Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

Nineteenth Annual Product Warranty Report: While the erratic nature of accruals continued in 2021, claims totals remained stable. But warranty reserves hit a new record high late in the year, and expense rates briefly set a new low record early in the year. Manufacturer's warranty expenses are sorted into 18 industries and three major sectors: vehicles, electronics, and building trades.
March 24, 2022
New Home & Building Materials Warranty Report: What you won't see in this week's collection of warranty expense reports are soaring or plunging warranty metrics. Most of the building trades' warranty expenses were fairly stable in 2020, with those metrics generally rising or falling by 10% or less. But just as there are exceptions to every rule, there were also a handful of big moves up and down last year.
May 6, 2021
Warranty Snapshots of Planes & the Building Trades: Unlike the passenger car industry, there is no clear trail of pandemic-induced calamity in the warranty metrics of the building trades or the aerospace industry. It hasn't been a good year for many manufacturers, but it hasn't been the Worst Year Ever, as it has for many students and workers, not to mention all the families that lost their loved ones.
November 19, 2020
Building Material Warranty Report: As we've seen in recent reports, warranty costs are generally far below their levels of 16 years ago. But in the building trades, depending how we break them into groups, the most recent expense rates of the top manufacturers are the same or slightly higher than they were in 2003.
June 6, 2019
Building Trades Warranty Report:  Unlike most other industries, in the new home construction business, the builders have lower warranty expense rates than many of their suppliers. But the makers of appliances and heating/cooling systems are now cutting their costs and narrowing the gap between their expense rates and those of the makers of fixtures, furniture, and building materials.
April 27, 2017
Warranty Estimates, Part 3: Companies in the building trades are supposed to carefully estimate the size of their warranty liabilities. But sometimes, their estimates are too low, and the amount they set aside is too meager to pay all their expected claims.
November 21, 2012
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