Views on BMW Warranty extensions

[themightychimp]

I’m coming up to a year of owning my X3 M40i, purchased through BMW AUC, & the 1 year warranty will shortly run out. Had a letter inviting me to extend the warranty through BMW Insurance Solutions, various different levels of cover and excess options offered, costing anything from £260 to £600, and frankly I’m not sure what to do!
Apart from some occasional difficulty connecting to my phone via Bluetooth it’s been faultless (the car has been terrific in fact), seems that the G01’s generally don’t seem to suffer from much in the way of serious issues & I don’t do a huge mileage each year. So on the one hand not sure if it’s worth it for me, but on the other it’s obviously a nice to have.
I actually don’t know whether the BMW policies are transferable with the car, if they are then that’s a significant factor as would help with private resale if ever needed to go down that route (… because I know BMW px offers are usually very low). Also no idea how easy these policies are to claim against if ever needed.
So I’m totally on the fence. Anyone have any views or experience with this? If anyones taken out a warranty extension, also interested to know which flavour (‘comprehensive’, ‘named component’ or ‘driveline’) they chose & why

[Driver101]

The extended warranties have always been good to me.

It doesn't take a serious problem to end up with a £600 bill.

The warranty is transferrable to the next owner and a big selling point for me.

[MitchT]

I was pondering the same options when looking at a BMW outside the main dealer network, for which a BMW warranty could be purchased.

I'd go comprehensive. Here's why...

Comprehensive covers just about everything. The list of exclusions is very short.

Named Component also covers a lot, but in the Ts & Cs it says that a covered component will not be covered if it fails as a consequence of a non-covered component failing first. If a covered component is the primary failure point then that will be covered but not any non-covered component that fails as a consequence of the covered component failing.

Driveline - forget it. It has a claim limit of £5k. To me the main thing I want to be covered against is the highly unlikely (but financially ruinous if it does happen) engine going pop. I'd sooner spend a couple of hundred quid more a year on a comprehensive warranty and have the peace of mind.

[MarkJS]

I’ve always gone Comprehensive with the lowest excess. For around £500 per year including breakdown cover, I feel it gives me decent value peace of mind.

[smashy]

....my 330d 2 years of extended I never used.Next car my 335d I ummed and ahd because of that experience but decided to do it .2 months in £1350.00 for an oil leak at £48 a month comprehensive no brainer really.

[CooperS]

Being risk adverse has served me well through my Z4MC, 1 Series then i3.

Think I lost out on the 1 series but my Z4 took 2 big bills at 4k in total and my i3 gearbox went and that was 6k bill that would have landed with me.

Needless to say I’m in team Warranty

[MarkGArgyle]

I have owned my m40i for coming on 3yrs and not yet received any offers for extending the warranty.

Is this linked to purchase date, 3yrs date or when your approved used 1yr runs out?

[craig1912]

I’ve gone comprehensive with the £250 excess.

[E63eeeeee...]

Yep, one of the few things I'd recommend about owning and relying on a BMW. On my 550i I had a year included in the AUC, then paid something like 800 for the following year, which saved me overall something like £2500 in repairs and courtesy cars, and three lots of collection from home, plus several hundred in a recovery truck, taxi and car hire when the recovery service kicked in after it broke down on the way to the airport. I don't think I'd have a BMW as my only car without a warranty, especially if it's new enough you're likely to want it repaired by the dealers.

[MitchT]

When I check for an M4 the warranty was about £1,800 per year. Makes me wonder what kind of bills those are throwing up for BMW to need to charge so much to mitigate the cost of fixing them!

[themightychimp]

Thanks for all the replies, really helpful… I’m feeling inclined to go comprehensive with a £250 excess for £340.

Mark, I bought my X3 M40i a year ago, mine was already 3 years old which I guess put it into the extended warranty bracket. If you bought yours new then I’d guess you’d be due to get a letter if it’s coming up for 3 years old? If you don’t get a letter then I think you’ll be able to extend the warranty on the website (as long as you haven’t done a starship mileage!), but may need to ask BMW for a login name & PIN
https://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/Start

The details around the 1 year BMW AUC warranty weren’t made at all clear to me when I bought the car, all I knew was that it had one & that it was fairly comprehensive. In fact, it’s the first time ever that I’ve bought a car that came with literally no paperwork, not even an owners manual! (the purchase invoice was sent over email). The first I knew about the warranty expiry date was when I booked the car in for an MOT at my local main dealer & I asked them about it, all details were on their system.

