Vauxhall DROPS Lifetime Warranty – quietly during the Paris Motor Show news rush

The much heralded Vauxhall Lifetime Warranty for new cars has been quietly dropped as Vauxhall decides it’s too expensive to warrant their cars so fully.

Vauxhall trumpeted the arrival of a Lifetime Warranty for all their new cars 4 years ago, a move that was designed to show confidence in their cars and tackle the substantial warranties on new cars offered by companies like Hyundai and Kia.

But now, in a lesson doubtless learned from ‘bad news’ burying in politics, Vauxhall has revealed they’re dropping the Lifetime Warranty from 2015, no doubt hoping it won’t make headlines in the middle of the news rush from the Paris Motor Show.

So now, instead of a lifetime warranty (which was really only for 100,000 miles) buyers of new Vauxhalls will get a fairly bog-standard 60,000 mile/3 year warranty. Which isn’t good news.

Vauxhall say the changing landscape of car ownership – with a majority of cars using a lease package and being sold on by three years – as one of the main reasons, but its also says its investment in new technology means they can’t afford it.

Coming on top of last week’s urgent recall for the Corsa and Adam, the end of a warranty that made Vauxhalls a more appealing buy (new and used) doesn’t auger well for new Vauxhall sales going forward.