seeing that Honda are offering 7 year warranties on their motor mowers makes me wonder why car makers don't follow Hyundai and go for at least 5 years. Yes, I appreciate that mowers are must less complicated than motor vehicles but how measly are the 3 years that most makers/dealers give the buyer - doesn't display that much confidence in your product! Honda has a good name for reliability and could surely go to at least 5 years. It would be a very attractive reason for buying their cars.
Do I recall correctly reading here at some point that in the US car warranties are much longer than those in Europe?
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Lets not forget Porsche and Smart still only offer 2 years. IIRC this is the minimum allowed now under EU law.
I would love to see longer warranties on new cars, but the reality is that Hyundai and Kia are only doing it to build their brand in the UK and try and address some of the poor residuals that they have seen in the past. Cant really see any of the premium brands going this way as they dont need to.
My understanding of the US warranties are that the extended bit covers the oily bits rather than the whol car - think they call them drive train warranties?
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Daihatsu & Fiat also give 5-yr warranty on some of their models.
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I saw the same lawnmower ad and had the same thought as the OP.
A three year warranty is a bit silly on a product with a useful expected life well in excess of that, though things will start to fail as time goes by.
If one major increased warranty to four years, I suspect many others would follow.
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If one major increased warranty to four years I suspect many others would follow.
It's called a cartel.
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I think frankly the manufacturers could not afford to offer such long warranties. When you hear of major costs incurred by people eg on the modern CR diesels and also electrical gremlins within 5 years I think they'd be taking a bath if they offered to cover all of that. Fundamentally I think not enough manufacturers have got their vehicle build quality consistent enough and defect /error rate down far enough to treat a car as if it were a TV or a DVD player.
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I see the point but you can buy a pretty comprehensive third party warranty for years 4 on for a few hundred pounds.
That's basically an insurance policy. It can't be beyond the wit of manufacturers to lay off the risk you describe, ukbeefy, with an insurance company.
Then they could avoid all the grief about goodwill payments you can read every Saturday in the paper.
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Well the TP warrantees are AFAIK fairly tightly worded policies that would not pay out for a range of regular failures.
Generally having worked in the insurance industry a few years back such a scheme would not be hugely profitable to underwrite - the manufacturer would know alot more about the potential liabilities than the insurer and in that circumstance the insurer gets their pricing wrong. where the insurer knows more than the client about the likelihood of claim then they are more likely to have pricing power and hence profitability.
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to treat their cars as if it were a TVR ....
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If one major increased warranty to four years I suspect many others would follow.
And increase their prices as well. Warranties cost money.
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seeing that Honda are offering 7 year warranties on their motor mowers makes me wonder why car makers don't follow Hyundai and go for at least 5 years.
Honda Mowes - 7 year warranty for a £300 purchase - Key to this is an annual service at £50-£70 - i.e. somwhere between 16% and 25% of the purchase price ANNUALLY
I am sure Ford, Honda etc would love to give you a 7 year full warranty if you have them 16-25% of the original purchase price annually.
I know there are lots to the above pricing but an annual service on your Mondeo @ £3k - £5K - there would not be many takers.
PS I buy a £130 petrol mower, change the oil (some years) and change the blade less than that - usually I buy another after about 10 years - I am on my 4th petrol mover in 35 years.
The prestige name and quality of the Honda mower are not in doubt but my annnual cost inc depreciation = £20 - Honda would be up to £100 to keep up the warranty
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. Honda mowers - 7 year warranty for a £300 purchase - Key to this is an annual service at £50-£70 - i.e. somwhere between 16% and 25% of the purchase price ANNUALLY
Agreed, and the max payout is the cost of a new mower - couple of hundred.
A car warranty with loads of restrictions and a payout cap of £200 would be dirt cheap, although not attractive to the customer.
Hourly use per year of a mower is tiny compared to a car, and most faults occur while the machine is being used.
And, fair play to Honda, their stuff is generally reliable.
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I would be happier with more flexibility in warranty offerings.
For example, I'm not at all interested in warranty, and would always prefer to simply pay a cheaper price for the car.
However, I can imagine that when I'm too old to maintain cars myself, having the option of a warranty will be something I become more keen to take up.
I don't think that warranty should be mandatory, surely it should be a commercial decision for the supplying company to make?
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UKB said above that manufacturers know better than anyone else what the risks of component failure are. So they could do their sums and make their commercial decision bearing in mind that people who don't understand cars will be attracted by a, say, 5 year warranty because you know where you are financially for that period. Add a couple of hundred to the purchase price if you need.
Without getting into all the stuff about fit for purpose, there has to be a warranty that, bearing in mind the original cost, the car will do what it's supposed to for a reasonable period of time.
To that extent I think it has to be mandatory.
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If everyone wants to get a long warranty, then other than Kia/Hyundai no one would have been in market by now.
Buyers balance warranty offerings with badge value and reliability perception (from friends/families/journos etc.)
Porsche offers 2-yr warranty, their reliability is not exemplary, repair is quite expensive - yet people buy their cars because their perceived value is much higher.
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