VW's New 6/72 Warranty Longest In Industry, Also Transferrable

With the start of the new model year, Volkswagen has extended coverage of "The People's First Warranty" on its new vehicles to six years and 72,000 miles. It is now the longest new-car warranty in the industry and it is also tranferrable if the car is traded. The new owner picks up the balance. VW had formerly used an industry-standard 3/36 warranty.

Volkswagen is practicing a bit of one-upmanship for the 2018 model year that, believe it or not, gives consumers a very nice break. Until the end of the last model year (maybe last week), VW used a standard new-car warranty, the type of warranty that has been an industry standard for more than half-a-century. With the model year 2018, VW offers a six-year/72,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. Also, like BMW, Volkswagen will now allow warranty transfers as part of user-car deals. Here are the details of VW's long warranty.

Industry standard warranty still three/36

With very few departures, the industry has relied on a 3-year/36,000-mile basic new-car warranty, as well as a 5-year/60,000-mile limited powertrain warranty for decades. The basic warranty covers such things as brakes, and electronic systems, air conditioning/heater system and major mechanical components, as well as anything else, spelled out in the owner’s manual. The 5-year/60,000-mile new-car limited warranty covers the major drivetrain components – engine, transmission (transaxle), as well as all-wheel-drive components (4Motion®).

VW calls the new coverage plan the “People First Warranty.” The reason the automaker is offering it now, says Hinrich Woebcken, president and CEO of VW of America, is because VW is “putting our customers first. By bringing the right cars, at the right time and making the offer very competitive, we believe we’re in the position to grow in the U.S. market.”

The extended warranty first appeared earlier this year when VW introduced the 2018 Atlas three-row crossover and the 2018 Tiguan (longer wheelbase version). It has now been extended to cover:

• Beetle
• Beetle Convertible
• Golf
• Golf Alltrack
• Golf GTI
• Golf R
• Golf SportWagen
• Jetta
• Passat

Derrick Hatami, executive vice president, sales, and marketing for VW of America, said buyers have “welcomed Atlas and Tiguan into their homes” as the automaker has “begun to grow again in America. Expanding this warranty beyond those two models [Atlas, Tiguan] gives our dealers another compelling argument for the rest of our lineup, and we believe it will lead to a reduced cost of ownership” for buyers.

The ‘People First Warranty’ covers ‘The People’s Car (Volkswagen)’

The “People First Warranty” includes powertrain coverage for engines transmission and optional 4Motion® all-wheel-drive systems. The automaker has made all elements of the warranty transferable to subsequent owners for its full extent, six years or 72,000 miles, whichever comes first, from its date of sale.

As noted earlier, most of VW’s competition – Honda, Toyota, Ford, and Chevy – offer a three-year/36,000-mile basic warranty and a five/60,000-mile powertrain warranty on their cars and SUVs. Two VW competitors, though, do offer longer warranties, Hyundai and Kia. Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia offer a five-year/60,000-mile basic warranty. And, they provide more time and higher mileage limits on their powertrain warranties. While the warranty is transferrable over the first five years at that point, it becomes non-transferable.

Source: Volkswagen