Mitsubishi Plans 10yr/200,000km warranty (with strings attached) | Auto Expert John Cadogan

Mitsubishi Motors, ‘Straya wants to give you a 10-year, 200,000km warranty on your future new triple-diamond-badged whatever - but there’s a catch, and you might not like it. Details next

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I hate it when carmakers do this. Always a catch. The carrot and the stick. The good and the bad. This risk and the reward. The yin and the yang. The loan and the interest. The honeymoon, and the divorce. The blonde and the friggin’ redhead. Always the catch...

Why can’t life simply be all the carrot, the good, the reward, the loan, the honeymoon, the yin, and (of course) the redhead?

So, bits-o-shitty is proposing to offer you 10 years of warranty, which is up from the seven they occasionally hand out on (quote-unquote) ‘selected’ models - but here’s the catch - only if you get the car serviced by a Mitsubishi dealer.

If you don’t, the warranty will revert to the five- or seven-year warranty currently on offer. Which seems harsh. As consumer law currently stands, it’s illegal for a carmaker to leverage the warranty against so-called ‘authorised dealer’ servicing.

In other words, if you get your car serviced on time, by a qualified independent mechanic, etc., that cannot intrinsically void your warranty. But doubtless a bunch of arsehole lawyers have worked hard on finding a loophole in terms of the way this particular proposal is structured.
The ACCC is yet to sign off on bits-o-shitty’s 10-year warranty terms. I don’t think they’re next scheduled to be awake until about October or November. And they can’t decide for themselves whether it’s a good idea or not, so they’re currently calling for submissions on this, from you, by October 2. So they haven’t yet decided to let bits-o-shitty off the chain with this one.

Personally I find it absurd that a major corporation such as bits-o-shitty would offer you such a seemingly substantial consumer carrot, while at the same time threatening to lash you with such a big stick.

Doubtless the carrot will be up in lights and the stick will be buried in the fine print. But why offer you such a generous gift, with such intrinsic marketing potential - like, ‘Australia’s best factory warranty’ - why offer you this present in such coercive wrapping? That’s bullshit.

I get that carmakers want to make dealership servicing a mandatory thing. Unfortunately, this would be uncompetitive, and therefore it’s illegal.

On one level it’s not that much of a big deal. Annual servicing - who cares? Once a year. But in reality there are several good reasons, perhaps, to get your car serviced independently.

Let me know what you think about this Mitsubishi proposal in the comments below. In my view, all carmakers should just acknowledge the reality: Here in Shitsville, consumer law says cars need to be reasonably durable, in the context of their value and how you’ve used them. Ten years and 200,000 kilometres on average seems reasonable, and it shouldn’t come with unnecessary strings attached.

If carmakers and car dealers want you to use their service departments, here’s a revolutionary suggestion: Make them a truly better option than the independent guy down the road. Then you wouldn’t need the friggin’ stick, and life would be all carrots - and redheads…

...and isn’t that what we all really want?