Hyundai certified pre-owned warranty
Learn about Hyundai’s unconventional approach to CPO vehicles
Korean automaker Hyundai (rhymes with “Sunday”) is known for building increasingly reliable and interesting alternatives to Japanese cars as well as offering the best new car warranty in the business.
You might expect that Hyundai’s certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicle program would be just as impressive, but is it? We’ll break down what comes with a CPO Hyundai and how it compares with your other options.
Key insights
- CPO Hyundais must be under six years old, have fewer than 80,000 miles and pass a dealership inspection.
- CPO Hyundais come with the remainder of their original five-year/60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and a reinstated 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty plus 10 years of roadside assistance and other benefits.
- Unlike Kia and Genesis (other companies Hyundai owns), Hyundai doesn’t offer a bumper-to-bumper warranty on its CPO vehicles — just four extra years of powertrain protection.
- Still, if you can find a CPO Hyundai priced $500 or less over the cost of a noncertified clone, it might be worth it for the powertrain warranty and benefits alone.
Hyundai’s certified pre-owned program explained
Hyundai’s official certified pre-owned program is simply called Hyundai Certified Pre-Owned.
In order to qualify for certification, a used Hyundai must be at most five model years old (e.g., a 2018 or newer in 2023) and have fewer than 80,000 miles on its odometer. It must also pass a thorough 173-point inspection performed by a certified dealer technician who will check the wheels, tires, engine, suspension, electronics, infotainment system and more.
CPO Hyundais come with the remainder of their five-year/60,000-mile factory bumper-to-bumper warranty and also get their 10-year/100,000-mile factory powertrain warranty reinstated (more on that in a bit). Finally, they receive a nice host of benefits ranging from 10 years of roadside assistance with no mileage limit to rental car and travel reimbursements.
» LEARN: What does a car warranty cover?
How good is Hyundai’s CPO warranty?
Hyundai’s CPO warranty is OK.
As we mentioned, all brand-new Hyundais come with a five-year/60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and a 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty.
Hyundai’s warranties are measured from when the vehicle was first purchased, which is why a “10-year warranty” doesn’t give you 10 years of coverage.
However, the factory powertrain warranty doesn’t transfer, meaning it only applies to the original owner of the car. So, if you buy a used Hyundai, you’re generally only getting whatever’s left of the five-year/60,000-mile factory bumper-to-bumper warranty.
When you buy CPO, though, Hyundai will reinstate your vehicle’s 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty, albeit with a $50 deductible that isn’t present in the factory warranty.
So, with a CPO Hyundai, you’re getting four years/40,000 miles of extra powertrain protection with a $50 deductible.
How does Hyundai’s CPO warranty compare?
The biggest drawback to Hyundai’s CPO warranty is that it doesn’t include extra bumper-to-bumper coverage. Even Kia — a company Hyundai technically owns — offers the standard one year of added bumper-to-bumper protection with its CPO cars.
The upside is that even though CPO Hyundais don’t come with any bonus bumper-to-bumper protection, they still come with more total protection (five years/60,000 miles) than some competing CPO vehicles.
Ford, for example, offers a one-year/12,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty on some of its CPO vehicles, but that only brings each vehicle’s total bumper-to-bumper coverage to four years/48,000 miles.
| Make | Additional CPO warranty coverage |
|---|---|
| Hyundai | 10-year/10,000-mile powertrain warranty** |
| Kia | 1-year/12,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty*; 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty** |
| Toyota | 1-year/12,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty***; 7-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty** |
| Subaru | 7-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty** |
| Ford | 1-year/12,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty*; 7-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty** on Gold Certified vehicles |
| Chevrolet | 1-year/12,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty*; 6-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty** |
» MORE: Best CPO warranties
CPO Hyundai benefits
Hyundai CPO vehicles come with above-average benefits for a nonluxury brand:
- 10 years of roadside assistance, including jump-starts, flat-tire changes, lockout assistance, gas deliveries and towing to the nearest Hyundai service center
- Rental car reimbursements of up to $35 per day for up to 10 days while your Hyundai is in the shop for warranty-covered repairs
- Travel reimbursements of up to $100 per day for up to five days to help cover meals, lodging and transportation if your Hyundai breaks down 150-plus miles from home
A decade of roadside assistance is an especially nice touch and could save you $60-plus per year on a AAA membership. Your travel and rental car benefits may also come in handy if your Hyundai is in the shop for a while.
“Hyundai took 4 months to get the wiring harness to the dealer. The dealer took 4 months more to repair,” wrote Lanny, a ConsumerAffairs reviewer from Texas. They weren't the only Hyundai reviewer to mention long waits for parts and repairs, either, with multiple other consumers on our site mentioning delays in getting their vehicles back on the road.
“Our daughter's Hyundai Tucson engine died at barely 50k miles and I had to have the car towed to one dealership who diagnosed the issue as a warranty/faulty engine issue, however, they couldn't get to it for 4-5 months due to their backlog of engine issues,” wrote Charles, a ConsumerAffairs reviewer from Alabama.
While the rental car and travel reimbursements from your CPO benefits won’t help much if your car is at the dealership long-term, like Lanny and Charles experienced, they can take some of the sting off of a shorter delay.
Do you need an extended warranty for your Hyundai?
If you’re looking for protection from car repair bills, an extended warranty might make sense either in addition to or instead of buying certified pre-owned.
Hyundai offers its own extended warranties, dubbed Hyundai Protection Plan Vehicle Service Contracts. For around $2,000 to $3,000, a Platinum plan can extend your five-year/60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper protection to a full 10 years/100,000 miles.
Is it worth it? In our full breakdown of Hyundai’s extended warranties, we determined you probably don’t need to spend that much unless you want absolute peace of mind. Even though Hyundai’s extended warranties were cheaper than the third-party alternatives we looked at (a rarity in the auto warranty world), neither is really necessary given how reliable Hyundais are and how cheap they are to repair.
Still, if you want the peace of mind that comes with having your vehicle under warranty, it might be worth getting a few quotes to see what’s available.
» FIND WARRANTY COMPANIES: Best extended car warranty companies
Bottom line
Even though CPO Hyundais don’t come with a CPO bumper-to-bumper warranty like many competitors do, it may still be worth paying $100 to $500 extra just for the four added years of powertrain coverage and the associated benefits, like roadside assistance.
Article sources
- J.D. Power, “ Vehicle Dependability Improves Despite Continued Problems with Technology, J.D. Power Finds .” Accessed Aug. 7, 2023.
- Consumer Reports, “Who Makes the Most Reliable New Cars?” Accessed Aug. 7, 2023.
- RepairPal, “ Hyundai Reliability Rating .” Accessed Aug. 7, 2023.
- iSeeCars, “ Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) Cars: Are They Worth the Extra Cost? ” Accessed Aug. 7, 2023.
- Edmunds, “ Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) .” Accessed Aug. 7, 2023.
