[TusharK]

Honda has announced two new warranty programs, 'Extended Warranty' and 'Extended Warranty Plus' for its BigWing customers.



The first 10,000 H'ness CB350 and CB350RS customers can avail of the Extended Warranty program at no additional cost starting from August 8, 2023.

Under the Extended Warranty Plus program, Honda is offering a 10-year comprehensive warranty, which is transferrable. Customers can purchase it anytime between 91 days from the vehicle purchase date and up to the 9th year. There are three options for customers: a 3-year policy for vehicles up to the 7th year, a 2-year policy for the 8th year and a 1-year policy for the 9th year. These options extend coverage up to 1,30,000 km.

Customers can avail of the Extended Warranty program at their nearest authorized Honda BigWing dealership at prices starting at Rs 5,321.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Sebring]

Is this the best way to counter the onslaught of the baby Triumph and Harley Davidson? What does Honda mean by 'first 10,000 customers'? Does the count start from August 2023 or from the year 2020? They have not made any changes to the bike this month.

[pravint]

Rather than this they should start selling spare parts online or over the counter.
Honda doesn't sell parts of BigWing bikes and customers are forced to pay unnecessary premium at BigWing Services.

[revvharder]

It may be a nice overall step for a lot of owners but personally i buy products which are already proven in the market and have very low failure of parts so that i can shift to FNG's as soon as possible due to the following reasons:

1. Most of these service centres are overloaded whether it's Honda or Hero so even for basic things you end up spending an entire day.
2. I really can't tolerate incompetency and most of the service centres are filled with such people.
3. In order to maintain warranty you have to abide by their service schedule for example my Hero Bike had to be serviced every 3 or 4 months which in my opinion is redundant and a money making practice.
4. If i buy extended warranty i am actually tied with manufacturer upto that period.
5. Warranty claiming was an uphill task itself and they would take numerous hours to Bill me, with Hero it was an extra 2 to 3 hours.

These were a few things on top of my mind, with notorious brands like Skoda, KTM, Mahindra, Tata an owner will take extended warranty for the peace of their mind and the same would be disrupted by the service centre experience.

[prakash_ajp]

I am not sure if even the current 5 year warranty is worth it, really. With the service cost being so high at authorized bigwing showrooms, I just can't wait for the warranty period to get over, so I can start taking the bike to the neighborhood garage.

[al90]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Is this the best way to counter the onslaught of the baby Triumph and Harley Davidson?

If it is their way of countering it isn't going to get me back atleast, as revvharder pointed out post the free service I have never taken my bike back to the authorised service center, found a competent local mechanic (did take a few trail and errors) and now with him for the last decade.

I was on the lookout for a bigger capacity bike had booked the cb350rs but went ahead and cancelled that once I test drove the speed 400.

[Sarvodaya]

Nice, very nice, but will Honda company exist on 01/09/2033, if i want to claim my warranty

[Sam800]

Well, its good Honda decided so, in lieu of recent news of inferior parts being provided by Honda and dwindling after sales & services of bigger bikes. Honda might feel they've done their part but it's to be seen how much confidence and benefit these extended warranties do to customers.

It would've been better if they had increased warranty in every model in their assets, with varying time period for different models.

Also, Honda knows how much a big impact Hero has in indians minds, they were bound to take steps when hero- triumph bikes are going to launch as stated by bhpian @Sebring

[sanchari]

Originally Posted by Sarvodaya

Nice, very nice, but will Honda company exist on 01/09/2033, if i want to claim my warranty

Given that Honda is the 2nd highest selling 2-wheeler company in India, I don't think HMSI will be exiting India anytime soon

[Suchu90]

Originally Posted by pravint

Rather than this they should start selling spare parts online or over the counter.
Honda doesn't sell parts of BigWing bikes and customers are forced to pay unnecessary premium at BigWing Services.

My local honda bigwing has already started giving spare parts over the counter to their customers with no questions asked ! I guess the situation has changed after people started complaining about lack of service network. You could check with your local dealer as well.

[PSL]

For me this is great news.
This is more of a signaling issue that the manufacturer has so much confidence and is willing to standing behind their products.
Honestly, most of the manufacturers have done extensive testing of the components. They know what is the MTBF (mean time between failures), at least statistically.

So, the tiered pricing of the various extended warranty options tells me when do they expect the parts to fail and cost of the warranty goes up. It is never linear increase based on number of years.

But the biggest confidence booster is that they are willing to offer it to the customers for such a long duration. Extended warranties are a profit center, not a loss making proposition for them.
So the quality and life of the components need to be good so that the manufacturer doesn't incur a loss.

This is awesome.

[jaganm]

They've also launched additional showroom and service centres in Bangalore. But I wonder if it comes at the wrong time, expanding when the market has other new offerings which seem better than their own offerings that is going old. The market will decide I guess

[t3rm1n80r]

A fellow CB350 owner here. I'm my opinion, offering warranty and honouring it are two different things. Recently there were numerous cases of brakepads of CB350/CB350RS wearing out prematurely. Few people had to replace their brakepads in under 200 kms (within weeks of taking delivery of their new vehicle). Upon contacting HMSI customer support, the response was to change their driving style. What about the cases where the brakepad has prematurely worn out and damaged the disc? Would Honda replace the damages under warranty? I know an instance where TVS did for a friend's RTR, without any questions.