[d_a_n1979]

I've taken out comprehensive warranty on our F31 and it's in with BMW next week for some work being covered under that warranty!

£250 excess. More than happy to pay that as the labour alone for the quoted work is twice that and could be more when they stay delving into the intermittent tailgate issue etc

Plus they're taking the front suspension apart both sides to replace a few bits. If they run into any issues, those bits will be replaced also, all under warranty

So IMO it's well worth it

[Court_S]

Only worth it if you’re car is bone stock and serviced in line with BMW recommendations. Anything outside that and they’ll wriggle out of a claim.

[Pica-Pica]

Court_S said:

Only worth it if you’re car is bone stock and serviced in line with BMW recommendations. Anything outside that and they’ll wriggle out of a claim.

My BMW had a rear diff leak/weep repaired under warranty, although the T&Cs excluded gaskets and seals.

[d_a_n1979]

Pica-Pica said:

Court_S said:

Only worth it if you’re car is bone stock and serviced in line with BMW recommendations. Anything outside that and they’ll wriggle out of a claim.

My BMW had a rear diff leak/weep repaired under warranty, although the T&Cs excluded gaskets and seals.

I do think its down to the dealer and how good they are with you...

I've read online (and Sam's issues too) that some can be absolute sods with you unfortunately

Fortunately Bowkers, Preston seem to be the opposite

[gtidriver]

I've had 3 BMW's in a row now, all had the one year with the used car then extended. E91 had the Camchain done, both the next f31/f32 had the steering racks done.. all big ticket items all covered.. I'd never own one with out the warranty.

[JW911]

I have the option of taking one on my 640i GC. It’s nine years old but 23000 miles with FMDSH for now, although I’m planning to go specialist (RBM) with the next one. Wondering whether it’s worth it. £1200 per year. The price is probably due to its age more than anything and my first thought is no.

From everything I read, the N55 is fairly bomb proof apart from the HPFP.

Any thoughts?

[d_a_n1979]

JW911 said:

I have the option of taking one on my 640i GC. It’s nine years old but 23000 miles with FMDSH for now, although I’m planning to go specialist (RBM) with the next one. Wondering whether it’s worth it. £1200 per year. The price is probably due to its age more than anything and my first thought is no.

From everything I read, the N55 is fairly bomb proof apart from the HPFP.

Any thoughts?

The warranty I've taken out (full comprehensive) was £800, £250 excess, but that coves nigh on everything bar the obvious parts and includes BMW Assist too...

For me, for the 1st year of ownership; it's huge peace of mind as I've never owned a BMW this 'young' etc

When I was looking at the 640Ds at the same time; I was also lining up extended warranty and prices were similar; think it does align with the overall value of the car/cars cost when new too, maybe I'm wrong

All I can offer is that if anything went wrong with the autobox, engine, major suspension issues etc; it'll cost more than the £1200 quoted plus you've peace of mind that you'll get the BMW work done and it'll be warrantied etc

We've always got a slush fund for the cars going, for 'just in cases' - but getting the extended warranty made a lot of sense to me

[Aluminati]

Back in 2006, I had an E39 M5. With warranty. I think it ended up with circa 14k of warranty work, which cost me a negligible amount.

Good dealer helped, with a good master tech also. Is todays experience the same ? If so, I wouldn’t hesitate to spend a relatively small sum for peace of mind.

[Magnum 475]

My F30 330i is on the extended AUC warranty, £100 excess and recovery included. I went with the monthly version at about £50/month.

In the last 18 months it’s had:

- Replacement PCV system & inlet manifold
- Replacement turbocharger
- Replacement Oil Filter Housing (heat exchanger)
- Replacement Catalytic Converter

I suspect the cat failed due to the amount of burnt oil shoved through it by the failed PCV & failed turbo.

No way I’d run this car without a warranty.