BMW Approved warranty or take a chance?
Discussion
Please do tell me your BMW approved Warranty successes and horror stories. I have a 2015 428i GC which is performing flawlessly, but I've only had it about 3 weeks and it came with 3 months AA 'Gold' Warranty.
I'm considering taking out the Approved BMW warranty and with a £250 Excess without breakdown comprehensive cover is £457 for a year or £45pm which seems OK, but how many people have had to use it? The benefit of a BMW Dealer doing the work will be great, but my previous car, a 62 Plate Ford Focus 1.6 Ecoboost 182 was pretty reliable needing little done to it over the 4 1/2 years I owned it and it was nearly 10 years old. Modern cars are quite reliable, do you think it's worth taking? Has anyone used it and been saved from a multiple thousand pound bill? Or paid for it religiously for years without ever using it?
Basically, pay the warranty or not?!
I'm considering taking out the Approved BMW warranty and with a £250 Excess without breakdown comprehensive cover is £457 for a year or £45pm which seems OK, but how many people have had to use it? The benefit of a BMW Dealer doing the work will be great, but my previous car, a 62 Plate Ford Focus 1.6 Ecoboost 182 was pretty reliable needing little done to it over the 4 1/2 years I owned it and it was nearly 10 years old. Modern cars are quite reliable, do you think it's worth taking? Has anyone used it and been saved from a multiple thousand pound bill? Or paid for it religiously for years without ever using it?
Basically, pay the warranty or not?!
Insurance is all about risk and the warranty is a form of insurance.
With most modern BMW's it is very easy to rack up a bill well in excess of £1k for even minor work. However what you have to decide is wether this is ever likely to occur. My examples from the past 6 years.
Our E93 Convertible was a few months outside of warranty when the roof mechanism failed. It was the hydraulic system and motor that went and the cost was £2k. Having a full BMW service history BMW issued the parts FOC but we still had a £1k labour bill.
My F31 330d had the module fail that controls the heated steering wheel and and lane departure warning system. Not sure what the cost would have been but under warranty BMW collected the car from my house and provided a hire car.
I now have a 640d GC and pay for the warranty. I drive over 20k miles a year but would I be better saving the £60 a month?
Not sure if the above helps but ultimately only you can decide.
With most modern BMW's it is very easy to rack up a bill well in excess of £1k for even minor work. However what you have to decide is wether this is ever likely to occur. My examples from the past 6 years.
Our E93 Convertible was a few months outside of warranty when the roof mechanism failed. It was the hydraulic system and motor that went and the cost was £2k. Having a full BMW service history BMW issued the parts FOC but we still had a £1k labour bill.
My F31 330d had the module fail that controls the heated steering wheel and and lane departure warning system. Not sure what the cost would have been but under warranty BMW collected the car from my house and provided a hire car.
I now have a 640d GC and pay for the warranty. I drive over 20k miles a year but would I be better saving the £60 a month?
Not sure if the above helps but ultimately only you can decide.
As above.
I pay £64 a month for extended warranty on an F30 320d. Have had it for over 2 years and never had to claim, however I like having the peace of mind that if anything went wrong, it would be covered.
I don't notice the £64 a month, and although quite expensive for a warranty, I would rather pay out than pay £££'s if anything were to go wrong.
I pay £64 a month for extended warranty on an F30 320d. Have had it for over 2 years and never had to claim, however I like having the peace of mind that if anything went wrong, it would be covered.
I don't notice the £64 a month, and although quite expensive for a warranty, I would rather pay out than pay £££'s if anything were to go wrong.
Depends how much you value peace of mind. I have one on my 650, and so far I’m about 14k ahead of the warranty cost vs. what it’s cost me. 
My view is these are now complex cars - if the iDrive, electric seats, etc. pack up then you’ll be glad of the warranty. I pay simply to offset the risk of expensive stuff breaking, but by (bad) luck it’s been needed to cover some expensive faults.
When I had the AUC cover with no excess I also had a few bits fixed I might otherwise have left - broken cubby holder cover, for example, which stopped latching closed.
