Isuzu Utes now offering six-year warranty

Isuzu has pushed the warranty period on its D-Max utes and MU-X 4x4 wagons out to six years. This an improvement of 12 months over what the brand previously offered and puts the tiny Japanese brand behind only Korean brand SsangYong when it comes to light-commercial utilities.

The six-year offer also puts Isuzu third in the warranty stakes overall behind Tesla, which offers an eight year/unlimited kilometre term, the aforementioned SsangYong, and Kia, whose seven-year warranty period has been the longest in the mainstream market for about three years.

The warranty period will also be matched by a six-year roadside assistance plan, as well as a new seven-year capped price service schedule.

The roadside assistance plan covers the owner for six years providing that the car has been regularly serviced, whether it’s been done by an Isuzu dealer or not. It can also be transferred to a new owner should the car be sold within the period.

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However, Isuzu has restricted its kilometre limit under warranty to 150,000km, in contrast to every other mainstream carmaker’s unlimited-kilometre offering.

Its service plan, too, is restricted to 150,000km, though that's nevertheless more generous compared to the previous five-year/75,000km plan.

Isuzu claims that internal research shows that the bulk of its customer base travels no more than 20,000km in an average year.

Meanwhile the cost of a 12 month or 15,000km service on either a D-Max or an MU-X is $350, with the price rising to $450 for the 24-month/30,000km interval.

A three-year service costs $500, before falling back to $450 in year four and $340 for year five. The service in year six or 60,000km is sizable, though, at $1110, before dropping to $400 in year seven/105,000km.

Isuzu’s main competitors include the Toyota Hilux/Fortuner and Ford Ranger/Everest, which both offer five-year, unlimited kilometre warranties. However, Toyota – which announced the switch to a five-year warranty in January 2019 - does restrict its mileage limit on vehicles used for commercial purposes to 160,000km.

The Mitsubishi Triton gets a five-year, 100,000km warranty, while the Nissan Navara has also recently adopted a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.