BMW warranty vs RAC Platinum warranty

[d_a_n1979]

Does anyone have any experience of them versus each other or how they work/how they pay out if needed?

I'm toying with the idea of adding BMW warranty to the F31 we're hopefully buying on Friday; it's £800 per annum but I'm happy to pay that for peace of mind etc

However the car comes with 6 months RAC Platinum Warranty and so far, my reading of it online hasn't been good TBH

Any pros/cons with either?

Is the BMW warranty worth the extra?

FYI I've always got a c£2k slush fund going for the car(s) for 'just in cases' and as soon as I get a new car I start to refresh things ASAP (brakes, lines, fluids, filters, alloys, tyres etc)

Cheers

[Court_S]

Personally I haven’t found any third party warranty to be worth the paper they’re written on.

When I bought my 335i, the warranty was utter ste with a tiny limit on it when you read the detail. I negotiated some money of the car in return for him not providing a warranty and my sourcing one via BMW.

I’ll let you know how useful the BMW one is on Friday when my car goes in for a service and investigation into why it keeps going into limp mode on long journeys.

[Mr Squarekins]

A few years back I had £3k of warranty work done on my z4, even at 110k miles. No question if a quibble.
Worth every penny for me.

[mmm-five]

Mr Squarekins said:

A few years back I had £3k of warranty work done on my z4, even at 110k miles. No question if a quibble.
Worth every penny for me.

Under the RAC Warranty or the BMW Warranty?

[Mr Squarekins]

mmm-five said:

Mr Squarekins said:

A few years back I had £3k of warranty work done on my z4, even at 110k miles. No question if a quibble.
Worth every penny for me.

Under the RAC Warranty or the BMW Warranty?

Sorry, brain fade! Extended official bmw warranty. Back then, I paid monthly so it never expired,

[mmm-five]

Mr Squarekins said:

Sorry, brain fade! Extended official bmw warranty. Back then, I paid monthly so it never expired,

Ditto here (about £80/month, zero excess, including breakdown)...and had about £25k of claims out of it (mainly engine & differential) over 6 years/100k miles...on a Z4MC.

Edited by mmm-five on Thursday 5th January 12:11

[Mr Squarekins]

mmm-five said:

Mr Squarekins said:

Sorry, brain fade! Extended official bmw warranty. Back then, I paid monthly so it never expired,

Ditto here (about £80/month, zero excess, including breakdown)...and had about £25k of claims out of it (mainly engine & differential) over 6 years/100k miles.

Planned to do the same on my i8 when the time came, but I think they have wised up. Monthy is crazy money so went annual. At least i'm a long way off 100k

[d_a_n1979]

mmm-five said:

Mr Squarekins said:

Sorry, brain fade! Extended official bmw warranty. Back then, I paid monthly so it never expired,

Ditto here (about £80/month, zero excess, including breakdown)...and had about £25k of claims out of it (mainly engine & differential) over 6 years/100k miles.

That's what I've been quoted (well, £76 a month)

[MarkJS]

d_a_n1979 said:

Does anyone have any experience of them versus each other or how they work/how they pay out if needed?

I'm toying with the idea of adding BMW warranty to the F31 we're hopefully buying on Friday; it's £800 per annum but I'm happy to pay that for peace of mind etc

However the car comes with 6 months RAC Platinum Warranty and so far, my reading of it online hasn't been good TBH

Any pros/cons with either?

Is the BMW warranty worth the extra?

FYI I've always got a c£2k slush fund going for the car(s) for 'just in cases' and as soon as I get a new car I start to refresh things ASAP (brakes, lines, fluids, filters, alloys, tyres etc)

Cheers

£800 sounds high - is the car over 60k miles? My BMW warranty renewal came through yesterday at £522

However, I would take the BMW warranty over anything else available - I haven’t needed to use the warranty for a long time (never on my current car), but my previous experience is that you are very well covered and there was no quibble on my claim.

[MitchT]

MarkJS said:

£800 sounds high - is the car over 60k miles? My BMW warranty renewal came through yesterday at £522

The OP says it's an F31 but hasn't specified which engine. I guess that would have a bearing on the premium. Maybe the annual mileage will too.

[Funk]

I bought a BMW AUC 530i back in October which obviously comes with 1yr BMW warranty. I've been glad of it - BMW have already replaced the engine mounts (apparently a 5-6 hour job!), completely recoded the car from scratch when the iDrive system decided to the headunit was a stolen one and they've also replaced the main coolant tank & sensor combo. All done without any fuss.

