√BMW is last Top 20 brand to adopt five-year warranty, 23 years after Hyundai set the precedent

German car giant BMW has finally introduced a five-year warranty in Australia – 23 years after Hyundai pioneered extended coverage, and the last Top 20 brand to make the move.

Twenty-three years after Hyundai pioneered five-year warranty in 1999, BMW Australia has finally introduced extended coverage – conspicuously becoming the last Top 20 brand to do so locally.

The five-year warranty coverage announced today applies to BMW cars, BMW motorcycles and the BMW-owned small-car specialist Mini.

Despite being a part of the BMW group, Rolls-Royce automobiles are not affected by the change, and will retain four-year, unlimited kilometre coverage.

The five-year warranty will be applied to new BMW and Mini vehicles delivered from 1 October 2022.

BMW’s five-year unlimited kilometre warranty replaces the brand’s previous three-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.

As reported earlier this year, BMW was the only brand in the Top 20 to not offer five-, six-, or seven-year warranty coverage locally.

BMW’s belated switch to five-year coverage leaves super-luxury brands such as Bentley, Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and McLaren with three-year warranties in Australia.

Low-volume non-prestige brands with three-year warranty include Ram, Chevrolet, and Fiat.

BMW’s move lags behind its fellow German prestige brands. Audi made the switch to five-year coverage in January 2022 and Mercedes-Benz adopted longer coverage in March 2020. Italian brand Alfa-Romeo announced a switch to five year coverage in May 2022.

Today’s announcement makes the BMW the last Top 20 brand in Australia to upgrade from a three-year warranty.

A media statement issued on behalf of Wolfgang Buechel, CEO of BMW Group Australia, did not explain why the company took so long to introduce five-year warranty when all its peers had already done so. BMW Australia says its pre-paid servicing packages remain unchanged.

Timeline of new-car warranties in Australia – Joshua Dowling

Hyundai was the first brand in Australia to offer a five-year warranty across the range, introducing the extended coverage in 1999.

Mitsubishi was second with permanent factory-backed five-year coverage, from December 2004.

Isuzu launched a five-year/130,000km warranty on its D-Max ute in January 2013 and the MU-X SUV gained the same coverage when it was introduced in November 2013.

Renault introduced a five-year warranty on passenger cars – but not sports models or vans – in April 2011. The French brand added a five-year/200,000km warranty to commercial vehicles from July 2020.

Hyundai’s sister brand Kia introduced a permanent factory-backed seven-year warranty across the range from October 2014.

Jeep launched its ‘There And Back Guarantee’ five-year warranty in February 2017.

Volkswagen’s sister brand Skoda moved to a five-year warranty in January 2017.

Honda introduced a five-year warranty in July 2017, and has from time to time done monthly sales campaigns offering seven-year coverage on selected models.

Citroen adopted a six-year warranty in July 2014 but that coverage was wound back to three years in November 2017 after a change of distributor in Australia.

However, following a backlash, the importer of Citroen and its sister brand Peugeot increased warranty from three years to five years/unlimited kilometres on all models except vans (which have five year/200,000km coverage) from February 2018.

The roster of car companies moving to five-year warranties in 2018 included Ford (May), Holden (July), Mazda (August), and Volkswagen (December).

As part of its relaunch, emerging Korean car maker Ssangyong boosted warranty coverage from five years to seven in September 2018.

In December 2018 Mitsubishi added seven-year/150,000km warranty to the Triton ute (up from five years/unlimited kilometres) as a special offer, but it effectively became permanent on the Triton and most other Mitsubishi models through to the end of September 2020 (before switching to five-plus-five years coverage in October 2020).

Subaru and Toyota introduced five-year warranty coverage in January 2019 while Nissan finally rounded out the Top 10 brands by adopting five-year coverage in April 2019, to coincide with the start of the Japanese financial year.

Chinese car maker MG added seven-year warranty to selected SUV models in November 2017, while its older passenger cars retained six-year coverage. However, MG switched to a permanent seven-year warranty across the range in March 2019.

In May 2019, Isuzu Ute Australia increased warranty coverage from five years/130,000km to six years/150,000km for its D-Max and MU-X models.

In October 2019, Suzuki increased its warranty from three years/100,000km to five years/unlimited kilometres.

In August 2018, Hyundai Australia executives told media the company was considering increasing its warranty coverage beyond five years, in response to other brands eroding what was once a marketing advantage. It has since experimented with seven-year warranty on selected models in monthly promotions.

In September 2019, Renault offered a seven-year warranty on selected models for a limited time and repeated the offer in April 2020.

In October 2019, Hyundai introduced a seven-year warranty across most of its model range from the beginning of October to the end of December 2019, and then intermittently applied the offer to selected models in the first half of 2020. As this article was published, Hyundai said it had no plans to move to a permanent seven-year warranty across its entire range.

In December 2019, despite growing pressure to increase its warranty from three years to five, luxury brand BMW said it has no plans to adopt longer coverage. Less than six months later it would be the only mainstream luxury badge not to introduce five-year coverage either as a permanent or special offer.

In March 2020 Mercedes-Benz introduced a five-year warranty across its entire car, SUV, AMG, ute and van ranges.

In April 2020 Jaguar Land-Rover announced it would experiment with five-year warranty for a limited time, to the end of June 2020. But then it extended the offer to the end of September 2020. The manufacturer offers a five-year warranty across the range.

In April 2020, Audi offered a five-year warranty on selected models as a limited promotion until the end of June 2020. In the same month, Swedish car maker Volvo announced it would introduce a five-year warranty across the range permanently.

Audi introduced five-year coverage in January 2022 and Alfa Romeo introduced a five-year warranty in May 2022.

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