A survey by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry has found that half of their members see cars presenting with dangerous defects around once or twice a month.
93% of garages have seen cars come in with dangerous tyres in the past three months.
SIMI is calling on car owners to keep up their car maintenance as a priority.
Director General Alan Nolan said that it could be a matter of life and death.
"If you don't get your car serviced and looked after and checked to make sure that it doesn't have anything dangerous arising, it's not just about your investment into the car, and that's important, but it's about your family in the car, yourself in the car, and other people on the road," said Mr Nolan.
"And I think the increase in fatalities on the road indicate that there isn't the same degree of care about servicing cars as there was pre-recession."