Kia 7 year warranty

grahamthompson

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know much about the Kia 7 year warranty? I'm looking at getting one on their 0% finance deal but I haven't bought a Kia before.

I know wear and tear etc isn't covered but has anyone found a list of the parts that are?

Thanks

LandyAndy

Can't your Kia dealer tell you that? And supply copies of their warranty?

grahamthompson

LandyAndy wrote: »

Can't your Kia dealer tell you that? And supply copies of their warranty?

They just said it would cover 'most' things but not things like tyres. They didn't have a list or detailed warranty info.

I'm also hoping to find out if anyone has actually had repairs done and how easily Kia accepted the work was under warranty.

LandyAndy

grahamthompson wrote: »

They just said it would cover 'most' things but not things like tyres. They didn't have a list or detailed warranty info.

I'm also hoping to find out if anyone has actually had repairs done and how easily Kia accepted the work was under warranty.

Contact Kia then and ask them

http://www.kia.co.uk/owners/aftersales/warranty.aspx

They must know exactly what they are prepared to accept dealer claims for.

Also remember that just because a car has a long warranty it doesn't mean it will be reliable.

GolfBravo

LandyAndy wrote: »

Also remember that just because a car has a long warranty it doesn't mean it will be reliable.

Very true.

The 5 or 7 year warranty that Kia/Hyundai offer is a part of their "perceived quality" strategy. People automatically assume that a long warranty = good quality. And Hyundai/Kia know that extra cost of around £100 per each additional year of warranty = increased sales.

I've been working in the car industry for many years, and for a number of manufacturers - almost every major car manufacturer has at some stage considered 5 year (or longer) warranty. The incremental cost is very small, but research has show that the older the car is the harder it is to approve warranty claims - after around 3 years wear and tear is the major car breakdown cause, and not manufacturing defects. So in the end when you start rejecting warranty claims you end up with thousands of very !!!!ed off customers. Their trust quickly disappears.

Example:
A OAP bloke around the corner drives a 4 year old Kia 4WD - last month he took it to his local Kia garage for "warranty repairs": leaking sunroof, sticky handbrake and dashboard rattle. None of the faults were covered by their warranty and he ended up with a £400 bill. They blamed him for the sunroof leak - their excuse was that he doesn't take proper care of his car (ie. not garaged), and the drainage pipes blocked (obviously they wouldn't admit to crap design). Rusty rear brake calliper problem was due wear and tear, and due to wear and tear they don't fix dashboard rattles in 4 year old cars either.

So when buying a new car I would definitely pay more attention to long term quality reports (internet forums, car magazines) than a promise of long warranties covering "most things".

jase1

Rather more likely to replace dodgy ABS pumps though, eh?

jbainbridge

GB makes a good point ... after 3yrs almost anything will be deemed wear and tear. However for the warranty to be valid I would expect you'd have to use the Kia garage for servicing. So that means 7yrs of return custom for them - for you the small hope that something will be covered by the warranty.

jase1

jbainbridge wrote: »

GB makes a good point ... after 3yrs almost anything will be deemed wear and tear. However for the warranty to be valid I would expect you'd have to use the Kia garage for servicing. So that means 7yrs of return custom for them - for you the small hope that something will be covered by the warranty.

Well no he doesn't raise a good point because I know someone who was refused a repair on an 18 month old Fiesta with a dashboard rattle -- and sticky calipers due to lack of use *is* a wear and tear item.

losing_my_coolant

grahamthompson wrote: »

They just said it would cover 'most' things but not things like tyres. They didn't have a list or detailed warranty info.

I'm also hoping to find out if anyone has actually had repairs done and how easily Kia accepted the work was under warranty.

I bought a Kia Venga new in 2010. Warranty is fairly comprehensive, you even get a tyre warranty (limited to defects of course and pro-rata to age of tyre), usual consumables not included.

As for claiming? Well I had a nice big screw in my tyre and like a true chancer tried to make a claim. quite rightly it was declined, but hey you have to try your luck sometimes eh!

Other than that I've had a new boot floor fitted, a new boot latch and a new door latch fitted under warranty, none of these were quibbled but after speaking to other Venga owners, these are common faults. What was a ball ache is that the local dealer keeps no spares, so it was 2 trips per fault, one to diagnose, another when the part was actually ordered in. All fine for me as a I work shifts so don't need a car M-F, ball ache if you do work M-F 9-5 though. You also won't get a wash and vac like you do with paid work.

You can maintain the warranty (to the best of my memory) as long as you use a garage that is VAT registered and uses Kia genuine parts or equiv quality.

Overall I really like the car, but it drinks more than a vampire on a hemophiliac ward! At this time I had had the car getting on for two years, doing a lot of miles for work so I contacted Kia direct to see what they had to say about the woeful MPG (I've always checked the tyres etc are good). They basically admitted MPG in adverts are a hock of ballsacks and said I could pay for main dealer to do a test with putting a bung in the fuel tank and running it to see how far it actually got on X litres. I didn't think there was any mileage in that, I didn't wanna take a massive hit on trading the car in, so I got an LPG conversion. So far very happy with the car on LPG. I had a coolant leak and badgered main dealer to look at it twice under warranty, which to be fair to them they did (in how much detail I don't know as it was on the back of 2 door latch visits) they couldn't find owt and it has voided the warranty on the engine they say (conflict as Kia themselves say its only voided if proved to be the mods). Anyway I got the coolant prob in hand with the LPG engineer, its going back in next week for replumbing. Only time will tell if I did the right thing.

That is my experience with Kia.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Some of these posts are hilarious, a longer warranty seemingly less desirable than a short one because they're bound to reject most claims due to wear and tear.

Presumably then German makers could make their cars more desirable and reliable by cutting the existing '3 years and you're on your own sucker' warranty to 7 days.

So far people i know of with Hyundai models have run them to very high mileages and still under the 5 year warranties, and the rare problems encountered have A been minor and B been honoured, i see no reason for the company, and include Kia here, to change their policies.

The policy must be working, Toyota have followed suit with 5 year cover, and don't anyone try to say Toyota will try the wear and tear get out as that is as far as possible from the way Toyota do business.

It seems to be European makers stuck in the three year rut, and so long as people are prepared to pay through the nose for the correct badge, why do they need to change.

CKhalvashi

grahamthompson wrote: »

They just said it would cover 'most' things but not things like tyres. They didn't have a list or detailed warranty info.

I'm also hoping to find out if anyone has actually had repairs done and how easily Kia accepted the work was under warranty.

We've got a couple of Ceed estates on the fleet (crap for what we bought them for, but brilliant cars).

We've had a Turbo go; fixed within a week, and we've also had a boot floor on one of them, which was actually ripped in the course of duty.

The Kia warranty is definitely one of the best for pushing your luck!

CK