Mitsubishi offering 10-year, 100,000-mile warranties on 2004 models

By Jason Stein
Automotive News / January 05, 2004

Taking a page from its Korean competitors, Mitsubishi Motors North America will offer a 10-year/100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty on all of its 2004 vehicles. The offer is retroactive and is not transferable.

Steven Torok, Mitsubishi Motor Corp. executive vice-president for international sales and marketing, said internal research revealed a perception that Mitsubishi is not meeting the quality standards of other automakers. The company offers a seven-year/60,000 mile powertrain warranty.

"Consumers were saying, 'Yeah, Mitsubishi is nice, but I'm concerned with long-term reliability, durability and resale,'" Torok said.

"This is a way to directly guarantee those qualities. This is a market where you've got to have lasting value to reach the customer and we want to be at the top of the pack with quality and reliability."

No one knows that principle better than Mitsubishi North America's new CEO, Finbarr O'Neill, who spent 18 years at Hyundai Motors America, the final four years as CEO. O'Neill launched a 10-year/100,000 mile warranty at Hyundai, which helped ignite a dramatic sales turnaround for the Korean automaker.

Mitsubishi sales declined 25.6 percent in 2003 to 256,809, according to figures released Monday.

"Hyundai and Mitsubishi are at different stages and have different consumer perceptions, but what this really says to customers is that Mitsubishi is confident you shouldn't have to worry about the ownership experience," he said. "It eliminates any question about the quality issue they should have during ownership."

O'Neill said the warranty extension is a small part of a larger plan to reshape Mitsubishi's image and get its financial house in order.

Source: Auto News

 

Nice.
Now if only GM/Ford/etc would follow suit...

 

thats a very good warranty.

 

 

if honda and acura did that, they would get more sales...imo, they should, it will help bolster up a image their cars are very durable and when compared 2 say hyundai and mitsubishi, it'll be one less advantage these companies have on honda/acura

 

Except Honda posted record sales for last year (03), so I don't think they see it as a needed item to boost sales. It would be nice to at least offer a 4 year 50k mile warranty on Honda's though.

But I doubt very few people are NOT going to buy a Honda because the warranty is so short.

 

I assume this warranty covers the EVO too. If so, the EVO just beccame an even better deal.

 

Thats pretty awesome, beat the hell out of an EVO for 10 years and get it fixed every time!

 

Until the dealer rejects you on some BS excuse like you abuse or mod your car.

 

The reason the Korean car-makers and Mitsubishi are offering the entended warranty is cos the consumers dont have faith in them for the long-term prospect.

I believe Honda and Toyota sell cars wholly and solely because of their reputation on reliability. durabilty and quality.

Toyota nor Honda need to extend their current standard warranty when there simple is no need for it. All they have to do is keep the quality above par and work on customer satisfaction in other areas - i.e dealerships.

 

Yeah, but it's not tranferable, who keeps thier cars for 10 years or 100k? Besides it only covers engine and tranny. I'd be impressed if it was bumper to bumper tranferable 10/100k.

 

That warranty is only for engine and trans. I haven't heard of an engine blowing up with less then 100K. Unless you shift it from 3rd to 2nd at 90MPH. I don't think MIts is going to warrranty that.