Cars with the best warranties 2025
We pick out the eight best car warranties in the UK and our car picks from each brand that offers them
When buying a new car, the warranty is crucial. While most car warranties in the UK cover you for three years or 60,000 miles, there are quite a few companies here that offer more than that as standard cover. When you buy a car from most major manufacturers in this country, you’ll have to pay extra to extend the warranty beyond that three-year mark, but with the best warranties you won’t need to worry about that, nor will you need to fret about shelling out if something goes wrong.
All car warranties are different in subtle ways, so there’s not really a great way of comparing them beyond how long they last and how many miles you can drive before they expire. While some might have fine print that excludes something, that thing may not exist on another manufacturer’s cars or perhaps there’s something else not covered.
It’s not practical to compare every tiny detail but you should read the terms and conditions once you find a car you want to buy, just to make sure you are fully aware of what is covered and what isn’t. Electric cars are usually covered by two different warranties: one for the car itself and another for the batteries. The standard for these battery warranties is eight years or 100,000 miles, so it’s beyond where most new-car buyers will go before selling the car.
Most car warranties won’t cover consumables like tyres and brakes, so don’t ever expect to get those for free - they’re part of owning and driving a car no matter how new it is. Read on below to find out the best car warranties and our choice of the best current car to buy from each brand.
Most of our car picks are award-winning cars with loads of great features that should also be highly reliable and probably won’t need the impressive warranty they come with. After all, manufacturers only tend to offer generous warranties on cars that they expect won’t go wrong very often.
Toyota
- Warranty length: 10yrs (100,000 miles)
- Our car choice: Toyota Prius
Toyota is known for building reliable cars so it’s no wonder this brand offers the best warranty in the UK. All its new cars come with three years’ cover as standard no matter what, but for each extra year up to the tenth in a row that you have the car serviced at an approved garage the warranty extends by one year. It’s a great idea as it encourages owners to keep their car maintained to a high standard, so used cars up to ten years old will be both in excellent condition as well as still covered by the warranty.
Our car pick here is the new Toyota Prius. It’s far and away the best-looking Prius the company has ever built, and it’s also brilliant to drive and hugely efficient as well. You won’t just save money on repairs here, as the Prius will have ultra-low running costs all-around. It’s comfortable, has strong performance and all the tech you could want as well. The only thing we don’t like about the latest model is its so-so practicality.
Lexus
- Warranty length: 10yrs (100,000 miles)
- Our choice: Lexus NX
Lexus is part of Toyota, so it uses the same warranty structure as its parent brand (see above). Each service at an approved garage extends the warranty by a year, which keeps the cars in great shape for many years. It’s no wonder cars from these brands have strong residual values.
Our car pick here is the Lexus NX, which is a mid-size premium SUV that combines a luxurious interior and state-of-the-art tech. An Auto Express Award winner, the NX combines strong performance with good efficiency and excellent ride and handling. It’s a fantastic all-rounder that is only sweetened by the excellent warranty it comes with. It’s efficient too, so despite the luxury brand it won’t cost the earth to drive one.
Hyundai
- Warranty length: 5yrs (Unlimited miles)
- Our choice: Hyundai Tucson
While Hyundai’s warranty is longer than most at five years, it’s one of the shorter examples on this list in terms of time. However, it’s the best when it comes to mileage, as there’s no upper limit on how far you can drive in the five years given. This means it’s fantastic for high-mileage drivers; over 100,000 miles in five years is far from unheard-of.
Our pick here is a car you could use for many kinds of driving, the Hyundai Tucson. It won our Mid-size SUV of the Year award in 2024, and it’s a brilliant family car that has loads of space inside and all the in-car tech you could ask for. It’s good to drive, comfortable and the availability of traditional engines, mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains means there’s plenty of choice in the range as well. You might also consider the Hyundai Kona or Ioniq 5 as these are brilliant electric-only cars, although you might struggle to do significant mileage to make the most of their warranty.
