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Mitsubishi reverts to five-year warranty, offers 10-year coverage on cars serviced at dealers

Mitsubishi has reverted to a five-year/100,000km warranty after offering seven-year coverage on its most popular models for almost two years 


– and will add 10-year/200,000km coverage to vehicles serviced within the dealer network from day one.

Mitsubishi notified the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of the change two weeks ago and the corporate watchdog is yet to announce any adverse findings.

The Mitsubishi website went live today – as planned – with the revised warranty offer. It means all new-car buyers receive a five-year/100,000km warranty regardless of where they service the vehicle.

By comparison, most other Top 10 brands offer a five or seven year warranty with unlimited kilometres (see timeline below), and do not compel customers to service within the dealer network.

However if routine servicing remains within the dealer network for 10 years, Mitsubishi customers will receive 10 years/200,000km coverage.

At the same time, Mitsubishi has announced a new capped price servicing program, which now stretches to 10 years.

Initially, Mitsubishi’s capped price servicing program ran for five years, was then scaled back to three years, and has now been increased to 10 years/150,000km, with intervals of 12 months/15,000km.

While the Mitsubishi 10-year warranty only applies to vehicles serviced within the dealer network from day one, customers who prefer to service their vehicles elsewhere have the option of going in and out of the capped price service program.

 

Drive

In a media statement, Mitsubishi Motors Australia director of marketing, Rob Nazzari, said: “This new 10-year extended warranty puts owners in control. Every Mitsubishi already has at least a 5-year warranty. Now, with our 10-year Diamond Advantage program, owners that complete their scheduled capped-price services with an authorised Mitsubishi Dealer will enjoy a 10-year warranty, 10-year capped price servicing and up to 4 years of roadside assistance.”

The extended 10-year/200,000km warranty is available across all models – including the Mirage hatch and Express van – to private buyers and small businesses with up to five vehicles.

 

Warranty timeline

Hyundai was the first brand in Australia to offer a five-year warranty across the range, introducing the extended coverage in 1999.

Mitsubishi was second with permanent factory-backed five-year coverage, from December 2004.

Isuzu launched a five-year/130,000km warranty on its D-Max ute in January 2013 and the MU-X SUV gained the same coverage when it was introduced in November 2013.

Renault introduced a five-year warranty on passenger cars – but not sports models or vans – in April 2011. The French brand added a five-year/200,000km warranty to commercial vehicles from July 2020.

Hyundai’s sister brand Kia introduced a permanent factory-backed seven-year warranty across the range from October 2014.

Jeep launched its 'There & Back Guarantee' five-year warranty in February 2017.

Volkswagen’s sister brand Skoda moved to a five-year warranty in January 2017.

Honda introduced a five-year warranty in July 2017, and has from time to time done monthly sales campaigns offering seven-year coverage on selected models.

Citroen adopted a six-year warranty in July 2014 but that coverage was wound back to three yearsin November 2017 after a change of distributor in Australia.

However, following a backlash, the importer of Citroen and its sister brand Peugeot increased warranty from three years to five years/unlimited kilometres on all models except vans (which have five-year/200,000km coverage) from February 2018.

The roster of car companies moving to five-year warranties in 2018 included Ford (May), Holden (July), Mazda (August), and Volkswagen (December).

As part of its relaunch, emerging Korean car maker Ssangyong boosted warranty coverage from five years to seven in September 2018.

In December 2018 Mitsubishi added seven-year/150,000km warranty to the Triton ute (up from five years/unlimited kilometres) as a special offer, but it effectively became permanent on the Triton and most other Mitsubishi models through to the end of September 2020 (before switching to 10 years coverage in October 2020).

Subaru and Toyota introduced five-year warranty coverage in January 2019 while Nissan finally rounded out the Top 10 brands by adopting five-year coverage in April 2019, to coincide with the start of the Japanese financial year.

Chinese car maker MG added seven-year warranty to selected SUV models in November 2017, while its older passenger cars retained six-year coverage. However, MG switched to a permanent seven-year warranty across the range in March 2019.

In October 2019, Suzuki increased its warranty from three years/100,000km to five years/unlimited kilometres.

In August 2018, Hyundai Australia executives told media the company was considering increasing its warranty coverage beyond five years, in response to other brands eroding what was once a marketing advantage. It has since experimented with seven-year warranty on selected models in monthly promotions.

In September 2019, Renault offered a seven-year warranty on selected models for a limited and repeated the offer in April 2020.

In October 2019, Hyundai introduced a seven-year warranty across most of its model range from the beginning of October to the end of December 2019, and then intermittently applied the offer to selected models in the first half of 2020. As this article was published, Hyundai said it had no plans to move to a permanent seven-year warranty across its entire range.

In December 2019, despite growing pressure to increase its warranty from three years to five, luxury brand BMW said it has no plans to adopt longer coverage. Less than six months later it would be the only mainstream luxury badge not to introduce five-year coverage either as a permanent or special offer.

In March 2020 Mercedes-Benz introduced a five-year warranty across its entire car, SUV, AMG, ute and van ranges.

In April 2020 Jaguar Land-Rover announced it would experiment with five-year warranty for a limited time, to the end of June 2020. But then it extended the offer to the end of September 2020.

In April 2020, Audi offered a five-year warranty on selected models as a limited promotion until the end of June 2020. In the same month, Swedish car maker Volvo announced it would introduce a five-year warranty across the range permanently.

In October 2020, Mitsubishi became the first manufacturer in Australia to offer a permanent 10-year warranty across the range and, as this article was published, Kia remains the only Top 10 brand with permanent seven-year warranty coverage across its range.

All other Top 10 brands – besides Mitsubishi and Kia – have five-year warranty coverage.

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Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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