Leyland's extra year
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• Leyland has become the first truck manufacturer to give a full two-year warranty with all new trucks above 6-tonnes GVW.
The new unlimited mileage warranty applies to all Leyland 145 models, from the 6.2tonne GVW Roadrunner to the 65-tonne GTW 6x4 Roadtrain, manufactured from January 1 this year.
The cut-off point for Leyland's old one-year warranty scheme coincides with the ending of the 145 range's use of '98' Series engines, which were still being fitted to certain Freighter models up to the end of last year.
As happened earlier last year with Roadrunner, the '98' Series engine has been replaced in the Freighter with Cummins 'B' Series engines (designated '300' Series by Leyland), although Leyland has not yet revealed which models from the 'B' Series range will be available in its heavier trucks up to 16.26 tonnes GVW.
Brian Smith, Leyland Trucks' national sales and service director, says that one of the main reasons for introdua ing the new warranty is that "customers are now more in terested than ever before in whole-life costs. This warranty is a positive indication of our commitment to reducing the cost of truck ownership."
Smith claims that research leading up to the new scheme's introduction showed that Leyland's warranty costs were "dropping through the floor." He is not, however, prepared to release any warranty cost figures, nor will he say how much Leyland expects the two-year warranty to cost the company, except that it is "very little indeed".
According to Smith the projected cost of the scheme caused "no hesitation" in the decision to give it the goahead.
He emphasises that the Leyland two-year warranty has "no caveats at all". It covers parts, labour, recovery, and any fluids such as engine oil used during warranty repairs.