After looking at the cost of fixing 5,332 accident-damaged fleet cars, Willis found that repairs to the German manufacturer's cars cost almost £100 less per vehicle than any other manufacturer, at £758. Volkswagen also had the second lowest average downtime of the marques evaluated.
Kate Thompson, product affairs manager for Volkswagen, said: 'We have been working to bring costs down for a while, benchmarking our parts against our competitors, and this is the proof.'
A further boost for the VW Group came with the news that Audi was third cheapest. Jaguar was the most expensive at an average of £1,722 per repair, although this figure does not include the new X-type.
Jaguar's high average reflects the fact that all repairs would therefore have been to expensive premium sector cars such as the S-type and XJ series.
Graham Harris, sales and marketing director of Motor Initiatives at Willis said: 'Fleet operators would be advised to include average accident repair costs and downtime measurements in their running costs benchmarks.
'As the DRIVE database continues to grow we will be able to make use of the information to further enhance our products, ensuring fleet operators are well equipped to reduce costs and evaluate risk.'
The table provides a handy rough guide to repair costs although, with some data collected from less than 500 manufacturers vehicles and others from more than 1,000, results should not be taken as definitive.
Fact file
Average down time (days) and average repair cost
6.05 Volkswagen £758
6.91 Vauxhall £851
6.93 Audi £854
7.31 Ford £889
7.98 Renault £928
7.39 Peugeot £934
8.78 Citroen £966
5.67 Rover £986
7.51 BMW £990
8.69 Mercedes £1,060
7.16 Jaguar £1,722.
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