Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
As press releases go it was a short one. Its timing was also curious; issued as the UK motoring press was en route to the Paris Motor Show, a good day to bury awkward news?
So what are we to make of Vauxhall ditching its Lifetime Warranty cover, a flagship product launched to much ballyhoo in 2010?
What’s certain is the move reflects how Tim Tozer, Vauxhall’s new chairman and managing director, is reviewing the business and getting the shop in order.
The move was decisive. The Lifetime Warranty was a flagship product which helped sales staff close many a deal. It also enabled the brand could compete more effectively against volume upstarts such as Kia and Hyundai, offering seven and five years cover respectively, and also Toyota which had extended its cover to five years.
However, their were flaws in the Lifetime Warranty package. For starters it did not actually provide lifetime cover; it lasted for as long as the first owner retained the car and up to 100,000 miles. Also, the boom in PCPs has prompted a move to three year replacement cycles. While Vauxhall would also argue that its cars are now more reliable as a result of a €4bn investment in high technology powertrains and new products.
Clearly for Vauxhall the maths no longer added up; the extra cover had become superfluous. For Tozer, with the fresh perspective of joining from outside GM, it was a no-brainer.
A useful by-product, of course, is that Vauxhall dealers will now be able to sell extended warranty packages.
Things have just started to get interesting at Vauxhall.