Britain has a “pothole epidemic”, according to a breakdown company.
There is now one pothole for every mile of road according to data gathered from councils by Britannia Rescue.
Figures obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request showed councils have paid out a total of £2.5 million in compensation to motorists in the past financial year for pothole damage to cars.
The company also said a survey of 2,001 UK adults had shown they had suffered car damage as a result of poor road surfaces in the past year.
Britannia claimed the combination of a harsh winter followed by a dry summer had particularly harmed road surfaces and exacerbated the problem.
It added UK councils had received 32,600 compensation claims in 2012/13 for everything from potholes ruining wheel rims, to puncturing tyres and damaging suspension an increase of 79% from 2011/12.
One of the country’s largest local authorities, Lincolnshire County Council, reported pay-outs amounting to more than £358,665 in 2012/13.
Britannia Rescue managing director Peter Horton said: “Britain’s pothole epidemic has resulted from years of under-investment in our roads and has been exacerbated by recent harsh winters.”
The company described road maintenance in the UK as “severely under-funded, with around £16 spent per driver on maintaining road surfaces and fixing potholes less than 10% of the annual road tax bill”.
“The average cost of repairing a pothole is around £50, meaning the amount paid out by councils in compensation could have been used to repair more than 50,000 potholes,” it added.
The average repair bill for pothole damage to a vehicle in the last 12 months was £140.