Car servicing comparison site WhoCanFixMyCar.com work with almost 5,000 garages nationwide, helping around 4,000 drivers repair and maintain their pride and joy every month.
As a result, they've seen all sorts of makes and models with a wide variety of required work - from KIA key cutting to Aston Martin accident repairs and everything in between.
In fact, they've seen 44,000 repairs and counting, to be precise.
WCFMC have plenty of research on car manufacturers, servicing, garages and big brands.
In the first of a regular series of ‘big data’ insights, they're putting the big three German premium brands head-to-head: BMW vs Audi vs Mercedes-Benz.
Here's what they found.
1. Audis cost more to maintain
We compared the quotes received for comparable repair types across these three brands.
The result? Audi consistently came out on top, an at average 31% higher than for Mercedes maintenance and repairs.
BMW sat a little above Mercedes, but still 19% below Audi.
And Audi's high prices don't end there.
2. It's a consistent trend across the volume models
Whether it’s an A3, an A4 or an A6, average repair estimates on an Audi remained highest - with the largest difference (+45%) apparent when comparing C-Class and A4 repair quotes.
3. Complex repair work causes Audi bills to rack up
When it comes to simple work - routine servicing, or wear parts such as brakes and exhausts - estimates across all three brands are comparable.
The biggest variation occurs when comparing transmission.
Cambelt changes also showed the same trend, as well as requests for ‘Engine Parts’ - a broad category of repairs typically requiring more ‘involved’ work.
4. The younger the car the pricier the Audi repair
Mercedes cars 'go on for longer', with repairs most likely in 11-year-old cars.
Conversely, the majority of Audi repairs take place when the cars are 5-10 years old, with BMW somewhere in between.
The results
Having reviewed, sliced and diced over 10,000 rows of data, we have our findings.
Audis cost more to maintain than their premium German stablemates, driven by dearer major work, which tends to occur when the car is a little newer.
Mercedes, meanwhile, are inclined to last a while longer before the 'compulsory pitstops' really kick in.
Next time we’ll compare major volume models in a supermarket Showdown - it's Golf vs Focus vs Astra time.