Best New Car Warranty
The best new car warranty will cover vehicle repairs for many years. Find out which automaker offers the best warranty for new cars in our comprehensive review.
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The sticker price is only one thing to consider when shopping for a new vehicle. It’s also useful to know which automakers offer the best new car warranty. If you’re on the fence between a few different brands, having an extra year or two of factory warranty coverage can definitely make a difference.
In this article, we’ll rank the best factory warranties on the market and talk about what to look for in a good warranty. Of course, no warranty lasts forever. To cover repairs beyond factory coverage, you can get an extended warranty from dealerships and third-party providers. We’ve reviewed the best extended car warranties and will introduce two of the best options as well.
What Makes a Good Car Warranty?
A car warranty covers defects in manufacturing and workmanship for a specific time and mileage limit. Factory warranties are completely free for car owners, and the automaker’s dealerships handle covered repairs. The best new car warranty lasts for the majority of your ownership.
New car warranties are made up of a few different types of coverage:
- Bumper-to-bumper: Also called a new vehicle limited warranty, this warranty covers almost any mechanical failure on the car due to factory defects.
- Powertrain: This type of warranty covers the engine, transmission and drive axles, which are collectively known as the powertrain. It usually lasts longer than the bumper-to-bumper warranty.
- Emissions: Federal and state laws require automakers to cover certain emissions components for different lengths of time.
- Corrosion: This warranty can cover corrosion on sheet metal from the inside out, outside in or both.
- Adjustments and accessories: Adjustments like wheel alignments are usually covered for one year, and the same goes for factory-installed accessories.
- Extra perks: Factory warranties may come with perks like roadside assistance, trip interruption or rental car coverage. A few automakers also cover some scheduled maintenance for a short period of time.
So, what makes a good car warranty? The bumper-to-bumper and powertrain warranties are the most important, and these are what people usually talk about when comparing warranties. The best bumper-to-bumper plans last for 5 years/60,000 miles, and the best powertrain plans last for 10 years/100,000 miles.
On the other end, the shortest bumper-to-bumper plan is 3 years/36,000 miles, and the shortest powertrain plan is 4 years/50,000 miles. While there are some variations in what different automakers cover under their warranties, most of the covered parts are the same.
Be aware that warranties (factory and extended) don’t cover things like wear and tear, damage from lack of maintenance or cosmetic damage.
11 Best New Car Warranties
Below are the top 11 new car warranties:
| Best New Car Warranty | Bumper-to-Bumper | Powertrain | Roadside Assistance |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Hyundai warranty | 5 years/60,000 miles | 10 years/100,000 miles | 5 years/unlimited miles |
| #2 Genesis warranty | 5 years/60,000 miles | 10 years/100,000 miles | 5 years/unlimited miles |
| #3 Mitsubishi warranty | 5 years/60,000 miles | 10 years/100,000 miles | 5 years/unlimited miles |
| #4 Kia warranty | 5 years/60,000 miles | 10 years/100,000 miles | 5 years/60,000 miles |
| #5 Jaguar warranty | 5 years/60,000 miles | 5 years/60,000 miles | 5 years/60,000 miles |
| #6 Infiniti warranty | 4 years/60,000 miles | 6 years/70,000 miles | 4 years/unlimited miles |
| #7 Tesla warranty | 4 years/50,000 miles | 8 years/150,000 miles | 4 years/50,000 miles |
| #8 Lincoln warranty | 4 years/50,000 miles | 6 years/70,000 miles | Lifetime (non-transferable) |
| #9 Cadillac warranty | 4 years/50,000 miles | 6 years/70,000 miles | 6 years/100,000 miles |
| #10 Lexus warranty | 4 years/50,000 miles | 6 years/70,000 miles | 4 years/unlimited miles |
| #11 Acura warranty | 4 years/50,000 miles | 6 years/70,000 miles | 4 years/50,000 miles |
These are the top 11 auto brands ranked by bumper-to-bumper warranty terms. Factory warranties offered by Hyundai, Kia, Genesis and Mitsubishi are all the longest overall. There are over 30 automakers in the industry, and brands not listed offer shorter bumper-to-bumper or powertrain warranties.
Best SUV Warranty: Hyundai
Hyundai offers the best SUV warranty overall, with 5 years/60,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage and 10 years/100,000 miles of powertrain coverage. That means the Hyundai Palisade, Tucson, Santa Fe and Kona all have great warranty coverage.
Best Luxury Car Warranty: Genesis
Since Genesis is the luxury sister brand of Hyundai, it takes the cake with the same warranty terms of 6 years/50,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage and 10 years/100,000 miles of powertrain coverage. The runner-up in the luxury category would be Jaguar, with 5 years/60,000 miles for both bumper-to-bumper and powertrain warranties.
