Is BMW Extended Warranty Worth It?

Associate
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30 May 2007
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853
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Yorkshire
Just to follow up my last post, my car has broken again. On the way home on Friday it was down on power and eventually pulled up a drive train fault on idrive. I rang a couple of dealers and they didn't have any appointments with a loan car until February now and I need the car for work.

Thought to drop BMW assist a call to see if they can do anything, they've referred my case to the dealership and organized for a hire car to be there for me to collect on Tuesday - can't fault that for service. I feel like I would have been better off going to them direct last time instead of letting the dealership do the legwork.
 
Soldato
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10 Apr 2006
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BMW are fitting a new (£5500) gearbox to my X5. That's alongside a new power steering fluid reservoir and pipes after that leaked and hopefully fixing the air suspension issue I'm also having and the headunit locking up occasionally.

It's around £90 a month for me but no doubt a specialist could fix the existing gearbox instead of just replacing it.
 
Man of Honour
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17 Oct 2002
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159,534
I will never run a BMW again without it. I doubt I've broken even but I just can't be bothered with the hassle of using independents. It was always so hit and miss and nothing like the seamless experience of just getting the main dealer to do everything. So I factor in the cost of the warranty and servicing and just accept it as part of the cost of owning a BMW.

Not looked back in almost 5 years. I think I've settled on running a car from a year old to 5-6 years old with the extended warranty for protection in the latter half of the ownership period. I currently have a service pack anyway so the servicing thing isn't an issue.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2006
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23,304
BMW are fitting a new (£5500) gearbox to my X5. That's alongside a new power steering fluid reservoir and pipes after that leaked and hopefully fixing the air suspension issue I'm also having and the headunit locking up occasionally.

It's around £90 a month for me but no doubt a specialist could fix the existing gearbox instead of just replacing it.

Ouch!

After having an Audi and the problems that brought (along with friends and family who own/owned them), I won't be going German again. I only barely managed to dodge the cost of an exploding turbo at one point and that was £3000+, left me waiting for the AA in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. There was about a week left on the warranty.

All the Jap cars (and Fords actually) I've owned have been bomb proof, except for minor cosmetic things.
 
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Caporegime
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25 Nov 2004
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On the road....
My F10's have actually been really reliable, surprisingly.
Better than the e39 would you say? - (I know many regard it as the better/better built car)

To be honest I was planning on a warranty for my e38 but was put off by the exorbitant cost, thus far, it’s well below the cost of a warranty vs what I’ve paid out in both servicing and repairs, much to my surprise (kiss of death saying that, I’m sure!)
 
Caporegime
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8 Jan 2004
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Rutland
I found the warranty so-so, but mainly due to the vague wear and tear clause (which they’ve sorted now). When it’s clear cut it was no bother but when I struggled with the major claim I had.

I suspect just chucking the money in a pot would have been less hassle and cheaper.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2008
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7,081
One thing against "using the local amazing indy" without a warranty is that they often are left guessing (or at best, think it could be one of a few parts) - this means you end up footing the bill for their guesswork.

My FIL had this recently on his car, would randomly lose power and drive and the autobox should 'shutdown'. EML would come in and he'd need to turn the car off for a few hours before he could limp it anywhere. It could be fine for months or happen 5 times in a day so was hard to track down. It was a few years out of warranty and the brand doesn't offer anything like the BMW extended warranty. The local (main) dealer ended up working through a list of various parts over the space of 6 months to 'fix' the issue (when in reality they were just plugging it into a PC each time, reading off the error codes and replacing that part).

Eventually he dumped the car with WBAC and bought something else as there was no end in sight and he was just replacing random part after part every month as someone else guessed.

With an extended warranty they are free to guess away - but someone else picks up the bill for the all the new parts you get.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
27 Apr 2018
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1,320
Thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated. I will have a steady think on this, my local dealers are nobs to be frank so that does put me off, but at the same time the warranty is relatively cheap. I can see both sides from people here with some cases of large bills, and some not needing any work done at all. One to think about.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Nov 2003
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4,503
Location
Ashford
Thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated. I will have a steady think on this, my local dealers are nobs to be frank so that does put me off, but at the same time the warranty is relatively cheap. I can see both sides from people here with some cases of large bills, and some not needing any work done at all. One to think about.

Keep in mind a lot of the large bills being quoted are because of the fact BMW dont repair anything and just replace (they use fitters not mechanics) and my local dealer charges over £170 per hour. If these repairs were done at local specialist then they wouldn't be any where near what BMW prices quoted are.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
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159,534
Keep in mind a lot of the large bills being quoted are because of the fact BMW dont repair anything and just replace (they use fitters not mechanics) and my local dealer charges over £170 per hour. If these repairs were done at local specialist then they wouldn't be any where near what BMW prices quoted are.

I once went to a specialist for a leak on my E39. It went back 3 times in the end, each time me paying for stuff to be replaced, until they eventually replaced the right bit. Brilliant.

The motor trade is unique in that the worse you are at diagnosing faults the more money you can charge. Are least someone else is paying for that when it's warranty.
 
Soldato
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4 Nov 2003
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4,503
Location
Ashford
I once went to a specialist for a leak on my E39. It went back 3 times in the end, each time me paying for stuff to be replaced, until they eventually replaced the right bit. Brilliant.

The motor trade is unique in that the worse you are at diagnosing faults the more money you can charge. Are least someone else is paying for that when it's warranty.

Depends on the quality of the people doing the work the same as at BMW . Did you see the video of the work BMW carried out on my car?

What I was getting at is that people quote I've claimed 5k for example on the warranty when actually that's 5k with BMW replacing and charging silly money. A good indy would probably be a very small percentage of that to actually repair the car. BMW are great at inflating prices and replacing parts that aren't required at other people's expense. It really shocks me how much people pay out and are ripped off while I've been waiting in the dealers. It's criminal.
 
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