I dread to think the battles or issues I'd have had buying the same car outside of BMW's AUC scheme. I don't know if I'll be able to extend the warranty later this year though; something to consider...

[E63eeeeee...]

BMW warranty was very good a couple of years ago when I had my 550i and it kept breaking. The six weeks of courtesy car probably cost more than I would have paid, even before they lost the hire car key for 4 weeks while it was in their car park. On top of that they recovered the car from a services once and from my house three times, replaced most of the fueling system and didn't quibble about any of the work until they finally fixed it at the third attempt.

Their recovery service, which was included in the warranty, was also excellent when I got a puncture half way to Heathrow.

The only downside was that it meant dealing with our local BMW dealers.

[stevemcs]

BMW every single time, We have had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with the RAC with a Golf whose cambelt decided it was no longer good enough for it. The RAC wouldn’t confirm if they would pay for anything until the engine was stripped down and the exact cause found. So the customer could be into a £1000 bill and still not know if it’s covered.

We no longer deal with any warranty company

[bmwmike]

Dealers in the hook for six months regardless of warranty. In theory. But perhaps negotiate a lower price for a 1 month or 3 month warranty on the car and use it to offset the BMW official one?

I found the BMW Mondial allianz very good. It was the dealers themselves who were the weak link unfortunately and may be why I move away from the brand for my next car. Not sure yet. Currently no car, don't really need one.

That said am Interested to hear how you find the f31 compared to your E39 Dan.

[MarkJS]

MitchT said:

MarkJS said:

£800 sounds high - is the car over 60k miles? My BMW warranty renewal came through yesterday at £522

The OP says it's an F31 but hasn't specified which engine. I guess that would have a bearing on the premium. Maybe the annual mileage will too.

It's an F31, so a Touring. They never made an M3 Touring, so the biggest engine it can have is 40i or 35d. My price is based on a 40i and £278 lower hence my mileage question.

[Aventador 700]

Platinum plus on one of my cars, 2 x £7k claims from abroad with no issues whatsoever, warranty wise are meant to be much better now also.

I found RAC one i (when looking for another car) is with a different company if you try to apply yourself after car purchase, think it has to be done at an authorised RAC dealer & the dealers are able to create their own policies with the RAC, for this reason you’ll find many high end dealers use them, plus they cover European claims.

[MitchT]

MarkJS said:

It's an F31, so a Touring. They never made an M3 Touring, so the biggest engine it can have is 40i or 35d. My price is based on a 40i and £278 lower hence my mileage question.

Interesting to know that the 40i is £522 as I'm looking for a 440i at the moment. Seems like a reasonable premium.

[MikeM6]

I pay £116 per month fully comp with roadside for the warranty on my 17 year old M6. It has paid out for a few bits, including worn suspension bushes recently. As always it's the dealer that is the weak link, but overall the warranty itself is a good insurance product

[d_a_n1979]

Cheers folks

F31 325D M Sport with 96k miles

Dealer offers 12 months RAC Platinum with the car as well as their full 'check's and 12 months MOT etc

But I've read too much online at how bad RAC have been re their warranty claims etc; that's what's making me think about taking out BMW Warranty for 12 months to begin with

Full comprehensive cover inc roadside cover comes out at £76 a month

[d_a_n1979]

bmwmike said:

Dealers in the hook for six months regardless of warranty. In theory. But perhaps negotiate a lower price for a 1 month or 3 month warranty on the car and use it to offset the BMW official one?

I found the BMW Mondial allianz very good. It was the dealers themselves who were the weak link unfortunately and may be why I move away from the brand for my next car. Not sure yet. Currently no car, don't really need one.

That said am Interested to hear how you find the f31 compared to your E39 Dan.

Well compared to the 540i I just had; there's no comparison. The F31 is much better in every way (bar the RFTs which I'll be binning ASAP)

Compared to my 530i touring - similar in size, the F31 being that bit bigger as there's more room in the rear, I can sit behind the drivers seat, left in the position I'd have it, comfortably!

Overall the build quality felt very good; it drove really well and the engine felt very good indeed.

I know there's the 330D fan club that you MUST ONLY ever go for that engine; I had the 3.0 N57 in the F01 I had and it's a lovely engine, but the 325D didn't feel underpowered at all and it picked it's skirt up and flew when required on the test drive