The longest new car warranties in Australia

Buyers have more choice than ever when it comes to choosing a new car, and that means there's more consideration required to figure out which vehicle is going to be right.

One key battleground for brands trying to stand out from the pack is in the after-sales experience for owners - specifically, the length and duration of new-car warranty cover.

Australia is the most competitive market on Earth when it comes to new-car warranty programs - on average, most brands offer a five-year warranty, where in other markets the standard is just three years.

So, which brands stand out, and what do you need to be mindful of?

Decade-long warranties are here

A number of brands have moved to offer peace of mind by way of enormously long vehicle warranty programs, including a handful with decade-long cover.

There are often stipulations when it comes to what's covered by the new-car warranty, and in some instances you will need to ensure you keep servicing the vehicle with the brand's network of workshops. For example, Mitsubishi was first with a 10-year/200,000km warranty, but it is conditional upon the vehicle being maintained in-house - otherwise, the plan is five years/100,000km.

Nissan recently moved to a 10-year/300,000km warranty, and unusually, the Japanese brand decided to include retrospective cover for vehicles serviced within the Nissan network. So, if you owned a four- or five-year-old Nissan and were thinking about trading it in because the warranty was almost up, suddenly there was less reason to do that.

As with the Mitsubishi decade-long warranty, Nissan requires you to have your car serviced in-house to be eligible. That could be painful for people who live a long way from their local workshop.

Meanwhile, MG - under the ownership of SAIC Motor Corp in China - has the most comprehensive ownership promise in the market: a 10-year/250,000km warranty without any stipulations about where you service the vehicle.

It is worth noting that these extensively long warranty plans do cost car companies money to offer, and they seemingly redeem those costs through their servicing plans.

For instance, some MG models have seen their maintenance bills increase by significant margins: the MG ZS SUV went from an average of $246 to $527 per visit within a matter of months.

Likewise, service costs for Kia and Mitsubishi, among others, have skyrocketed in recent years.

Resale improvements

It goes without saying that one of the big selling points for long warranty plans is that you can pass on the benefit to the next owner. So if you typically only hang on to your car for three years, imagine the value it adds if there are still years left on the warranty card!

All brands include a level of transferability of the new-car warranty if you decide to sell the vehicle prior to the warranty finishing up.

In fact, it could improve the resale value of your pre-owned vehicle significantly when it comes time trade-in or sell-on a vehicle - including when it comes to pre-owned cars, utes and SUVs, according to global asset remarketing company, Manheim, which auctions cars on behalf of dealers, private and government fleets, carmakers, financiers or insolvency firms, insurers, and the general public.

"There are a number of variables that impact wholesale vehicle prices at Manheim auctions," says national auction manager Andrew Chapman. "Warranty remaining on a used car is one major example."

"As auctioneers, we definitely make sure to use warranty as a selling point. If a wholesale used vehicle has some balance of manufacturer new vehicle warranty remaining, we would expect to see a positive impact on bidder activity as a result, namely faster selling times, higher clearance rates, and better selling prices for vendors.

"This is the case for both dealer and private buyers, who respectively buy wholesale cars to sell on their lots or as their own personal transport.

"Given the trend towards manufacturers offering longer warranties of seven or even 10 years, we expect this to become an even greater factor in asset values moving forward.

"Anything that increases consumer confidence in a vehicle has a positive impact on its used value," says Chapman.

EV battery warranty plans

The vast majority of electric vehicles have high-voltage battery warranty programs that sit separately to the rest of the vehicle.

The norm, generally, is an eight-year/160,000km plan. That applies to most mainstream EV offerings.

However, there are some fringe considerations - Kia offers a seven-year/150,000km warranty for its EV batteries, while MG has a 10-year/250,000km battery warranty for its electric models.

It's worth checking with the dealership or in warranty documentation about battery cover for hybrid and plug-in hybrid models, too.

Some interesting outliers

While Mercedes-Benz has a standard new-car warranty of five years/unlimited km, a number of the brand's fully electric models have a 10-year/250,000km new-car warranty. Impressive!

At the other end of the scale is Tesla, which has one of the least attractive new-car promises on the market, with a four-year/80,000km warranty.

Meanwhile, boom brand BYD had a pretty questionable level of warranty cover to begin with, as it wasn't a 'bumper to bumper' warranty - charging port connections, screens inside the car and battery systems all had specific coverage levels. That has now been ironed out to meet market expectations.

Check the fine print about accessories and dealer-fit options, and be mindful of warranty cover for paint and corrosion (rust!), which can differ from the vehicle warranty.

And... the worst

Fiat has a short three-year/150,000km warranty plan, while RAM Trucks and GMSV (General Motors Special Vehicles, which imports Chevrolet and GMC products) offer just a three-year/100,000km warranty.

Promotional warranty offers

Occasionally brands will offer longer warranties on new cars as a means of offering better perceived value. Honda Australia, for instance, has been running a promotional eight-year warranty deal as part of a sale program for in-stock vehicles for some time.

While the Honda program is running at a national level, many dealerships will offer promotional warranty extensions, but make sure you read the fine-print to ensure that it doesn't stipulate specifics around servicing at that particular location.

Consumer protection

New-car warranty programs are essentially promises from brands that their products will last as long as they say they will.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission states that: "When buying a car, consumers have basic rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Manufacturer's warranties and extended warranties apply on top of consumer's basic rights - they don't replace, change or take away basic rights.

"A consumer has the right to their choice of a replacement or refund when a car has a major problem, or a free repair when a car has a minor problem."

So, in some instances, the warranty mightn't be worth the paper it's printed on. Caveat emptor!

Brand by brand

Here's a rundown of brands with the longest new car warranties in Australia:

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