In its third annual study of car repair costs, whocanfixmycar.com reports that Audi repair costs overall in 2016 were 10 per cent more expensive than its German counterparts, an improvement from 2015 when the Audi was 12 per cent dearer.
The survey by the online maintenance watchdog is based on more than 370,000 service and repair inquiries to 8750 UK garages throughout 2016.
“For the third year in a row Audi remains the most expensive,” the whocanfixmycar.com website said.
“It is 10 per cent more expensive than the average across the three brands.
“However, when looking more closely, the gap between Audi and Mercedes is dramatic.
“The data reveals Audi to be 34 per cent more expensive than Mercedes – that gap has grown from being 26 per cent in the 2015 study.”
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
The survey reports that repairs to the volume-selling Audi A3, A4 and A6 are all more expensive than their BMW and Mercedes equivalents. (See graph – average quote – above)
“The biggest gap comes between the C-Class and A4 – the A4 is 45 per cent more expensive,” the report said.
“It does not get much better when comparing to the BMW 3 Series either which is still 32 per cent cheaper than the A4.”
Whocanfixmycar said prices for routine work – such as servicing and the replacement of batteries, brake parts and exhausts – were similar for the three brands.
The co-founder of the web site, Al Preston, said there was only a five per cent difference between the most expensive (BMW) and least expensive (Mercedes).
“The biggest difference from our previous studies is that Mercedes was previously the most expensive in a majority of routine work whereas they now come out the cheapest overall,” he said.
Mr Preston said that aside from central locking issues that have affected Audi models, the cost of maintaining an Audi becomes more expensive when the non-routine jobs (bodywork, clutch replacement, cam-belt replacement, water pumps, etc) are considered. (See graph – Average quote non-Routine work)
“Although they are not the most expensive for every single job type, they are much more expensive for certain specific, bigger jobs such as gearbox repairs and respraying.”
The website reported that Audi is the most expensive overall on the bigger repair jobs but individual jobs can produce very different results.
It said that:
- Clutch replacement: Mercedes is £95 more expensive than the average across the three brands
- Cambelt change: BMW is £263 more expensive than the average across the three brands
- Respraying: Audi is 38 per cent (£242) more expensive than the average across the three brands
- Gearbox repairs: Audi is the most expensive by far on average across the three brands; whether it is a manual gearbox (eight per cent), automatic gearbox (42 per cent) or a reconditioned gearbox (25 per cent).
Mr Preston said the higher repair bills for Audi only appeared after the vehicles were more than five years old. (See graph – Average quote by vehicle age)
Audi’s high costs for repairs such as the gearbox are unlikely to occur within the first five years of ownership and the website said that work conducted in the first few years only differs by a few pounds.
“The gap starts to widen at the five-year mark,” Mr Preston said. “Audi repair costs leap and the gap is at its most pronounced at around year eight.
“Audi is around £75 more expensive than Mercedes at this point and around £25-£50 more expensive than BMW – a bigger gap than when this data set was reviewed last year.”
Data received from the repair centres had changed in the past year. The report noticed that quotes were getting cheaper at the 12-year mark – in line with the previous survey – however there is a slight difference this year.
“BMW repairs fall sharply as expected and Mercedes do drop with a small uplift at 16-years-old,” it said.
“However, Audi remains above the £200 mark on average and does not drop off at year 12.”
It said that the reasons – as found in the previous study – were attributable to:
- Older vehicles tend to cover fewer miles
- Older vehicles tend to be less complex to diagnose, are mechanically simple, and can require less labour time during the repair
- Owners are often more willing to ‘live with’ certain faults or imperfections for longer, or are more likely to turn to non-OEM parts (or even reconditioned ones).
By Neil Dowling
Audi A4
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