More than a third of drivers in the South West have suffered damage to their vehicles from potholes over the last two years, a survey suggests.
In the AA /Populus survey 35 per cent of South West drivers also rated the condition of their local roads as poor, very poor or "terrible".
And drivers in Devon and Cornwall don't think conditions will get better with 57 per cent of those who answered stating they think road conditions will get worse as the year goes on.
Devon County Council has reported it has repaired about 13,400 potholes so far this year, at an average cost of about £40 each, costing about £536,000. Adding that it aimed to repair large potholes on major roads, well-used pavements and cycleways within one working day of being reported.
In Exeter Stuart Road in Heavitree has been nominated as one of the most potholed in the city. One pothole at the top of the road is estimated to be between four and five inches deep and about 18 inches around.
Across the Uk AA members in Scotland were most likely to report pothole damage to their cars, with 44% saying their vehicles had suffered damage.
AA president Edmund King said: "Our findings are deeply worrying and show that UK drivers are once again experiencing a bad pothole season after a lull last spring - perhaps with worse to come. The slight let-up in potholes this time last year may have been just a blip in the annual pothole blight that seems to beset us each spring."
Meanwhile, the annual report from the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) showed that last year council highways teams fixed 2.2 million potholes, 500,000 more than the year before.
And the backlog in repairs is growing longer, now estimated at £10.5bn, and 20% of local roads are classed as being in "poor condition", which is defined as having five years or less life remaining.
Based on responses from 75% of England and Wales councils, the survey reported the average English authority was £6.2m short of what it needed to properly maintain its roads, up from £5.3m in 2011.
