BMW finally offers a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty to Australian customers

German luxury brand bows to pressure and comes in line with rival prestige marques to ditch the old three-years of factory coverage

BMW has finally introduced a five-year/unlimited kilometre factory warranty to bring the German luxury brand in line with the majority of its rivals.

Until now, BMW’s been the only marque in Australia’s top 20 selling brands to stick with a below-par three-year warranty.

The warranty takes effect for new cars delivered from November 1, but the validity period has been backdated to give the same credit to those whose BMWs were delivered from October 1 2022. New BMW landed on September 30? It appears you’re lumbered with the old three-year deal.

All BMWs delivered from October 1, 2022 will be offered the longer warranty

Wolfgang Buechel, CEO of BMW Group Australia, said in a statement: “The new warranty offering perfectly complements our extensive range of ownership benefits… providing long term peace of mind for our customers during their ownership journey.”

BMW has previously been criticised for its stubborn reluctance to move to the now industry-standard five-year warranty. Mercedes-Benz made the five-year move in March 2020 and Audi in January 2022 (after trials in 2020 and 2021).

BMW motorcycles and Mini also move to five-years/unlimited kilometres, but BMW Group’s Rolls-Royce holds on to its current four-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

Who offers Australia’s longest and shortest warranties?

Back in 1999, Hyundai shook up Australia’s car warranty market with a five-year deal. The Korean marque still offers the same with unlimited kilometres, while sister brand Kia has trumped it with seven years/unlimited from October 2014.

Mitsubishi Triton GSR 2022 social — Mitsubishi famously offers the longest warranty in Australia – with one very specific condition

Since September 2020, Mitsubishi has offered Australia’s longest warranty at 10 years/200,000km, but there’s an asterisk.

Customers must service their Mitsubishis within the dealer network at the brand’s fixed prices services (which are quite reasonably priced, to be fair) to be eligible for the full ten years. Service elsewhere and your warranty coverage halts after five years.

So who are the warranty villains, now BMW has come to the five year party?

Those still with a three-year warranty are Aston Martin, Bentley, Chevrolet, Fiat, Ferrari, GMSV, Maserati, McLaren, Porsche and Ram. Two years? Caterham, Lamborghini and Lotus.