Kia Australia celebrates seven-year warranty anniversary

Kia's seven-year warranty – an industry first when it was launched – has reached its seventh birthday.

First introduced at the start of October 2014, the seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty was an Australian first and still remains as one of the longest available – second only to Mitsubishi's 10-years, although this is limited to 200,000km.

Although new at the time for Australia, Kia had previously introduced a seven-year warranty in Europe back in 2006, preceding sister brand Hyundai in becoming the first manufacturer on our shores to offer five years in 2008.

“It quickly became apparent that Kia’s value proposition had changed dramatically when the 7-7-7 package was introduced to customers,” said Kia CEO Damien Meredith.

“The peace of mind that comes with seven-year warranty, capped-price servicing and roadside assist was an unrivalled feat in the market and will continue to be a staple for future success.”

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For Kia’s head of after sales, Phil Murray, the inclusion of capped-price servicing and roadside assist meant Kia could push boundaries as the product continued to improve.

“Over the years it has been no secret that the quality of our product has improved dramatically and when the 7-7-7 offering was introduced it added another dimension to the Kia family,” said Murray.

By tracking buyer behaviour internally, its warranty has gone from being the most popular reason for purchasing a Kia, for five of its seven years, to now ranking third behind manufacture and design.

Wheels asked our Kia-owner readers for their feedback on their warranty experiences. Here's what they said:

"Mines just about up. April 2022. Kia’s been great. It’s like a shopping list every service with niggly things and they just get it done," said Melissa Ong from the Kia GT Owners Club Australia.

"Bar my annoying clutch chatter... [but] not because [they're] refusing to fix it. Anyway, 11/10 from me. Can’t fault. Will buy another Kia."

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Geoffrey Gregory said: "Great so far, I bought a November 2014-built Cerato in March 2015 as last year's stock.

"It now has 146,000km on it, it's on its third new set of tyres, front pads were changed at 110,000km, and only two issues – one was [an] apprentice problem, breaking a rubber o-ring when the fuel filter was replaced, causing [the] fuel pump to fail.

"At the last service the air compressor was replaced after it was found to be leaking. Everything else has been to the book in services. I drove it from Perth to Canberra the day after purchase. So [the] 1500km service was four days after buying, [put] 3500km [on it] and drove back to Perth in April."

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Matthew Irvine said his Kias have all worked well, even under the strain of inexperienced drivers.

"I’ve been very happy with them. We have a small fleet of vehicles all used for driving instruction. We’ve had a few things go wrong on a couple of vehicles, but they’ve all been addressed under warranty, without argument."

“We couldn’t be happier with the feedback and results we’ve received as a result of our 7-Year plan, and I’d like to thank every customer who has joined us for the journey, making Kia Australia the family it is today" Meredith added.

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Unfortunately, this means cars which were sold on October 1, 2014 are no longer under warranty, although new Kias are now covered until 2028 at a minimum, with the seven-year deal stretching to its capped-price servicing as well.

Have a Kia memory? Let us know in the comments below.