Skoda plumps for new five-year warranty

Following the lead of the likes of Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Renault, Czech car maker Skoda will now offer all its vehicles with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. This will include:

Fabia - small car
Rapid – small car
Octavia - medium car
Superb - large car
Yeti – small SUV

Making the announcement on its 10th year in Australia, the company says the new car warranty will cover private, general fleet and government vehicles.

Skoda has also confirmed it will cover any vehicles purchased for commercial use with a five-year, 150,000km warranty.

The new five-year warranty incurs no price increase on the Skoda range of vehicles.

The company previously offered a three-year warranty on its cars, with a costed option to extend to five years.

"Given that some 50 per cent of our customers were going for the optional extended warranty, it was logical that we add it to all models as standard," said Skoda Australia managing director Michael Irmer.

Although Skoda is still a minnow in the Australian new-car marketplace with around half a percent market share of the roughly 1.1 million cars sold per annum (4760 sales in 2016, up 10 sales on 2015), the company is expecting significant growth in 2017 when its new Kodiaq SUV launches in July.

The company’s Australian boss says Skoda's vehicles are "not only more economical to run and service than some rival Japanese vehicles, its warranty now exceeds their standard by two years."

Skoda vehicles can also be optioned with a guaranteed future value finance option, while Irmer says that servicing intervals are highly competitive. "Our cars require servicing at 12 months/15,000km – not six months/10,000km.

"Car clichés die hard, but Skoda's new offering challenges even the most complacent to see what's simply clever."

Skoda builds cars in the Czech Republic and the company has been owned by the Volkswagen Group since 1991, making use of much of the technology pioneered – such as its dual-clutch gearboxes – by Europe's largest car conglomerate.