Anyone have any experience with an extended warranty with BMW? Our warranty is about to expire and we are looking into extending it as we plan to keep the car for quite a while (it is paid for). Thanks in advance for any help.
i do. the BMW version is good, but expensive. I have the BMW version on an X5 as well as the tire and wheel warranty from BMW. They are seperate warranties so getting both is pretty costly. There is a company called easycare that administers many factory warranties for companies like Porsche, Mazda, and others. I bought a 4 years extension from them on a 911 that includes the tire and wheel warranty, and does repair wear and tear items. I would recommend either of these.
All you are doing is pre-paying for repairs. If you are a betting man, the odds are long that the warranty will ever pay off. Bernard
I have a 2002 X5 and got the extended warranty. If you are keeping the car and plan on still using the dealer for maintenence service then the warranty is less expensive than paying for service. It's expensive but cheaper in the long run unless you can invest that cash and generate a 30% return.
In general, no warranty is worth paying for unless you have more knowledge about future potential claims than the offering company. (i.e.small consumer electronics in which everything is covered and you are prone to dropping phones in the commode) Think about it. A company will project the average covered costs of said repairs over the given time period. On top of this, they will add various administrative and operating costs plus profit margin. Again, if you have better knowledge than the warranty company, it might be worth it In general, stay away. If the peace of mind is worth the premium, go ahead.
i think almost evey extended warranty i have ever purchased has paid for itself pretty quickly. I bought a tire and wheel warranty for my wife's X5 that has low profile 20 inch tires on it. I paid about 800 for it for 5 years of coverage. We had nails in 3 tires recently that would have cost close to 1600 if i had to pay for them. instead i paid a 50 deductible. I'd say so far i am way ahead on that one. It is a risk reward, but if you have a german car it will only take one or two events to pay for the warranty.
Every extended warranty I ever passed on was well worth it. I used to own a used car dealership. When you buy an extended automobile warranty, 25-50% of the amount you pay goes straight into the pocket of the person/company that sold you the warranty. Of the remaining amount, about 75% eventually gets paid out in claims. The rest is profit for the warranty company. Clearly some of them payoff for the buyer, but these are odds that make Vegas look like a really good bet. Bernard
