BMW Service Plan

tenchy

I'm about to buy a nearly-new BMW Series 3. The dealership is offering a comprehensive service plan for £25 pm for three years. Anyone got experience of this? Is it good value? Thanks.               

AdrianC

How many miles will you cover?
What servicing will it need in that time/mileage?
How much would that cost?
Is that cheaper than the £900 pre-paying will cost?

What if you fall out with this dealership, or move house, and want to get it serviced elsewhere instead?

peter3hg

The old BMW 5 year service plan was good value but generally the new 3 year one isn't.

3 series are on variable service intervals of up to 20k miles or 2 years so there is a good chance you will only get one major service in the 3 years, along with probably a brake fluid change and end of warranty inspection.
That definitely isn't worth the £900 it will cost over the three years.

Grumpy_chap

The BMW service plans do seem to be better regarded than others an done that was often recommended as good value.  However, £900 is not cheap.

1. Can the plan be bought in advance, rather than monthly?  Is that cheaper than £900?
2. What would the individual services cost if not in the plan?
3. Can the £900 be negotiated?
4. Can the plan be transferred on to a new owner of the car if the OP decides to sell for any reason?

neilmcl

tenchy said:

I'm about to buy a nearly-new BMW Series 3. The dealership is offering a comprehensive service plan for £25 pm for three years. Anyone got experience of this? Is it good value? Thanks.               

No, it's not good value. That's £900 for the whole 3 years and you'd most likely get it serviced once during that time.

tenchy

Thanks for the replies. We just took delivery of the car and decided not, at this point, to take out the plan. It included two services, one MOT and several 'seasonal' health checks. The services would be at 36K miles and 56K miles, with the former being classed a major service. The salesman gave me an approximate price for the two services, which totalled less than the £900. There was no negotiation on the price and I don't know if it could be transferred. However, if I'd taken it out I would have opted for the pay monthly, since there was no discount for the full £900 up front. Also, the plan can be taken out at any future point, but of course the price would increase as time went on. We'll consider it again over the next few days, but I'm very much inclined to leave it. Essentially, we'd be paying a long way in advance for the services, so it's probably not cost effective.

Belenus

tenchy said:

I'm about to buy a nearly-new BMW Series 3. The dealership is offering a comprehensive service plan for £25 pm for three years. Anyone got experience of this? Is it good value? Thanks.               

That is poor value in my opinion.

Six years ago we bought a nearly new (3 months old and only 250 miles) BMW Series1 from a BMW dealer in Guildford.

We bought a 5 year BMW service plan for £499 which included all required services, one brake fluid change, and free oil top ups if needed.

It was usable at any BMW dealer (it was a BMW deal not an individual dealer deal) so we used a nearer dealer in Portsmouth. If we gave them enough notice they would collect the car and return it free of charge.

Without that plan we would probably have spent about £700-800 on servicing so it proved to be value for money.

Is your offer a dealership deal or a BMW deal for use at any BMW dealer? If the former. if you move far away from that dealer it becomes more or less useless.

tenchy

Belenus said:

tenchy said:

I'm about to buy a nearly-new BMW Series 3. The dealership is offering a comprehensive service plan for £25 pm for three years. Anyone got experience of this? Is it good value? Thanks.               

...

Is your offer a dealership deal or a BMW deal for use at any BMW dealer? If the former. if you move far away from that dealer it becomes more or less useless.

It's a BMW deal, so useable at any dealer. This is what it includes:



(the date given for the MOT is incorrect. It's not due until the end of 2023)

neilmcl

tenchy said:

Belenus said:

tenchy said:

I'm about to buy a nearly-new BMW Series 3. The dealership is offering a comprehensive service plan for £25 pm for three years. Anyone got experience of this? Is it good value? Thanks.               

...

Is your offer a dealership deal or a BMW deal for use at any BMW dealer? If the former. if you move far away from that dealer it becomes more or less useless.

It's a BMW deal, so useable at any dealer. This is what it includes:



(the date given for the MOT is incorrect. It's not due until the end of 2023)

The "seasonal Health Checks" are pretty much a waste of space and it won't cover things like brakes discs or pads, which are the big ticket items for any major service and which no doubt you'll possibly have to have done at some point in the 3 years the service plan lasts. If you take out all the unnecessary items you're looking at 1 MOT, an oil service, and a "major" service all of which will be less than £500 in total.

Save your money and put it toward an extended BMW manufacturers warranty when yours runs out.

oh_really

The seasonal health checks sound like a fishing expedition for them to get (paid for) work.

Grumpy_chap

Where's Fred with his link to a YouTube video covering the entire three-year service cycle for a BMW 3 series?