Volkswagen announces five-year warranty – with a catch
German car-maker extends after-sales coverage in Australia, but only for a limited timeVolkswagen Australia has taken another step towards a permanent five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty program in Australia.
However, the extended warranty announced today for all new Volkswagen cars applies only to those sold before the end of this year.
Confirming the limited-time offer with motoring.com.au this morning, Volkswagen spokesman Paul Pottinger said all new vehicles sold before December 31 will be covered by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre program.
In addition, Volkswagen is offering drive-away pricing on selected models through the fourth quarter of 2018.
Following the offer, Volkswagen will revert to its standard three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty – for the time being.
“This is a campaign at the moment,” said Pottinger. “We will continue to look hard at a five-warranty in Australia on a permanent basis.”
Volkswagen Group Australia managing director Michael Bartsch added: “customer reaction to five year warranty will be informative”.
Five-year warranties are quickly becoming the standard for new vehicles in Australia, as the industry comes to grips with an extremely competitive market.
In the past year alone, Ford, Holden, Mazda, Honda, Renault, Peugeot and Citroen have upped their warranty coverage to five years.
The moves left Volkswagen, Nissan and market leader Toyota as the only top-10 automotive brands not to offer at least a five-year new-vehicle warranty in Australia.
SsangYong recently matched Kia with an industry-best seven-year/unlimited-km warranty (excluding Tesla’s eight-year/160,000km warranty), leading the Korean brand to consider extending its coverage to an unprecedented 10 years, as it offers in the US.
Hyundai is also considering a seven-year warranty – up from its once-benchmark five years.
VW brand Skoda introduced a five-year warranty in January 2017, but Volkswagen’s current three-year/unlimited-km warranty has stayed unchanged since it was first introduced to Australia in September 2010.
Once the German brand’s special warranty offer ends on December 31, buyers of new Volkswagen vehicles will again need to pay an extra fee to extend their warranty coverage to five years/unlimited-kilometres.
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If the price does not contain the notation that it is "Drive Away", the price may not include additional costs, such as stamp duty and other government charges.
