Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

Nine-Month New Home Warranty Report: Claims, accruals, and reserves continue to see a pattern of steady growth, despite many economists' predictions of an impending recession. Accruals per home sold continue to increase, though inflation and rising home prices mean that the accrual rate per dollar of revenue has decreased.
January 19, 2023
Worldwide Auto Warranty Expenses: Most auto manufacturers have filed their latest annual reports, so the totals are in for 2021: $45.9 B in claims paid, a 2.4% claims rate, $54.0 B in accruals made, a 2.8% accrual rate, $128.4 B in reserves held, and $653 in accruals made per vehicle sold. Claims and accrual totals changed little last year, but because sales rebounded in 2021, the expense rates fell.
October 6, 2022
Worldwide Heavy Equipment Warranty Report: Claims were up a bit last year but warranty accruals fell significantly, as did product revenue. As a result, the industry's claims rate was also up a bit while the average accrual rate fell. And the combined warranty reserve fund balances of the 52 companies we're tracking in this category grew five percent to a record $9.81 billion.
September 9, 2021
Worldwide Auto Warranty Expenses: Last year, claims fell -10% to $43.9 billion while accruals rose +4% to $51.0 billion. And with some additional adjustments along the way, that drove worldwide warranty reserves up to a new record balance of $114.9 billion. And because sales fell so fast, the average claims rate rose to 2.8% last year, while the average accrual rate jumped to 3.3%.
September 2, 2021
Top Asian Automaker Warranty Expenses: While the top carmaker in India seems to be getting its warranty expenses under control, recall-driven warranty costs have spiraled out of control for the top two Korean carmakers. Hyundai's accrual rate more than doubled to nearly 6.5% last year, while Kia approached 5%.
August 12, 2021
Polaris Warranty Program Faced Significant Challenges: How After, Inc. saved Polaris from a 34% annual premium rate increase (which would have had significant impacts on their warranty program) and ultimately helped them create their own warranty company.
May 13, 2021
U.S. Auto Warranty Metrics: In 2019, warranty metrics improved for Tesla and deteriorated for GM and Ford. While Tesla still sets aside the most funds per unit sold to finance future warranty costs, its current claims rate is one of the lowest in the business. And while GM and Ford spend less per vehicle, their vehicles also cost less, and their costs have been rising for several years in a row.
March 5, 2020
The Biggest 9-Month Warranty Expense Rate Changes: While we can't directly compare one company's warranty expense rates to another's, we can compare each company's current metrics against their year-ago levels. And then we can compare the size of the changes, to reveal which companies are seeing costs fall and which are seeing them soar.
January 16, 2020
Worldwide Automotive Warranty Expenses: With reliable warranty expense data in hand from 24 of the world's largest carmakers, we have calculated some worldwide metrics: $46 billion in claims, $50 billion in accruals, $115 billion in reserves, 2.14% average claims rate, 2.53% average accrual rate, and $543 in accruals per unit sold.
August 22, 2019
American Auto Warranty Expenses: While General Motors continues to recover from its massive ignition switch recall of 2014, the warranty expenses of Ford are creeping upward. Tesla, meanwhile, is in the strange position of having the lowest claims rate and the highest accrual rate in the U.S.-based portion of this industry.
July 18, 2019
Homebuilding Warranty Report: Warranty expenses are rising but so are new home prices, keeping the average amount of money accrued industry-wide after each closing relatively steady, and allowing the accrual rate as a percentage of revenue to actually decline a bit. But many homebuilders continue to raise and reduce their warranty accruals rather impulsively, and sometimes skip them altogether.
June 28, 2018
Top 100 Warranty Providers of 2016: While we can't directly compare the warranty expenses of companies to each other, we can compare a company to itself over time, and can then make comparisons based on the rate of change. In doing so, we can spot the companies cutting their warranty expense rates significantly, as well as those whose warranty costs are beginning to spin out of control.
March 16, 2017
U.S. Truck & Auto OEM Warranty Report: While falling sales drive Navistar's claims rate upwards, Paccar finds ways to cut warranty costs. And both GM and Ford continue to report some of the lowest warranty cost per vehicle metrics in the world, while Tesla gets its warranty costs under control.
July 21, 2016
International Aircraft Warranties: The bigger the plane, the higher the price, and the lower the warranty expense rate as a percentage of that average selling price. The products of the top seven aircraft manufacturers in the world can basically be ranked in size order, with the largest paying under 0.4% on warranties and the smallest paying 4% or more on warranties.
August 6, 2015
Warranty Expense Reductions: As the year comes to a close, we take a look at which of the largest warranty providers has achieved the largest expense rate reductions in the past 12 months. But in order to compare companies against each other, first we have to compare each company to itself over time.
December 19, 2013
Flat Rate Extended Warranties: For shoppers, the choice at the cash register is to say yes or no. The competition is between administrators vying for exclusive contracts with the retailers. But now there's a new choice, for consumers to go home and buy their extended warranties over the Internet.
August 7, 2008
New Home & Appliance Warranties: At the midpoint of 2007, sales are falling faster than claims can be reduced, driving claims rate percentages upwards for many companies in the building trades. But unlike in the automotive or computer industries, claims in this sector were always rather evenly distributed among new home builders and their suppliers.
September 25, 2007
Mid-Year Warranty Report: Numerous companies continue to fine-tune their warranty spending, reacting to claims rate fluctuations by modifying accruals. While warranty spending by one company can't be compared to another's, we can compare a company to itself over time, by way of a series of top ten lists.
August 15, 2007
Worldwide Automotive Warranties: Sure there are good numbers for the U.S.-based automakers, but what about the rest of the world? With a few educated guesses, we're able to estimate the worldwide auto warranty number to be $36.9 billion, roughly 3.4 times U.S. figures alone. But it's different for every size of vehicle, and exchange rate and warranty duration also have an effect.
May 30, 2007
Telecom Equipment Warranties: Unlike in other industries, there doesn't seem to be any typical spending rate for warranty claims in the phone, data, wireless, or broadcast equipment sectors. For every high there's a low, and for every upward trend there's a decline.
December 20, 2005
Top 50 Warranty Providers: The data is in, and there are four new names on the list of companies with the largest warranty programs. American manufacturers reported more than $23.675 billion in warranty claims during 2003, a rate very close to $2 billion a month.
March 23, 2004
Letter to the Editor: Reader raises an issue with the data for warranty reserves, claims, and accrual statistics published over the past five weeks, suggesting the use of just printer hardware revenue to compute a claims rate paints a misleading picture.
October 13, 2003