BMW and M Power Owners

EvilRob said:
The BMW extended warranty is an insured product but AFAIK the AUC warranty is a manufacturer warranty.
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I think there's some confusion about what an insured warranty is.


I'm pretty sure the manufacturer warranty is as the name suggests - it's a warranty to protect agains manufacturing defects.


The AUC and extended warranty, while both backed by BMW, are issued by the local dealership network and approved by BMW. Hence, all repairs are still done by BMW etc, but it's still an insurance product backed by the dealership network and BMW.


It makes no difference as to how the car is being repaired, but it's important to understand the difference, because it means BMW/the dealership network can, and do, impose restrictions on the AUC/extended warranty, which you wouldn't see on the manufacturer warranty.



These restrictions, as highlighted in my first post, can include things such as servicing at BMW dealers only.




I'm not saying it's a third party insurance product - it's a BMW one. But it is still an insurance product, instead of a manufacturing defect warranty :)





Another example.


AppleCare = Apple's manufacturer warranty.

AppleCare+ = Apple's insurance product, which has its own stipulations and restrictions.


Both backed by Apple, but one is a manufacturer warranty, the other is an insurance product offered by Apple.
 
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MrRockliffe said:
I think there's some confusion about what an insured warranty is.


I'm pretty sure the manufacturer warranty is as the name suggests - it's a warranty to protect agains manufacturing defects.


The AUC and extended warranty, while both backed by BMW, are issued by the local dealership network and approved by BMW. Hence, all repairs are still done by BMW etc, but it's still an insurance product backed by the dealership network and BMW.


It makes no difference as to how the car is being repaired, but it's important to understand the difference, because it means BMW/the dealership network can, and do, impose restrictions on the AUC/extended warranty, which you wouldn't see on the manufacturer warranty.



These restrictions, as highlighted in my first post, can include things such as servicing at BMW dealers only.




I'm not saying it's a third party insurance product - it's a BMW one. But it is still an insurance product, instead of a manufacturing defect warranty :)
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The difference is that the AUC warranty is a manufacturers warranty provided by BMW whereas the extended warranty is an insured product provided by third party insurer. While known as a good product and I have purchased it now that my AUC warranty has finished, it's not the same.
 
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EvilRob said:
The difference is that the AUC warranty is a manufacturers warranty provided by BMW whereas the extended warranty is an insured product provided by third party insurer. While known as a good product and I have purchased it now that my AUC warranty has finished, it's not the same.
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No the AUC and BMW extended warranty are the same thing, which is why BMW can stipulate that the car has to be serviced by BMW in their AUC T&Cs, as per the link you provided :)

They are both insurance products offered and run directly by BMW.



This doesn't mean they're third party warranties.
 
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MrRockliffe said:
No the AUC and BMW extended warranty are the same thing, which is why BMW can stipulate that the car has to be serviced by BMW in their AUC T&Cs, as per the link you provided :)

They are both insurance products offered and run directly by BMW.



This doesn't mean they're third party warranties.
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They are not. The extended/insured warranty is underwritten and administered by Mondial. The AUC warranty (as per my link) is provided by BMW.
 
MrRockliffe said:
No the AUC and BMW extended warranty are the same thing, which is why BMW can stipulate that the car has to be serviced by BMW in their AUC T&Cs, as per the link you provided :)

They are both insurance products offered and run directly by BMW.
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No, this isn't true.

The Approved Used Car Warranty is not an insured warranty product.

The BMW Insured Warranty is an insured warranty product and it is not run by BMW, it is run by an insurance company. See the bottom of this page:

BMW Insured Warranty | Extended Warranty for BMW Cars

Help protect yourself against unexpected repair costs with our BMW Insured Warranty. Hit the road with confidence with BMW Insured Warranty cover.
www.bmw-warranty.co.uk www.bmw-warranty.co.uk

In practical terms this makes no real difference to the customer, but they are different.
 
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Whether we consider it to be a 'manufacturer warranty' or not, it isn't bound by the same legal restrictions as the new car warranty and as @MrRockliffe correctly points out, means they can and do specify that you have to service the car at BMW authorised workshops to maintain the validity of that warranty - which is something people should be aware of, as people purchasing a used BMW may not all intend to do their servicing with BMW. The logical argument of whether it's worth bothering paying AUC prices in that scenario is another discussion :p
 
I honestly do not see the point in not servicing at the main dealer on these cars. It's not that expensive (or at least, specialists are not that cheap) especially as they offer discounts for cars outside of new car warranty.
 
I stand corrected, but my original point about BMW adding requirements and stipulations to their T&Cs is still true - this was the main purpose of my post, to make it clear that you should be careful with reading them.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I honestly do not see the point in not servicing at the main dealer on these cars. It's not that expensive (or at least, specialists are not that cheap) especially as they offer discounts for cars outside of new car warranty.
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Do you have to ask for the discount or is it already built into their servicing quotes?
 
[TW]Fox said:
I honestly do not see the point in not servicing at the main dealer on these cars. It's not that expensive (or at least, specialists are not that cheap) especially as they offer discounts for cars outside of new car warranty.
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Pretty expensive in my experience.


