BMW Extended Warranty - worth the money?

tenchy

My series 3 BMW is three years old this month and I've been invited to take out the extended warranty, which can include BMW Roadside Assistance. The most expensive option covers just about everything and includes the roadside assistance. Taking the optional £250 excess, it comes in at £422 per year, or £46 per month.

Has anyone got experience of having to use the warranty or the roadside assistance? Is it good value for money?

Bigwheels1111

I have a Peugeot extended warranty, so far from 3 to 8 years old.

Ive just had my Adblue tank go, best part of £1800 / £2000 to fix.

Only Peugeot could fix it.

Plus the washer pipe from tank to bonnet £300.

Im still around £600 in front, ie what i paid to get the warrany and what its paid out.

I will keep it going, but thats just me.

Iceweasel

Check it out on a BMW owner's forum such as BMWland.org.uk.

I think you'll find they think it's a no-brainer.

Modern cars, especially BMWs have so many electronic gizmos that it's easy to run up a huge bill if any fail.

 Almost everyone has had more repairs and replacements than they have paid in.

They actually cover wear and tear up to 100K miles.

Paying yearly is considerably cheaper than monthly  - but check the option to change to monthly when you reach 60K miles.

Personally I've had replaced:
LED Adaptive headlight - over £1000.
Rear seat leather cover - £600.
Rear auxiliary shocks - £300 each.

The breakdown cover is second to none and covers all of Europe.

I had a engine 'throw a rod' at 4 years old while on a family holiday trip in The Netherlands late one afternoon.

We were picked up from the motorway and taken to a 5 star hotel. We had a loan car for 5 days, 2 rooms in the hotel, and the car returned to me, washed and valeted, with a brand new engine that had been couriered in from Munich.

I had a £100 excess and that's all I paid.

I wouldn't / couldn't run a BMW without a good warranty and the BMW in-house one is one of the best.

uknick

Looks like a bargain compared to my i3 BMW extended warranty.  This costs £863 per year with £100 excess and recovery.  I think the £250 excess policy was about £100 per year less.  Clearly BMW don't think much of the i3's reliability.

ChesterDog

I've been pondering this question myself.

I've had a 2014 M235i from new and have bought an additional year of warranty each year.

My car has never needed anything other than routine servicing, so the warranty renewal does start to feel like an unnecessary expense.

tenchy

Thank-you all for the information and opinions. I've decided to go with the comprehensive option with roadside assistance, but I'm still looking at which excess. I'm tending towards the £250. Also, paying annually saves £130, so that's a given. 

georgd84

Does anyone know if the extended warranty requires you to use a BMW main dealer for servicing etc? Thanks.

uknick

georgd84 said:

Does anyone know if the extended warranty requires you to use a BMW main dealer for servicing etc? Thanks.

The policy says this;

"What must I do to keep the warranty valid? The terms and conditions of the warranty listed below must be adhered to. Failure to do so will result in the rejection of a claim or the termination of your BMW Insured Warranty. This does not affect your statutory rights.

 1. a) Care of the vehicle - you must keep your vehicle in an efficient and road worthy condition and regularly service it in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations and genuine parts, or parts of equivalent specification must be used. You must have a valid MOT where one is required.
b) After each service, please ensure that the relevant service details are completed in your service records by the servicing garage and obtain an itemised receipt for the service. You must keep all such receipts for reference in the event of a claim.

2. Your BMW Insured Warranty may also be invalidated if you continue to drive when a fault becomes apparent.

3. Reasonable diagnostic charges will only be accepted as part of a valid claim.

4. The insurer reserves the right to inspect your vehicle and examine damaged parts.

5. For annual policies only and provided that a refund has not been claimed, any balance of your BMW Insured Warranty remaining may be transferred to another private owner, subject to our approval, who buys your vehicle from you but not to a buyer engaged in the business of purchasing, selling or servicing motor vehicles. Monthly policies are not transferable. BMW Insured Warranty cover is not transferable to you from a motor retailer.

6. This warranty will not cover the following.

• During the service life of your insured vehicle, normal degradation will naturally occur to some components, we term this wear and tear. For instance, components which are subjected to constant or sustained periods of movement, such as suspension bushes/ ball joints and steering joints, would be subject to wear and tear. Dependant on the age and mileage of your insured vehicle, we may not be able to cover this type of failure and the cost of replacement will be your responsibility. If you have the Comprehensive level of cover however, we have included all insured components even if the failure is due to normal degradation (wear and tear) up to 100,000 miles from the date of registration. In addition, if a component has previously been replaced with a BMW Genuine Part, the same rule will apply, in this case evidence of mileage at fitment will be required.

• Repair or replacement required wholly or partially due to lack of maintenance or as a result of accident, wear and tear, water ingress, abuse, neglect or material becoming porous and leaking, defects that existed or is likely to have existed prior to the cover start date (pre-existing faults), lack of anti-freeze, lubricants or hydraulic fluids, incorrect servicing or faulty repairs, any impacts, corrosive agents, theft or attempted theft, or normal deterioration are not covered. • An insured vehicle that has been subject to alterations, modifications, tampering or has had experimental equipment fitted or has in any way been modified from BMW’s approved specification. This may result in the policy being terminated with immediate effect, and no claims would be considered.

• An insured vehicle used for courier or private hire services, track days, off-road use, competitions or racing of any kind or used by driving schools. This may result in the policy being terminated with immediate effect, and no claims would be considered. • Cleaning, polishing, recalls, operations performed under normal maintenance, corrosion, adjustments, modifications, alterations, or damage caused by tampering, disconnection, improper adjustments or repairs or incorrect fuel, failures due to oil degradation or carbon/ soot build up.

• Mechanical, electrical, engine management and performance enhancing changes or modifications are excluded other than those fitted by an authorised BMW Retailer and approved by the manufacturer.

• Damage to parts not covered by this warranty even if the damage is caused by a covered part."



My reading is the policy is similar to a new car policy; must be serviced in line with BMW servicing, but does not have to be serviced at BMW dealership.

Stateofart

The above comment is correct.  Has to be serviced in line with BMW's requirements (parts and quality of check etc.).  Make sure your car is serviced at the correct time/mileage as well - this was a dealbreaker for my Audi when it broke.

Nobbie1967

Whilst you don’t have to use a main dealer, the conditions do make this the easiest option, A good independent BMW specialist would probably be fine.

HillStreetBlues

Are all new cars so carp that owners feel the need to have an Extended Warranty as they feel it will breakdown? or it it just Beemers?