I’ve mentioned before that the UK Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) can be quite rabid when pursuing adverts with bold claims. Remember Renault’s run-in (nice alliteration) with the ASA about their claims for “zero emissions”? Or BMW, who tried to give the impression that their 3 litre, 6 cylinder hoonmobile, the Z4, was doing its bit for the environment (presumably by draining it of all that troublesome oil)? Well, the ASA is at it again.

And this time, they’ve got lowly Kia in their crosshairs. What Car reports that Warranty Direct (an independent warranty provider) lodged a complaint against Kia with the ASA. It’s not difficult to see why Warranty Direct was fuming at Kia. Warranty Direct makes a living selling warranties to customers after their initial 3 year warranty has expired. So, it’s bad news for Warranty Direct when Kia comes to town with their lovely, comprehensive 7 year warranty. Trouble is, is it that comprehensive? Not according to the ASA.

Warranty Direct complained to the ASA that Kia’s adverts for their 7 year warranty were misleading. They claimed that Kia didn’t put enough emphasis on the slightly small detail that the 7 year warranty only lasts until you clock 100,000 miles. And that you could only hit 100,000 miles between years 4 and 7. Oh, and that different parts were covered for different lengths of time.

ASA agreed on all accounts. They said that Kia did display the 100,000 miles caveat, but that it was not on-screen during the visual and the voice-over description. Because of this customers would think the warranty would cover all parts for 7 years. Warranty Direct also complained that Kia didn’t mention that the warranty didn’t cover “wear and tear” items, but the ASA didn’t uphold the complaint because they believed that customers wouldn’t be stupid enough to believe that Kia would cover those sorts of items. Although, they may have put it a bit more diplomatically.

Kia felt they were a little hard done by. “We understand and accept the ASA’s judgement, but feel this is a technical infringement. It was never our intention to mislead and we still believe Kia’s warranty is the best and most transparent policy.” Kia said, “We were back on air with the advert on August 5th and literally had to change one word to abide by the ruling.” Want to know to know what they word was? “Conditions”. The small print now reads “terms and exclusions apply” instead of “terms and conditions apply”. I hope Vauxhall has got their ducks in a row with their “lifetime” warranty.