Many motorists could be heading for trouble this winter for the sake of a quick check under their bonnets. Flat batteries are the biggest single cause of winter breakdowns, yet very few motorists ever bother to check them as many presume their batteries are checked when the car is serviced.

Green Flag recovery agent Gordon Atherton says: "Batteries have a habit of failing in cold and damp conditions." Last winter Green Flag attended more than 160,000 breakdown incidents relating to flat batteries, an increase of over 40 per cent on the summer months.

Gordon continues: "The main reason for the rise in battery-related breakdowns is that we put much more strain on our batteries during winter, through the use of heaters, de-misters, lights and windscreen wipers. Mod cons, such as electric mirrors, central locking systems and heated seats create an even bigger strain, so it is essential to keep our batteries in good condition."

To cope with wet, icy or snowy road conditions, it is also imperative that tyres are in good shape. Last year Green Flag responded to over 110,000 tyre and wheel related breakdowns. Many of these could have been avoided with regular maintenance checks.

Motorists are also lax when it comes to ensuring the cooling system is topped up with anti-freeze, and some even admit they don't know how to do this, yet Green Flag responded to almost 15,000 breakdowns relating to cooling systems last winter alone.

Gordon adds: "A further must this winter is to keep the fuel tank topped up. You just never know when you might hit bad weather, and it's certainly not much fun if you break down in cold weather and can't keep your engine running to stay warm. It's a good idea to keep the tank at least half full during the winter to prevent moisture freezing in the petrol line. However, many motorists admit they leave it until the last minute - when the gauge shows empty or a warning light comes on - before they fill up."

Gordon concludes: "We know that the winter weather causes a huge amount of extra problems. To make sure you're not one of the breakdown casualties this year, we'd advise all motorists to take a few minutes to make essential checks to the battery, tyres, anti-freeze and petrol and you could save yourselves a lot of trouble."