Fuel pumpHigh fuel costs top the list of pet hates for motorists, a survey has revealed.

With diesel now at record levels, the soaring cost of fuel at the pumps is the single thing that most annoys drivers, the poll by breakdown company Autonational Rescue found.

The next biggest bugbear was "bad driving techniques" followed by the cost of car parking, high insurance premiums and high car-servicing costs.

Just 3% cited pollution from vehicles as the thing they get most annoyed about, while only 2% got worked up about toll road or city congestion charges.

Autonational's marketing manager Ronan Hart said: "The UK consistently ranks among the top three most expensive countries for fuel prices for motorists in the entire world, with only Norway regularly beating us.

"If you want really cheap fuel you have to go to Venezuela (average price 3p a litre) or some of the Gulf States."

He went on: "One of the few good things to come out of this time of austerity is that many councils are cutting back, or even removing, their public car parking charges, principally to bring shoppers into their towns and cities rather than to specifically help the motorist.

"But so much more should be done to keep the cost of motoring down."

A total of 1,013 adults were surveyed.