Honda Australia won’t permanently introduce longer warranties than its standard five-year coverage, despite sporadically bringing out limited-availability seven- and eight-year offerings in recent months.
The Japanese carmaker is one of a brace which provides a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty in Australia, on par with market leaders Toyota, Mazda, and Ford.
However, brands from Korea and China such as Kia, MG, and GWM have moved to seven-year warranty coverage despite largely selling cheaper, budget-focused vehicles.
While Honda has recently extended its coverage for certain models through limited-time offers, there has been no permanent change to its five-year policy.
Between January 16 to March 31, a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and matching roadside assistance package was offered on the Model Year 2024 ZR-V, HR-V, and CR-V, as well as run-out stock of the 2023 CR-V.
This offer was repealed in April, but returned with a further 12 months of coverage for the HR-V, and 2023 and 2024 examples of the CR-V, providing eight years of warranty and roadside assistance for all vehicles purchased by June 30, 2024.
Speaking to Australian media last week, Honda Australia director Carolyn McMahon said there were no plans to make either the seven- or eight-year offers permanent, despite the brand’s increasing prices.
“What we want to do is provide value to the customer throughout the year in line with what’s happening in the market,” Ms McMahon said.
“So value-add offers like the one that we had [from] January to March, we’ll look at turning that on and off seasonally.”
When asked if Honda had plans to make its eight-year warranty a standard offering, Ms McMahon said, “not at the moment”.
Ms McMahon also denied recent offers were chasing higher sales prior to the conclusion of the Japanese financial year (which ends on March 31), which she claims is a practice no longer required since Honda Australia moved to its fixed-price, agency sales model.
“We’ve really moved away from that style under our business model. So the business model now is about trying to be as natural as possible rather than pushing volume at, we’re just not going to play in that.”
Ms McMahon also wouldn’t elaborate on if Honda could adopt a similar warranty to that of Mitsubishi Australia, which extends its standard five-year coverage by 12 months every time a vehicle is serviced on time at its dealers, though only until the 10-year marker.
“We see the whole warranty item being something that we can bring some additional reward to some of our most loyal customers,” Ms McMahon added.
“In a few months time we’re going to be announcing a new loyalty program which works around the warranty space.
“I can’t say much more than that today, but there will be a program that rewards loyalty with warranty.”
You can find a list of what warranty coverage each of Australia’s top 20 best-selling brands offers here.
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