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Car "Dude" Alan
Issue 154 - 30 November 2006
When buying a car, do you ever consider what the warranty is? I know that I do, and for that reason, often buy a "certified pre-owned" car. That means that I get an extended warranty from the manufacturer as well as what's remaining of the new car warranty. It's nice that I don't pay for the depreciation of a new car either. But what about new cars?
This discussion is prompted by General Motors offering a longer warranty on their new cars than any other manufacturer. The management decided that if they were going to tempt people to buy their cars rather than a Toyota or Honda, they needed to convince them that it wasn't going to cost them more in repairs, and more subtly the cars were reliable enough that it wasn't going to cost GM a fortune in warranty repairs.
For 2007, every GM vehicle comes with basic and powertrain warranty coverage of five years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. Before this, it varied among the GM brands, but typically was three years or 36,000 miles.
To compete, Ford upped their 2007 warranty on Ford and Mercury vehicles to five years or 60,000 miles. That's up from 3 years or 36,000 miles. Lincoln's powertrain warranty is now six years or 70,000 miles, which is up from four years or 50,000 miles.
For 2007, Ford, Mercury, and Chrysler group vehicles have bumper-to-bumper factory warranties of three years or 36,000 miles. So do Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Scion, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota.
Even after the GM upgrades, several import manufacturers still offer broader powertrain coverage on 2007 vehicles. Hyundai, Kia, and Mitsubishi include warranties for ten years or 100,000 miles. Suzuki vehicles have powertrain coverage for seven years or 100,000 miles.
Okay, what are the 2007 warranties on new vehicles in the United States? I thought you would never ask. Here they are, less the exotics, which typically have very short warranties.
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Basic coverage
(year/miles)
|
Powertrain major components
(year/miles)
|
Corrrosion coverage
(year/miles)
|
| Acura |
4/50,000
|
6/70,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| Audi |
4/50,000
|
4/50,000
|
12/unlimited
|
| BMW |
4/50,000
|
4/50,000
|
12/unlimited
|
| Buick |
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
6/100,000
|
| Cadillac |
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
6/100,000
|
| Chevrolet |
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
6/100,000
|
| Chrysler |
3/36,000
|
3/36,000
|
5/100,000
|
| Dodge |
3/36,000
|
3/36,000
|
5/100,000
|
|
Ford
|
3/36,000
|
5/60,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| GMC |
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
6/100,000
|
| Honda |
3/36,000
|
5/60,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| Hummer |
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
| Hyundai |
5/60,000
|
10/100,000
|
7/unlimited
|
| Infiniti |
4/60,000
|
6/70,000
|
7/unlimited
|
| Isuzu |
3/50,000
|
7/75,000
|
6/100,000
|
| Jaguar |
4/50,000
|
4/50,000
|
6/unlimited
|
| Jeep |
3/36,000
|
3/36,000
|
5/100,000
|
| Kia |
5/60,000
|
10/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
| Land Rover |
4/50,000
|
4/50,000
|
6/unlimited
|
| Lexus |
4/50,000
|
6/70,000
|
6/unlimited
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| Lincoln |
4/50,000
|
6/70,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| Mazda |
3/36,000
|
5/60,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| Mercedes-Benz |
4/50,000
|
4/50,000
|
4/50,000
|
| Mercury |
3/36,000
|
5/60,000
|
5/unlimited
|
|
Mitsubishi
|
5/60,000
|
10/100,000
|
7/100,000
|
| Nissan |
3/36,000
|
5/60,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| Pontiac |
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
6/100,000
|
| Porsche |
4/50,000
|
4/50,000
|
10/unlimited
|
| Saab |
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
6/100,000
|
| Saturn |
5/100,000
|
5/100,000
|
6/100,000
|
| Scion |
3/36,000
|
5/60,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| Subaru |
3/36,000
|
5/60,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| Suzuki |
3/36,000
|
7/100,000
|
3/unlimited
|
| Toyota |
3/36,000
|
5/60,000
|
5/unlimited
|
| Volkswagen |
4/50,000
|
5/60,000
|
12/unlimited
|
| Volvo |
4/50,000
|
4/50,000
|
12/unlimited
|
Looking at the table, it is clear that nobody offers the best warranty. The GM ones are very good, but as was pointed out, others have parts that are better.
But... the most important part of a warranty for me is the basic "bumper-to-bumper" coverage. The corrosion coverage is not important at all here, unless you park outside and live right next door to the ocean. The powertrain part of the warranty sounds important, but it isn't as important as you might think these days.
With the use of electronics for everything, and the electronic controllers being very expensive, the basic warranty is the one that is most significant. Yes, there are cases with where manufacturers have made "mistakes" and delivered cars with engines that had defects. But in the cases of BMW and Toyota the manufacturers stepped up and made special warranty coverage on those cars to cover the problems. In the case of Ford and their V-6 headgasket problems, Ford stood aside and let owners replace them at about 40,000 miles each time. The big problem here is that the warranty didn't cover the problem -- and Ford never fixed the engines or gaskets so it never happened again. It just became normal maintenance. That's a big reason I won't own a Ford again.
Of course, there are other companies who offer warranties on cars apart from the manufacturer. They are essentially insurance companies and often the purchase of one of those warranties is a very wise purchase. It was for me with the Ford.
My final note is the very odd corrosion warranty on Mercedes vehicles. I guess they think that 4/50,000 works for everything.
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