Ford vs Volkswagen

In 2021, in the midst of all the madness of the pandemic, the seemingly impossible happened: Volkswagen for the first time became the most popular vehicle manufacturer in the UK, displacing Ford from the top spot which it had held since around 1968. 

UK car buyers have made their preference clear - but is VW the best choice for long term savings? At WhoCanFixMyCar, we decided to find out by comparing average repair costs for Ford and Volkswagen to determine which one comes out on top once and for all. 

Contents:

Cambelt

Clutch

Brake pads and discs

Which brand is cheapest to repair?

Cambelt

When it comes to cambelt replacement, the cheapest Ford model is the Galaxy with an average price of £255.19. Unfortunately for Ford, this pretty impressive figure is beaten by that of the VW Touran (pictured above) which costs £248.59 on average.

Nevertheless, all isn’t lost for Ford thanks to the lower overall cost for a cambelt replacement across the six models we’ve included in this guide. Ford came out on top with an average price of £279.71 versus VW’s £338.73. 

Did you know?

The first Ford car was sold to Dr Pfennig in 1903 for a grand total of $850. It had a two cylinder engine and could travel at a top speed of 30mph.

Clutch

Finding out that your car's clutch is on its way out is arguably one of the worst bits of news that a driver can receive due to the notoriously high price of getting a new one fitted. 

Ford Fiesta drivers will be pleased to find out that their car comes out on top of the other Ford models in this instance with an average clutch replacement price of £422.87 - over £200 less than the Ford Kuga!

However, the good news appears to stop there for Ford fans; the Ford Fiesta is beaten by the Volkswagen Polo (pictured below), which has an impressive average price of £420.22.

Can Ford pull it back with an overall win? Once again, they can! The mighty VW Polo might have smashed the Ford Fiesta but the overall cost of a clutch replacement is lower across Ford models than VW - just! 

Ford have won this one by the skin of their teeth with an average price of £566.19 versus their rival’s £567.60.

Brake pads and discs

Finally, we come to brake pads and discs where we see yet another win for Ford. The cheapest model is the Ford S-Max (pictured above) with an average cost of £195.84. By comparison, Volkswagen’s cheapest model for brake pads and discs repair is the T-Roc at £213.58 on average. 

It’s a similar story when you look at the average cost across all models - Ford triumphs once again with an average repair price of £259.95. Volkswagen, though slightly more expensive, still comes out with a relatively low figure of £312.05.

Which brand is the cheapest to repair?

Congratulations to Ford for coming out on top with an average cost of £1,105.85 across the three repair categories we focused on in this guide! Volkswagen was a worthy adversary but didn’t quite manage to steal the show with a total average cost of £1218.38.

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