No plans to extend warranty: Toyota

TOYOTA Australia has “no plans” to extend its new-vehicle warranty beyond the current three years/100,000km term, despite the industry trending toward longer coverage.

 

Earlier this month, Mazda became the latest car company to increase protection for consumers to five years (with an unlimited kilometre count), following Holden’s move last month that joined other brands including Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Skoda and Peugeot/Citroen. 

 

Kia still leads the mass-market brands with a comprehensive seven-year package, while niche electric vehicle brand Tesla offers eight-year coverage. 

 

Speaking at the launch of the new-generation Corolla hatch in Queensland last week, Toyota Australia vice-president of sales and marketing Sean Hanley said the company stands by its obligations under Australian consumer law but does not consider the standard warranty period “a sales tool”.

 

“At this stage, Toyota Australia has no plans to extend its warranty for new vehicles,” he said. 

 

“Our core and key focus remains our commitment and continues to be on providing outstanding service to our customers. 

 

“I’ve often talked to you guys about our quality, durability and reliability in our cars. We stand confident by that statement, we will continue to offer outstanding service to our customers and I can assure you that our warranty obligations are certainly aligned to Australian consumer law.

 

“I know there’s been a lot of commentary about five years and seven years. We think that our warranty provision at the moment is adequate for our customers.”

 

Asked about the effectiveness of a longer warranty period in pure marketing terms, Mr Hanley said: “We certainly look after our customers, I think that’s proven. 

 

“We have great product, we stand confident by that, we conform and will always be aligned with Australian consumer law, there’s no doubt about that. 

 

“We just don’t necessarily see the standard warranty as a sales tool, actually. We would see anything that we do in that space going forward would be about retention and giving to our customers the service that they expect from Toyota – which they’re getting now.”

 

Although Volkswagen Group Australia (VGA) offers five-year coverage for its Skoda brand, VW itself is sticking to three-year/unlimited-kilometre coverage.

 

As GoAuto has reported, VGA managing director Michael Bartsch told us earlier this month that it also had no plans to follow Mazda and offer a five-year warranty.

 

“Mazda do what Mazda needs to do,” he said. “If you have a look at what’s putting us on the consideration list, nobody is walking in saying, ‘I need a five-year warranty.’ We don’t lose sales at the moment. 

 

“What happens down the track I can’t tell you. 

 

“Obviously we’ve thought about it, but right now there’s nothing for nothing. If you put in a five-year warranty now, or have sometime in the past or moving forward, you are going to have to factor that in to the cost of the vehicle. 

 

“Right now, everything we’ve had in order to be able to position the car and optimise that has been done so we can hold that price point.”

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