Kia
- Warranty length: 7yrs (100,000 miles)
- Our choice: Kia EV9
Kia has become well-known for its strong warranty in the UK as many of its older models came with a sticker in the back window advertising the seven-year cover. You still see it on some old models driving around to this day, which somewhat proves that the cars were reliable enough to justify this kind of cover. It’s limited to 100,000 miles, which is more than enough for most new-car buyers.
Our choice for this brand is our Large Company Car of the Year 2024, the Kia EV9. We described it as a game-changer for electric SUVs, with its seven-seater layout and 300-mile range at a relatively affordable price. It handles better than its gigantic size might suggest, is comfortable even on huge alloy wheels and of course, being an electric car only, it attracts very low company car tax costs. Private buyers will enjoy low running costs with home charging, too.
Suzuki
- Warranty length: 7yrs (100,000 miles)
- Our choice: Suzuki Swift
Suzuki offers a brilliant seven-year or 100,000-mile warranty on its cars, and we reckon the latest Swift is the pick of the bunch right now. It’s a fantastic car to drive for fans of small cars, as it’s very light and agile. The small-capacity engines deliver strong performance and excellent fuel economy, again because of the car’s low weight. It’s not as high-tech as many of the other models on this list but the Swift is back-to-basics fun while also being cheap to buy and run. It’s practical enough to run as a family car if needed, although space in the back isn’t ideal for carrying adults regularly.
MG
- Warranty length: 7yrs (80,000 miles)
- Our choice: MG3
The reborn MG is going from strength to strength and is now offering a decent range of family cars with an impressive seven-year warranty that runs to a maximum of 80,000 miles as standard. One example is our Affordable Hybrid Car of the Year 2024, the MG3.
While the old MG3 felt very old-fashioned even when new, this latest hybrid model feels a step ahead of some of its rivals already, thanks to an impressive powertrain with 192bhp that brings both performance and economy. Around town it’s impressively quiet and relaxed, plus it rides smoothly and best of all it’s significantly cheaper than pretty much all of its main rivals. To get that excellent warranty included as well is the cherry on top.
Dacia
- Warranty length: 6yrs (75,000 miles)
- Our choice: Dacia Duster
Dacia’s standard warranty is the normal three years, but like Toyota the brand offers an excellent top-up system where you can extend it at no extra cost up to six years. Each time you have the car serviced at an approved garage, the warranty is extended by one year - up to the 75,000-mile mark. You can pay to extend it beyond that if you want.
Our pick for the car to choose is the Dacia Duster, which won our Small SUV of the Year 2024 award. It’s a brilliant-value family car with smart looks, loads of tech and a great driving experience. It’s cheap to buy but feels more upmarket than ever, and has lots of space inside for the family as well as a comfy ride and decent running costs.
KGM
- Warranty length: 5yrs (100,000 miles)
- Our choice: KGM Rexton
You may not have heard of KGM, but you may know the brand’s previous name: SsangYong. This Korean brand has been around for a while in the UK with its long warranty, although sadly it has dropped by two years with the rebrand to five years. It’s still one of the longest warranties offered in the UK, though.
The KGM Rexton is our pick here simply for the value for money it offers. It’s based on similar underpinnings to a pick-up truck, so it’s a bit uncomfortable and feels quite old-fashioned to drive, but it’s packed with tech and has a massive interior with loads of space for passengers or luggage. It’s unpretentious and rugged, so will appeal to people looking for something that will stand the test of time - and the warranty helps to back that up.
Frequently Asked Questions
As mentioned above, all warranties are subtly different, but mostly cover the core parts of a car against failure: the engine, suspension, interior and tech should all be covered should they go wrong without being tampered with. The body of the car is often covered for longer than the mechanical parts against rust, so if you buy an out-of-warranty car that goes rusty then you might still be able to claim and have it fixed.
