Three years in Provence

Renault has just announced that premium models in the French range will be sold with a three-year/150,000km warranty.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

We won't be seeing such a warranty offered here in Australia, of course. For a start, Renault doesn't offer premium models in Australia, but more importantly, the Renault drivers among us don't drive far enough in this big, brown land of ours to warrant it.

"We're very metro-centric from a passenger car sales point of view", says Renault's Marketing Communications Manager in Australia, Craig Smith.

"I don't think a longer warranty is an issue from our customers' point of view. Three years or 100,000km really covers off their expectations.

"We offer a factory-backed extended warranty and the take-up on that isn't that high."

So there you have it. In defence of the local arm of Renault, the existing three-year/100,000km warranty is broadly comparable with the coverage provided by the company's competitors in the same market segments.

And, by our estimation, a driver would have to average over 91km a day, every day for three years to exceed the existing 100,000km cover.

It sort of begs the question though, are we fixated with warranty coverage over longer distances when such driving is less demanding on a car than the typical daily grind that Aussie Renault owners undertake?

Pas de réponse?