Extended peace of mind now comes as standard!
While various automobile brands have been trying to play one-up by offering a longer Warranty and Service than their competitors, the government has just leveled the playground for all. NOW, ALL CARS SOLD IN THE UAE WILL COME WITH A MANDATORY 5-YEAR WARRANTY! This will make a car-buyer in the UAE one of the world’s most reassured automobile customers.
In the last couple of years, various car brands have been competing with each other to allure customers by throwing in an extra year of warranty or introducing free service as part of the contract. For upcoming brands, it was a handy tool to gain the confidence of cautious players and for premium brands, a reassuring gesture to deal with the perception of being expensive to maintain. While Hyundai led the trend in the former category with a 7-year warranty of sorts, Audi is one of the prominent brands that benefited in the second category. The premium icon’s 5-year service contract helped in converting hundreds of hesitant Audi fans. Incidentally, for many years, Cadillac sales in this market has benefited from the all-inclusive 4-year warranty GM has been offering.
Taking the “Battle of Warranties” to unchartered territory, Al Ghandi even thought up the “Lifetime Warranty” programme – whatever that was supposed to mean! Going by inside information, several brands that once considered it to be an unviable proposal were on the verge of the considering either extended warranty or free service contracts to go with their seasonal offers.
Going by the Gulf News report http://gulfnews.com/business/retail/five-year-service-for-cars-bought-in-uae-1.838292 along with a 5-year warranty, all cars bought in the UAE from dealers will be accompanied by a service contract for the same term as well. What’s even better is that the used cars bought from dealers also seem to come with a similar advantage, upping the ante for the used car market. Whether it is valid only for cars up to 5 years old is not clarified in the report. The intention of the Ministry of Economy seems to be serious in implementing the idea by imposing a penalty or closure of dealerships that do not comply with the proposal. Further, the rule will aggressively protect consumer interest by stipulating that faulty parts must be replaced if they fail on three occasions.
Well, October 1, when the rule is supposed to come into force, is still almost 3 months away. In the meanwhile, Ramadan offers will still rely heavily on limited period warranty and service deals. The fact is that the automobile dealership in the UAE has just lost a potent differentiator for promotions post October. As for car owners, now why should anyone buy your old car from you, if buying it from a dealer can give them never-before peace-of-mind?