My view is these are now complex cars - if the iDrive, electric seats, etc. pack up then you’ll be glad of the warranty. I pay simply to offset the risk of expensive stuff breaking, but by (bad) luck it’s been needed to cover some expensive faults.
When I had the AUC cover with no excess I also had a few bits fixed I might otherwise have left - broken cubby holder cover, for example, which stopped latching closed.
We use a F15 X5 50i as a daily - bought the car with 40k on the clock, now on 62k. One owner from new, approved used car...
I pay £105/month with £250 excess
So far it has cost in excess of £12k
2 x rear suspension airbags
1 x suspension air compressor
1 x transfer box
1 x high pressure fuel pump
2 x injectors
1 x heating control valve
So there you go... I would not run a new-ish BMW without BMW Warranty...
I pay £105/month with £250 excess
So far it has cost in excess of £12k
2 x rear suspension airbags
1 x suspension air compressor
1 x transfer box
1 x high pressure fuel pump
2 x injectors
1 x heating control valve
So there you go... I would not run a new-ish BMW without BMW Warranty...
Years ago; I ran a VW Golf from new and, when the warranty ran out, happily carried on without with no issues.
I now have a G31 5 series and it's a different story. It's a complicated car with many potentially ruinous things to go wrong. For example - I dread to think of the cost if the sunroof failed, or similar.
It's also not been the pillar of reliability in the three years I've had it with 2 recalls and some other niggly problems.
Saying that, I haven't actually had to claim on the warranty since I extended it.
But, for £50 a month, it's peace of mind.
I now have a G31 5 series and it's a different story. It's a complicated car with many potentially ruinous things to go wrong. For example - I dread to think of the cost if the sunroof failed, or similar.
It's also not been the pillar of reliability in the three years I've had it with 2 recalls and some other niggly problems.
Saying that, I haven't actually had to claim on the warranty since I extended it.
But, for £50 a month, it's peace of mind.
goldieandblackie said:
You could just stick that cash away each month that you would have paid for the warranty and if you don't use it its yours to keep at the end of the year and then start again.
Logical thinking. However, £600-ish barely gets you an oil change at a BMW dealer, let alone potentially covering something breaking 
MikeM6 said:
I have the comprehensive cover for mine, £113 per month but including roadside cover and only a £100 excess.
Given that it's a 15 year old V10 I think I might hang onto the warranty, but so far it's only had to pay out for a new iDrive...
You say “only”, but I’d imagine that iDrive was rather expensive! Given that it's a 15 year old V10 I think I might hang onto the warranty, but so far it's only had to pay out for a new iDrive...
Muzzer79 said:
goldieandblackie said:
You could just stick that cash away each month that you would have paid for the warranty and if you don't use it its yours to keep at the end of the year and then start again.
Logical thinking. However, £600-ish barely gets you an oil change at a BMW dealer, let alone potentially covering something breaking _Hoppers said:
Muzzer79 said:
goldieandblackie said:
You could just stick that cash away each month that you would have paid for the warranty and if you don't use it its yours to keep at the end of the year and then start again.
Logical thinking. However, £600-ish barely gets you an oil change at a BMW dealer, let alone potentially covering something breaking I have paid for a warranty beyond the 3 years, I still had to pay for a mirror indicator failing, as it was below the excess. Probably on balance, best to put the money aside.
I've extended the warranty every year since the initial warranty expired on my 2016 M140i. So far it's been faultless so you could say it's been a waste of money, however, I'm quite sure the moment I don't renew it it'll cost me a bomb! For a few hundred quid a year the peace of mind alone is worth every penny.
So I can see the benefit for M cars, more expensive models like 5 series and upwards of X series or those with known potentially troublesome issues like Convertible roofs etc. I'm not sure my car comes under those though. It's a 'plain' 2.0 Turbo with the same engine in a 320i which isn't known for major issues? I probably will take it, and hope I never have to use it!
One of the problems I see with extended warranties is the need to keep strictly to the manufacturer's maintenance schedule. Unless you're doing a big mileage that adds up to additional wasted cost over and above the actual cost of the warranty. And never overlook the l-o-n-g list of things the warranty doesn't cover.
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