Best Vehicle Warranty for Scheduled Maintenance: Jaguar
In this category, Jaguar is the clear winner. It offers 5 years/60,000 miles of free scheduled maintenance with all new vehicles. For non-luxury brands, Volvo offers the longest free maintenance period with 3 years/36,000 miles.
Best Hybrid Warranty: Nissan
While Nissan doesn’t offer the best bumper-to-bumper or powertrain warranties, it covers hybrid batteries for up to 8 years/100,000 miles. During that time, Nissan will replace the battery if it drops below 75% capacity. Other warranties usually require the battery to get to 70% or below.
New Car Extended Warranty Reviews
Whether you are buying a new vehicle or own a vehicle that is still under factory warranty, you will have the option of either paying your cars repairs out of pocket or purchasing an extended warranty when your vehicle surpasses the miles or term length for the factory limited warranty.
Let’s face it, having to deal with costly and unexpected vehicle repairs is an annoying part of life. Since vehicle mechanical systems are growingly complex and prone to failure, extending your factory warranty can be an excellent choice. All things considered, extending your warranty on your vehicle seems like it would remove this unnecessary stress from life. So why doesn’t everybody do it?
The biggest reason most people do not buy extended auto warranties is because of the cost. Many others don’t believe they need auto warranty or are unaware of the options available to them. Additionally, in today’s highly competitive auto market, many manufacturers now offer longer and more comprehensive limited warranties on new car purchases, eliminating the need to extend the warranty on your vehicle.
New Car Extended Warranty Advice
Acting as an extension to your factory limited warranty, an “extended warranty”, often referred to as a “service contract” typically take effect and provide coverage after the factory warranty expires. While most Americans don’t purchase an extended warranty after their car’s warranty expires, the majority of those who do say that they have benefitted from the added coverage, as over one-third of customers require at least one covered repair during the life of their plan. Depending on what coverage you choose, many extended warranties have better coverage than the standard factory warranty for the same car.
Do You Need An Extended Warranty On A New Car?
Generally, you won’t need to purchase an extended warranty right away when buying a new vehicle. It doesn’t make sense to purchase an extended warranty at the same time you purchase a new car because your car already has enough coverage under the factory limited warranty. Doing so would essentially mean having to make a monthly payment for coverage that you would be years away from benefiting from, especially if you purchased a vehicle with a long factory warranty like one of these brands:
- Hyundai: 5y/60k miles
- Kia: 5y/60k miles
- Genesis: 5y/60k miles
- Volkswagen: 6y/72k (2018 & ’19)
In most cases, you should never purchase an extended warranty if you plan on keeping the vehicle for a shorter period than the warranty lasts or your lease term is shorter than the warranty lasts.
Is An Extended Warranty On New Cars Worth It?
There are some cases when you may want to consider purchasing an extended warranty on your newer car. For instance, if you plan on keeping the vehicle for a long time, find it hard to save for emergencies, or would simply prefer the peace of mind and convenience of knowing you are covered, you may want to consider extending your factory warranty.
In order to both expand the available selection of coverage terms and manage costs, the optimal time to purchase extended coverage for newer vehicles is when they are still under the original manufacturer warranty.
Benefits of an Extended Car Warranty
As you can see, the longest factory warranty doesn’t last forever. If you want to cover repairs after your factory warranty expires, you can get an extended warranty from manufacturers, dealerships or independent warranty companies.
Our recommendation is to check out third-party providers for more flexibility and better prices. For example, most manufacturers and dealers require you to go to the dealership for repairs. In contrast, independent companies let you go to any licensed repair shop. Also, most automakers require you to purchase an extended warranty before the factory warranty expires. This isn’t a requirement for third-party providers, so you can add coverage long after your car’s original warranty period ends.
Leading providers can match factory coverage and provide extras like roadside assistance and rental car coverage. You can usually choose between three to six different plan options, which means you can customize coverage to your situation and budget.
New Car Extended Warranty Comparison
There are two options when considering extending your factory warranty: You can purchase a manufacturer-backed extended warranty or a warranty from a third party extended warranty company. Before looking at reviews from each of the providers, it is important to understand the benefits and downsides of each.
Extending Your Coverage With An Extended Factory Warranty
A manufacturer extended warranty is a vehicle service contract provided by the automaker. Purchasing a vehicle service contract from the automaker itself can reduce stress and anxiety about the quality of the parts and services used to repair your vehicle. While generally more costly overall, choosing a factory-backed extended warranty all but guarantee OEM parts will be used for repairs and factory-trained technicians will work on your vehicle.
Also, while manufacturers generally offer fewer plan options than third-party providers, they can be a good option for those with less money to pay for an extended warranty (or out of pocket repair costs) upfront, since the cost of the warranty can be added to your car payment.