My local dealership were several hundred pounds more expensive for a service, tyres and brake fluid change compared to my local specialist, using the same parts and tyres.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Pretty expensive in my experience.


My local dealership were several hundred pounds more expensive for a service, tyres and brake fluid change compared to my local specialist, using the same parts and tyres.
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I'd exclude tyres from my comment as I've never found that to be competitive. I don't know why you'd get tyres fitted as part of a service.

But a service and brake fluid change at the discounted prices on, say, a 2020 BMW M340i is about £350. Can you really find a specialist to do that for £150?
 
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[TW]Fox said:
I'd exclude tyres from my comment as I've never found that to be competitive. I don't know why you'd get tyres fitted as part of a service.

But a service and brake fluid change at the discounted prices on, say, a 2020 BMW M340i is about £350. Can you really find a specialist to do that for £150?
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I think my total cost with BMW for:

Full/major service
Brake fluid
Tyres
Alignment


Was £1500 ish - can't remember the exact figure as the quote was given on the phone back in April.



I ended up having tyres, alignment and brake fluid done for £700 and then the service was £200. I had tyres done because they needed doing, as did the car need servicing.
 
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MrRockliffe said:
I think my total cost with BMW for:

Full/major service
Brake fluid
Tyres
Alignment


Was £1500 ish - can't remember the exact figure as the quote was given on the phone back in April.



I ended up having tyres, alignment and brake fluid done for £700 and then the service was £200. I had tyres done because they needed doing, as did the car need servicing.
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Are you assuming getting tyres done elsewhere would invalidate warranty? That would indeed be something to be wary of if the case.
 
MrRockliffe said:
I think my total cost with BMW for:

Full/major service
Brake fluid
Tyres
Alignment


Was £1500 ish - can't remember the exact figure as the quote was given on the phone back in April.



I ended up having tyres, alignment and brake fluid done for £700 and then the service was £200. I had tyres done because they needed doing, as did the car need servicing.
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I suppose it would help if I knew what the car was, for some reason I assumed you had an M340i but you won't get 4 tyres for one of those £700 so presumably it's something else. A major service for £200? Including the spark plugs etc? That is exceptionally cheap if true and would therefore suggest I am wrong and that there are serious savings to made visiting a specialist. In my experience I've never found a specialist to get anything like that low for a major service, I've been able to get quotes of at most 10-20% less than the main dealer which just isn't worth it in my personal view.

BMW pricing now is totally transparent - anyone can look it up on the BMW service site and you get the price. It makes comparisons so much easier.
 
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EvilRob said:
Are you assuming getting tyres done elsewhere would invalidate warranty? That would indeed be something to be wary of if the case.
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??

I had everything done outside of BMW and my car isn't in warranty, purely due to how terrible my local BMW dealerships are and how expensive they've been with parts/tyres.

Even buying from them was a chore. Portsmouth wouldn't even let me test drive a car on my own back in 2022, Worthing/Littlehampton had to "get special approval" to. By comparison, I walked into Audi, asked to test drive the S5 and they just gave me the keys, pretty much.


They aren't much more in labour, but their parts are usually a good chunk more for the same thing elsewhere. I either check eBay BMW stores or give Cotswold a call and then take the part to my local specialist for them to fit if it's a big item, or get them to source the parts for general servicing.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I suppose it would help if I knew what the car was, for some reason I assumed you had an M340i but you won't get 4 tyres for one of those £700 so presumably it's something else. A major service for £200? Including the spark plugs etc? That is exceptionally cheap if true and would therefore suggest I am wrong and that there are serious savings to made visiting a specialist. In my experience I've never found a specialist to get anything like that low for a major service, I've been able to get quotes of at most 10-20% less than the main dealer which just isn't worth it in my personal view.

BMW pricing now is totally transparent - anyone can look it up on the BMW service site and you get the price. It makes comparisons so much easier.
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Sorry not inc spark plugs - would have just been a standard service inc all filters rather than bare minimum oil change. I wasn't sure what constituted a full/major service with BMW intervals.


It's an E88 135i.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Sorry not inc spark plugs - would have just been a standard service inc all filters rather than bare minimum oil change. I wasn't sure what constituted a full/major service with BMW intervals.


It's an E88 135i.
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Ok, in which case the BMW pricing for that is:

Standard service with brake fluid: £320

Which explains the £200 from a specialist. I suppose that is another 50% more to get it done at BMW.

But on the newer cars, the sort you'd be running the warranty with, I think the difference is much smaller.
 
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Just noticed the BMW service site has the M4 version of @ChrisD. M3 on it.


[TW]Fox said:
Ok, in which case the BMW pricing for that is:

Standard service with brake fluid: £320

Which explains the £200 from a specialist. I suppose that is another 50% more to get it done at BMW.

But on the newer cars, the sort you'd be running the warranty with, I think the difference is much smaller.
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And the £200 is exc the brake fluid, as I had that done with the tyres (purely because it was cheaper to do so).
 
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