Optimization of Auto-Repair Practice in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria through Evidence-Based Strategies

This study was designed to optimize auto-repair practice in Benin City by assessing the already existing maintenance methods, identifying the major challenges confronting technicians, spare-parts dealers, car owners, and proposing evidence-based strategies for improving the expected efficiency and reliability. A descriptive survey design supported by a mixed-method approach was adopted for the effective and resourceful conduct of the research problem. Structured questionnaires containing Likert-scale, multiple-choice and dichotomous items were purposively administered to 200 respondents comprising 100 auto technicians/workshop owners, 35 spare-parts dealers, and 65 car owners. A total of 174 valid responses were obtained. This represents 87.0% response rate. Data were analyzed with Microsoft Excel and SPSS, combining descriptive statistics with the Z-test for proportions, at the 0.05 significance level, to test five formulated hypotheses. Results showed that workshop land tenure is overwhelmingly informal with only 4.5% of technicians owning their premises. While capacity for servicing modern vehicles remained weak, as only 24.7% of workshops had specialized tools and 29.2% had diagnostic equipment. Hypothesis testing confirmed workshop facility availability (Z = 6.678), technical training (Z = 6.890), and spare-parts availability/accessibility (Z = 6.337) each significantly influenced repair efficiency, quality, and speed respectively. Customer satisfaction was driven principally by proximity to spare-parts markets (Z = 3.641) rather than by workshop type or technician competence alone. Most decisively, technicians (74.2%-78.7%) and spare-parts dealers (76.7%-86.7%) showed statistically significant preference for relocating to a centralized mechanic village over scattered workshop locations (Z = 2.921-5.406). The study concludes that auto-repair practice in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria is only moderately effective, constrained by facility inadequacy, a training-adequacy gap, and dependence on spare-parts proximity.

Keywords: auto-repair practice; mechanic village; vehicle maintenance; workshop optimization; spare parts.