The Benefits of Extending Your Coverage With an Aftermarket Extended Car Warranty
Third party providers are companies dedicated to providing extended car warranties. This typically means that you’ll have a wider range of plans to choose from and more flexibility overall. For example, instead of having to take your car to the dealership to be serviced, third party extended warranties generally have much larger networks of service providers, making it more likely for you to use your mechanic of choice.
Another major benefit in choosing a third party provider is, since they specialize in providing extended warranties, there are less conflicts of interest when selling/providing your service, including selling a car, repair services, and commissions incentives attached to your plan. One of the benefits of this is you aren’t forced to purchase third party warranties when you buy a car or within a specified period after buying the vehicle.
Also, since third party providers allow you to purchase coverage at any time, you’ll be covered when you’re more likely to need it. This, along with the fact that you will likely pay added interest on your coverage as a part of your car payment and dealerships often markup the prices of coverage, means you are more likely to get a better return on your investment.
Best Car Manufacturer Extended Warranty
Below is our list of the best manufacturer extended warranties:
- Hyundai Protection Plan VSC– Hyundai’s factory extended warranty builds on it’s industry-leading 10 year, 100,000 mile factory warranty with its extended warranty. The Hyundai protection plan VSC lasts the same period/mileage as the factory plan and adds protection for over 1500 parts, includes 24/7 roadside assistance, towing services, rental reimbursement, trip reimbursement coverage, transferability, and nationwide service.
- Toyota- Vehicles are eligible for new car service agreements up to 3 years or 36,000 miles; coverage periods up to 10 years, 125,000 miles. Coverage includes flat tires, lockouts, fuel delivery, $0-100 disappearing deductible charged per visit, coverage can be transferred at once from the original owner, you can cancel within 30 days within 30 days for a full refund. Covers Toyota, Scion, and Lexus.
- Ford ESP Premium Care- Ford’s premium service care plan can extend your factory warranty to 8 years and 150,000 miles with a zero deductible option. Includes tire change, lockout, out-of-fuel gas replacement and battery jumpstart assistance, towing assistance (up to $100 per occurrence), emergency travel expense, and destination assistance.
- Honda Care- For new cars, Honda Care vehicle service agreements cover nearly every component on the vehicle, provided you follow Honda’s recommended maintenance schedule. New vehicles with up to 3 years or 36,000 miles are eligible, with coverage lasting up to 8 years and 120,000 miles. Exclusions include body parts, tires, carpeting, glass, maintenance items, ornamentation, and trim. Includes 24/7 roadside assistance, trip interruption benefits, rental car reimbursement, and a unique emergency concierge service that assists with: emergency cash advance, emergency airline ticket assistance, shipment of personal replacement items, insurance claims assistance, and auto glass replacement referral. Covers: Honda and Acura
- Mopar Vehicle Protection Maximum Care- Coverage up to 8-years/125,000 miles, 5000+ components, choices in deductibles from $0-200, OEM Mopar Parts, car rental allowance, roadside assistance, and trip interruption coverage. Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles covered by a 5 yr/60k mile powertrain warranty within 36 months or 36,000 miles of the in-service date are eligible for MVP Maximum Care service contract coverage.
Best New Car Warranties: Conclusion
With the benefits of each type of provider in mind, let’s look at our picks for the best extended warranties for new cars, starting with third party extended warranty options.
Not all extended warranty providers are equal. We’ve reviewed the top providers on the market and ranked them in terms of price, customer service, transparency, reputation and coverage. We recommend getting quotes from multiple reputable extended car warranty companies to find the best coverage and price for your situation. You can start with two of the best providers around: Endurance and CARCHEX.
Endurance: Best Provider
In our in-depth Endurance warranty review, we ranked the company as the best provider overall. Many companies sell plans for other administrators, but Endurance works directly with drivers. That means you can work with the same company whether you’re shopping for a plan or filing a claim.
Endurance offers six plans that can cover vehicles up to 15 years/200,000 miles. That’s much longer than extended coverage offered by auto manufacturers. Plans range from covering just the basics to nearly any mechanical breakdown, and they can match factory-style comprehensive coverage. You can also purchase plans that come with routine maintenance coverage.
To see what you’d pay for an Endurance plan, get a free, personalized quote.
CARCHEX: Best for High-Mileage Cars
In our CARCHEX review, we found the company is the best choice for high-mileage vehicles, as it can cover cars up to 250,000 miles. CARCHEX offers five plans that span a good range. Each plan comes with a few deductible options and extras like roadside assistance and trip interruption coverage.
Like Endurance, CARCHEX lets drivers go to any licensed repair facility for coverage, which includes independent shops and dealerships. You can read sample contracts online for each contract to know exactly what’s covered before purchasing a plan.
Click below to get a free quote for an extended warranty from CARCHEX.
