Best new car warranties

All new cars come with a manufacturer’s warranty to reassure potential buyers that their models are durable. During the warranty period, drivers who encounter a manufacturing defect can return their car for a free repair. It’s a significant reassurance at a time when many cars are getting increasingly complex.

A three-year new car warranty is standard on the majority of new cars, and most brands also stipulate a mileage limit; usually it’s 60,000 miles. If the car exceeds this within the warranty period, the cover expires.

While you might think that offering only three years’ cover is a bit stingy on vehicles that can cost £100,000 or more, it’s worth bearing in mind that warranties on other products, such as electrical goods, generally last for only 12 months.

That said, some car makers want to offer buyers more reassurance, so they provide longer cover. In 2021, Lexus and Toyota started offering owners an additional 12-month warranty every time they have their car serviced at one of the brands’ dealerships, as long as that car is no more than 10 years old and has covered less than 100,000 miles. Suzuki has since introduced a similar scheme.

Dacia introduced a similar offering in 2024, providing up to seven-years and 75,000-miles of cover for cars that are serviced within the franchised dealer network. And seven years’ cover is provided by Kia, MG and Suzuki, and they don’t insist that you stick to the franchised network for servicing.

Peugeot now offers an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty on its range of electric passenger models, spanning from the e-208 to the e-Traveller. The cover is on top of the standard three-year/60,000-mile warranty and can be had for any buyers who have older cars serviced by a franchised dealer - doing so adds two years and 15,000 miles of cover each time the vehicle is serviced at a franchised dealer.

Some up-and-coming brands are also providing longer warranties, perhaps to reassure buyers about choosing a product from an unknown manufacturer. China’s BYD covers its cars for six years or 93,750 miles, while compatriot GWM offers five years’ cover with unlimited mileage, as does Korean brand Genesis.

Which brands have the longest car warranties? 

*provided you get your car serviced by a main dealer
** only applies to Peugeot e-3008, other models have 3yrs/60,000 miles cover

Which parts are covered by new car warranties? 

Major components, such as the engine or electric motor, fuel system, gearbox and suspension, should all get full warranty cover, along with interior and exterior trim.

Infotainment systems used to be excluded from new car warranties, but these days many car makers give them the same cover as other major parts. While air conditioning systems will be fixed if they go wrong, the cost of regassing a system isn’t always included, or it might be covered for only the first six months or 7500 miles.

Similarly, brake discs and exhaust system parts might be covered for only a short time, and cracks in windscreens and other exterior glass are often covered for the first three months or 1000 miles, so it’s worth adding windscreen cover to your car insurance for peace of mind.

Items known as consumables – which are expected to have only a limited lifespan – are generally not covered at all unless they fail due to a manufacturing defect. These include the 12-volt battery, light bulbs, tyres and windscreen wiper blades.

Hybrids and electric car warranty cover 

To give additional peace of mind to buyers of plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles (EVs), many manufacturers, including Kia, Vauxhall and Volkswagen, cover the high-voltage drive batteries for eight years and 100,000 miles for loss of capacity. If the battery’s ability to store energy drops below 70% of its original capacity within this period, the car maker will usually repair or replace it.

What other warranties do new cars come with? 

The new car and EV battery warranties aren’t the only things covered by car makers. The car’s paintwork is usually covered for the same length of time as the main warranty, and rust is warranted against for 10 to 12 years or around 100,000 miles. However, this cover is only for metal panels that have rotted from the inside out, not for rust patches or holes caused by external factors, such as stone chips, and it can be difficult to prove which way the rust has occurred.

Could I accidentally invalidate my new car warranty?

As with all insurance policies, there are lots of exclusions and clauses that need to be adhered to so that you don’t invalidate your cover. The main one is that you keep the car maintained regularly to the manufacturer’s standard and have servicing done within the time or mileage recommended.

Although you aren’t usually required to have your car serviced by a franchised dealer, you do have to take it to a garage that will carry out the correct service to the standards recommended in the owner’s manual. They must use genuine parts, or those of equivalent quality, and it ’s best to get the garage to make a note on the service invoice of all part numbers for items used. You must also stick to fuel, oil and other lubricants that are recommended in the manual.

Other reasons for not paying out on warranty claims include the car’s owner ignoring a warning light on the dashboard, or carrying on driving when the car has a noticeable mechanical or electrical fault.

If the car gets damaged while it’s being used inappropriately – for example, if it’s being used as a taxi or on a race track – it won’t be fixed under warranty.

Why has my new car warranty claim been rejected? 

First, you need to understand why the warranty provider has decided not to pay out. If it’s because the faulty item is specified in the terms and conditions as not being covered, there’s little you can do.

