Holden to roll out 7-year, 175,000km warranty for all new cars

Holden is set to announce a seven-year warranty for all new cars sold from October, according to an industry insider and advertising promoted, prematurely, on Instagram.

While it’s still unclear whether the seven-year warranty will continue beyond the end of 2017, it’s a move that will bring Holden into line with Kia, which currently leads the industry with a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.

This new Holden warranty offering is expected to be seven years and 175,000km, which allows for around 25,000km of travel per year. It also includes five years of roadside assistance and lifetime capped-price servicing.

The move to extend the new-car warranty period comes after Holden was investigated by the ACCC for breaches of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). Holden committed to improving its customer service guarantees, and this may be the latest demonstration of that move.

According to Holden’s executive director of customer experience, Peter Jamieson, Holden has led with the front foot to offer a better experience.

“We have been very proactive – this is all about Holden leading from the front and doing what Australians expect of us. Australians have always trusted Holden and our products. We have worked with the ACCC and created these policies to improve how we look after customers,” Jamieson said.

Holden’s examination of ACL coverage will now also include customers that service their vehicles outside of the dealer network, which the warranty is also expected to cover.

“We want to make sure that we’re there to look after them. Provided they service the vehicle with an accredited dealer or a mechanic with appropriate skills, we don’t want to deny them the right to be able to have their vehicle fixed at that location,” Jamieson said.

“We want to make it clear that we want to look after customers regardless of the issues they have. In all of this there is a bit of an acknowledgement that we can do better. We have voluntarily signed up to this undertaking to demonstrate that we are absolutely committed to customers at the centre of everything we do.”

Holden declined to comment on the warranty changes, but it expected to make an official announcement soon.

Would a seven-year warranty sway you towards a new Holden vehicle?