Hyundai set to offer seven-year warranty in Australia, backdated to 1 January 2025

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Hyundai Australia is on the cusp of announcing that it will offer its new vehicles with a seven-year warranty with unlimited kilometres in the Australian market, shifting from the current five-year/unlimited kilometre guarantee introduced in 1999.

Chasing Cars understands that the seven-year warranty will be backdated to cover all Hyundai vehicles purchased in Australia since 1 January 2025.

Don Romano, who commenced as chief executive officer and president of Hyundai Motor Company Australia (HMCA) seven weeks ago, is supportive of a push to lengthen the warranty that been in the government approval phase for some months.

HMCA has previously used a seven-year warranty in Australia on various occasions as a limited-time purchase incentive.

While the seven-year warranty has not yet received final sign-off, final preparations are being made for a formal announcement – despite former HMCA chief operating officer John Kett telling media in 2023 a seven-year warranty would “never” happen.

Seven-year base warranty, rather than Nissan/Mitsubishi style extended warranty

The fine print of new car warranties differs between car manufacturers, and it is becoming a more common practice to offer a base five-year warranty extendable if the customer services the car with its maker or meets other conditions.

Hyundai has opted against that strategy and will instead apply a seven-year base warranty, though it still has to apply government approval for an extended warranty as it is understood to be planning to backdate coverage to include existing vehicles sold in 2025.

MG offers a 10 year/250,000km base warranty in Australia, while Kia and GWM each provide seven years/unlimited kilometres of coverage, albeit with mileage limits of 150,000km kicking in for commercial vehicles.

Nissan is currently advertising a 10 year/300,000km warranty in Australia, but the base warranty is five years/unlimited kilometres. Each time an owner services the vehicle with Nissan annually from the five year mark, an additional year of warranty is applied to the vehicle.

A similar arrangement is in place at Mitsubishi, where the actual base warranty is five years and just 100,000km – but annual servicing with Mitsubishi dealers from the five year mark extends the warranty by 12 months/20,000km to a maximum of 10 years/200,000km.

Whether Hyundai’s seven-year warranty will place limits on mileage for commercial users remains to be seen.

Plan to backdate seven-year warranty for all of 2025

“My preference would be to have a base warranty that was longer (than five years) and more competitive than some of those brands that have done extensions,” Romano told Chasing Cars.

“When you extend a warranty for two years, it requires government approval because it is not part of the original base warranty. That (approval process) can take up to a year.

“My preference would be to have a base warranty that was longer and more competitive with some of those brands that have done extensions.”

The reason for backdating the warranty is understood by Chasing Cars to be in order to prevent Australian customers delaying their purchase of a Hyundai in order to wait for the seven year warranty to kick in – instead, it will apply to cars bought now.

When Hyundai introduced a five year warranty in 1999, two or three year guarantees remained the norm in Australia. Now, five years of coverage is the industry standard.

For new HMCA boss Romano, offering a longer warranty is part and parcel with “future-proofing” Hyundai against glitzy offers from new brands.

“I will do whatever I have to do to get us moving in that direction, as the most important thing I can do in my three years is to move the brand forward and to future-proof the brand as much as possible against all these new entries coming in,” Romano told Chasing Cars.