However, if you think there’s no exemption and the manufacturer should be paying out, you have a couple of options. If the warranty has been supplied by a car maker or its dealer network, you should contact the customer services department, stating what the problem is and asking them to investigate and see if your claim should be honoured. If you have no joy, you can lodge a complaint with The Motor Ombudsman, an impartial arbitration service that specialises in resolving issues between consumers and motor industry businesses.

Which brands are best at paying for warranty repairs? 

One big criticism of car warranties is that while the first two years are provided by the car maker, subsequent years are often provided as an insurance policy administered by franchised dealers. The latter can cover fewer areas of the car and have more restrictions. And some car owners have told us it’s been difficult to get dealers to agree to do work they believe should be covered by the warranty.

To find out what percentage of new cars were repaired for free within the typical warranty period offered by manufacturers, we examined data from the latest What Car? Reliability Survey. The survey contains real-life information on nearly 30,000 vehicles, with their owners telling us whether they went wrong and, if so, how much they cost to repair.

Our data reveals that while 82% of cars up to five years old were fixed for free, the remaining cars landed owners with repair bills ranging from £50 or less to more than £1500.

The best brand when it comes to carrying out work for free is Polestar, with no owners being asked to stump out for any repairs. Cupra and Renault aren’t far behind, covering the cost of 98.6% and 97.8% of all issues respectively, and they’re followed by Kia, Mercedes and Volvo, which all fixed more than 90% of cars at no cost to owners.

At the other end of the spectrum, 39% of Nissan owners told us they’d been required to pay to have their cars fixed during the first five years, as did 35% of Vauxhall owners.

Rather more concerningly, our survey also revealed that 49% of Nissan owners who were unable to get their car repaired under warranty were charged more than £1,500. Vauxhall owners were not quite so hard hit, with 21% of drivers who had to pay for repairs being charged between £201 and £300; however, 17% were charged over £1,500 to get their car put right.

Best brands for fixing cars under warranty

This shows that there’s more to warranty claims than how many owners got their cars fixed for free. To find out which are the best and worst brands for the cost of repairs on cars under warranty, we collated the amounts paid by owners of 28 different brands and divided them by the number of cars reported on.

To rate the brands, we turned this figure into a percentage; the brands with the highest percentage asked owners to contribute the least to repairs, and those with lower scores left owners with larger bills.

Polestar is still top of the chart, because it didn’t charge any owners who took part in the survey for remedial work, whilst Renault follows close, with just one owner paying less than £50 to get problems put right.

Our data shows that while some brands are good at covering the cost of most repair bills, they can still leave a small percentage of owners seriously out of pocket. For example, while 86% of Land Rovers were fixed for free by the company,  7.5% of the bills it didn’t pay for topped £1500. 

Nissan again finds itself at the bottom of the table, because the number of cars it fixed for free is the lowest and 19% of owners who experienced a problem with their car ended up paying more than £1500 putting it right.

Vauxhall isn’t much better, with 65% of cars fixed for free and 6% of owners having to find more than £1500.

Best brands for covering the cost of repairs not done under warranty

Should I buy an extended car warranty? 

There are three main types of extended warranty or mechanical breakdown insurance: a manufacturer’s own extended warranty, which you can buy when the car is new or before the original warranty runs out; a used car warranty supplied by a franchised car dealership or car supermarket; and a warranty sold by an independent provider.

Whichever type of warranty you choose, the foremost requirement is that it should protect you against the unexpected failure of important components and systems on your car, such as the engine, gearbox, electrics, steering or suspension. You can also choose to add a range of other components, such as the infotainment system or air-con.

All extended warranties should tell you which items they cover, as well as stating any that are excluded. If that’s unclear, or the policy’s terms and conditions aren’t easily accessible, our advice would be to steer clear of that product.

The range of products available and the prices charged for them are wide, but there are three key phrases that you need to watch out for in an extended warranty contract: ‘betterment’, ‘consequential failure’ and ‘wear and tear’.

Betterment means that if your car needs a new part that’s better than the original, you might have to pay for it, because it has increased the value of the car. A consequential failure is when a part that’s covered by your warranty breaks and causes the failure of another part that isn’t covered. You might have to pay for the secondary parts.

As for wear and tear, no warranty provider can cover all consumables; even the more comprehensive ones don’t cover things like batteries, brake pads and clutch plates, and it’s important that you understand up front what level of wear and tear cover is offered.

What Car? says...

What Car? content editor, Jack Mortimer, says, “Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increasing number of car manufacturers offer longer warranties, with Lexus, Suzuki and Toyota buyers who are happy to get their car serviced at a dealer able to stay covered for a whole decade.

“However, a long warranty is worthless if it doesn’t protect all of the components that might go wrong on your car. Even if the model you’re thinking of buying has a great track record for reliability, always check the company’s warranty to see exactly what’s covered. If you know someone else who owns a car from the same brand, ask them to see if any issues were resolved and, if so, whether they needed to pay. A quick check can save you from spending a fortune fixing an issue well within the warranty period.”

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