Toyota will not follow Mitsubishi and MG with longer new car warranties, retaining its five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty in Australia.
The warranty war heated up earlier this year when China’s MG brand increased its seven-year, unlimited-mileage warranty to 10 years and 250,000 kilometers, surpassing Mitsubishi’s 10-year, 200,000-kilometer conditional warranty.
Kia, Skoda, SsangYong and GWM offer seven-year warranties, while the Isuzu Ute has a six-year warranty.
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Toyota offers the same five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty as most competitors, although this can be extended to seven years on the powertrain if the car is serviced properly at a Toyota dealer network.
Toyota Australia vice president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley, told media the brand had “no intention of expanding its current coverage”.
“We believe our current warranty coverage is adequate,” he said.
“We increased it a few years ago. The law in the country that we operate in is called the Australian Consumer Law, which really takes care of warranties, so there is absolutely no need for… consumers in Australia to worry about a product when the fact is we are governed by the Australian Consumer Law.
“We have our own warranty and there are other regulatory requirements. From Toyota’s perspective, our warranty coverage is very strong, we don’t leave people behind. We always stick to our quality, durability and reliability.”
Hyundai Australia led the five-year warranty trend, introducing a market-leading warranty package in 1999.
Kia then introduced a seven-year, unlimited-mileage warranty in 2014, followed by companies like GWM and SsangYong.
Honda and Jeep launched five-year warranties in 2017, followed by Ford, Mazda and Volkswagen in 2018. Subaru and Toyota also launched five-year warranties in early 2019.
In the luxury car world, Genesis launched in Australia with a five-year warranty in 2019, while Mercedes-Benz Australia has increased the warranty period to three years to five years in 2020. This is followed by Volvo in the same year.
Jaguar Land Rover jump into 2021EQUAL did Lexuswhile Audi has made the leap in January 2022. Alfa Romeo follows by mid-2022.
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