifth was the article relating to what a consumer’s rights are when purchasing a vehicle (nearly 6,000 views), whilst the Distance Sales Q&A regarding the cancellation of a finance agreement when a vehicle is returned to the seller, equally gained greater prominence with close to 2,800 reads between the months of October and December 2022.
Rounding off the top 10 articles for the fourth quarter of 2022 was a new entry about what steps may be taken if a fault is discovered with a new car whilst still under the vehicle manufacturer’s warranty period, achieving nearly 2,700 views.
