Quick answer – they’re around average – about £710/$824 per year. Not cheap, but not expensive. You’ll pay less for brands such as Ford and GM, but you’ll likely pay more for other premium brands such as BMW and Mercedes.
One of the most popular car brands on the market today, Volkswagens have a reputation of being solidly built, reliable vehicles. However, the fact that they are so well-built and that they are German cars, gives a reputation of significant cost. One of the things you’ll likely be wondering if you’re looking for a new car is how expensive it will be to look after it – not just to have it serviced, but how much it’ll cost for parts for major repairs such as timing belt, brakes, suspension, etc.
In this article we’re going to show you how expensive it is to maintain a Volkswagen, including what you might expect to pay at a dealership versus an independent garage or mechanic. Additionally we’re also going to look at the cost of parts compared to other popular manufacturers such as Ford and Honda.
First – what kind of Volkswagen do you have?
It goes without saying that a bigger car with a larger, thirstier engine is going to be more expensive to both run and maintain. For example, if you run a small, gasoline-engined VW Golf, it’s going to be a lot less expensive to maintain than a big diesel-engined Touareg or Tiguan.
You’ll need to consider things like tyres and brakes – larger cars tend to have much bigger wheels, which means bigger tyres (more expensive) and larger brakes (also more expensive.) Cheaper models may also have drum brakes on the rear which don’t usually need replacing as often as disc brakes, which again will save you money compared to a bigger car.
How old is your Volkswagen?
Another important factor in the cost to maintain your Volkswagen is how old it is. As a rule of thumb, newer cars are going to be a lot cheaper to run and maintain than older cars for a variety of reasons – an older car is going to be far less reliable simply because mechanical systems wear out and give more problems as they age – and this comes with higher costs. Secondly, availability of parts may be a concern – and if your older Volkswagen has bespoke parts or parts that need to be sourced from out of the country, you’ll pay a premium to get your car repaired.
Additionally many newer cars come with fixed price servicing/oil changes from the VW dealer, so you’ll likely save money there compared to an older car. As with everything, a car has a service life of around twenty years or so if properly maintained (although of course, classics such as the Beetle can last a lot longer with care and attention) and there will become a point where you’ll find an older Volkswagen won’t be economical to continue maintenance and repair.
Are Volkswagen cars reliable?
VWs have a reputation as being solidly built and well engineered. This is true to a degree – but while they are reliable vehicles, they are certainly not the most reliable vehicles on the road – that accolade goes primarily to the Japanese brands such as Toyota, Lexus and Honda.
In fact, CarWow did a comparison of the reliability of around 30 car brands and found that VW’s reliability score was 62% – which beat out German competitors such as BMW (53%) and Mercedes (56%) as well as sister brand Audi (53%), but didn’t do anywhere near as well as cheaper competitors such as Ford (67%), Kia (69%) or Hyundai (71%).
CarWow also did a comparison on how much you’d likely pay every single year to maintain and fix a Volkswagen, and this was around £710 ($824). Again – not particularly cheap, and certainly not as cheap as the costs to maintain a Ford (£610/$723) or Honda (£530/$629) but a lot less expensive than Lexus (£1,100/$1,305) or BMW (£1,090/$1293).
Here’s a link to the study that CarWow did.
Cost comparison – taking your car to a VW dealer
Straight up we’re going to tell you that if you take your Volkswagen to a dealer to be repaired or maintained, it will be more expensive than taking it to a local, independent repair shop. The reason for this is that you pay for the peace of mind that a dealer gives you, including the fact that your warranty is maintained and that genuine parts will always be used.
However, there are lots of independent garages that are warranty approved and that will use OEM or equivalent parts, and charge you a lower hourly rate for it, so if your VW is over three years old, you might want to look at a local mechanic to save you some money.
We’ve done a comparison on some common repairs done to Volkswagen cars, including mundane things such as servicing to more expensive and complex repairs such as a timing belt or chain replacement, to see what the prices are like if you took your car to the main dealer versus taking it ot a local mechanic.
It’s worth mentioning – the data we’ve used here is from the UK. For the dealer cost, we’ve used VW’s fixed price repairs and servicing prices displayed on their website. VW charges different prices for different models, so we’ve averaged them to give a consistent price – so you may pay a little more or less.
For the independent mechanic cost, we’ve taken three models across the VW range – the Golf, Arteon and Tiguan. We felt this represented the VW auto range quite well – the small car, the sedan and the SUV. Each car was relatively recent – between 2018 and 2020. We found the average of the cost an independent garage would charge if you booked through Fixter – an aggregator that allows you to book repairs at trusted garages from the comfort of your own home. Again – because of this you may pay a little more or less.
Minor service (oil and oil filter change)
| Average Price (GBP£) | Average Price (USD$) | |
| Independent Mechanic | £130.21 | $154.49 |
| Volkswagen Dealer | £199.00 | $236.11 |
Major service (oil, oil filter, pollen filter, air filter)
| Average Price (GBP£) | Average Price (USD$) | |
| Independent Mechanic | £286.91 | $340.42 |
| Volkswagen Dealer | £379.00 | $449.68 |
Timing belt/chain and water pump change
| Average Price (GBP£) | Average Price (USD$) | |
| Independent Mechanic | £538.61 | $639.06 |
| Volkswagen Dealer | £789.00 | $936.17 |
Brake fluid flush
| Average Price (GBP£) | Average Price (USD$) | |
| Independent Mechanic | £62.40 | $74.04 |
| Volkswagen Dealer | £69.00 | $81.87 |
As you can see, the dealer is consistently more expensive, and in some cases significantly so, but in others not so much.
As we’ve previously mentioned, you can expect to pay an average of £710 or $824 per year to have your VW serviced and maintained (of course some years will be more expensive than others.)
Check out some more of our servicing and maintenance articles!
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Unveiling the Truth About Peugeot 308 Reliability
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Are Peugeot 107 Reliable? A Comprehensive Analysis
A Comprehensive Guide to Turning Off Economy Mode in Your Peugeot 307
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About the author
Marcus Brown is editor-in-chief of The FatMech and is a mechanic with ten years' experience based in London, UK. Having worked for major dealerships for many years, Marcus now works for a local independent garage and has experience working on nearly every make and model of car. Marcus also has a passion for writing and teaching, which is where the idea for The FatMech came from. In his spare time, Marcus enjoys playing golf, doing home renovations and gardening. He lives just outside London with his wife and son.