Dingdongler

My car (535D) is now three years old (14,000 miles ) and so the warranty has expired. BMW have phoned and asked if I want to extend it for a year. The top level cover is £500 and covers everything including the electrics.

There is a good chance I'll change my car this year but they said it can be transferred to the new owner or I can have the money returned pro rata if there has been no claim.

I'm not usually one for warranties/protection type products but this seems quite sensible. If something major did go wrong this year (though the car has been faultless so far) then any money spent would eat into my budget for the new car.

Opinions please?

riiidaa

iTrader: (2)

is yours a manual?

zip106

We took out the extended warranty on the Alpina last year (only get a 2 year warranty as standard) and pay monthly.

If / when we sell the car we can stop the payments with no penalty.

Seeing as it had a new steering rack, clutch and a DMF in it's first year I figured something else may go wrong.

tarquin crispin

we paid £1200 on the X5 if they've quoted you £500 snap there had off we had a replacement sat nav screen on our warranty however it was a 2005 model with only 9,000 miles on it the warranty gets dearer as the older the vehicle gets

Matteeboy

I think extended warranties are a complete bunch of ****. It's just insurance and you pay an excess (to discourage you from claiming) then they try and wriggle out of any claim.

We have an emergency pot for cars and that suits us fine.

Manufacturers warranties help sell cars and are good. Extended warranties are just cr4p. Looks after it well (our similar 335d had no issues in 7 years) and you'll be fine.

Dingdongler

Auto mate

Dingdongler

On the whole I'm not one for extended warranties, especially when some spotty kid tries to sell me one for my toaster/microwave etc. And I can pay for any unforeseen issues without having to sell the family silver

However in this instance I wonder if £40/month might be reasonable to 'insure' my engine, gearbox, electrics etc against failure.

zip106

Would hate to think how much the repairs we had done would have cost out of warranty.

BMW's aren't the most reliable vehicles!

Dingdongler

Yup. I think if you pay monthly (as you mentioned) it costs a bit more than if you pay the whole thing in one go.

Wadya think Zippy, shall I go for it?

Matteeboy

Just weigh up what might go wrong. If it's something like a Range Rover, I'd say it's pretty important but a 535d should be okay. I've not heard of many failures in that engine (in fact I've not heard of any) especially at such a low mileage. I-drive can be troublesome but very unlikely in a 2010 car, the gearbox is strong. Get the turbo and intercooler pipes looked at (the former can fray and split, the latter can leak), keep oil changes regular and I can't see any major issues. Mine had a brake issue that needed new disks but that wouldn't be covered by insuran..I mean a "warranty" anyway.

Honestly I think the insured warranty industry is a massive bunch of **** that exists mostly through fear. If you can afford to repair most things (I'm sure you can) then save yourself a load of money. Two years cover is £1000. Claim and you'll pay a big excess - probably £500. That'll mean you'll have to pay for any small issues yourself anyway. And nothing short of fairly major engine issues will cost you £1500++.

Our VW California's warranty ends in September. We've had around £6-8k of warranty work done to it. Will I be getting a "insured" warranty? No I won't.

john banks

At that price, on a BMW I wouldn't hesitate, but you may judge depending on how much has gone wrong already. From a resale point of view, you previously couldn't start a BMW warranty unless it was as an AUC or on continuous cover since 3 yo or an AUC, and many BMW buyers are scared of running one out of warranty.

Saving for repairs on a well built car is laudable, but spending on failures that should never happen in the normal service life of the car like the stuff that happened to your M5 just undermines confidence.

zip106

I'd go for it Dingo.

I know quite a few Porsche guys who run out of warranty.
I also know quite a few who have spent £000's on repairs that would be warrantied if they had one, and then some that paid for the warranty and never used it.

Like all insurance, it's great when you need it, waste of money when you don't.

Modern cars really are ****e.

Do you feel lucky, punk?
Well, do you?

Matteeboy

Looks like I'm alone in my opinion once again!

zip106

I ran my last Porsche without a warranty - suffice to say, after what I spent on it I'd never run a modern Porsche without one again.

The Alpina - was in two minds, but what we pay per month is hardly noticeable in the grand scheme of things.

The Forester - no warranty...... but it is 11 years old

riiidaa

iTrader: (2)

check on issues with your models auto box, potential repair costs and investigate how good the warranty cover is with that in mind.

The e46 3 series auto for example had a specific common fault

Matteeboy

TBH I wouldn't run a modern Porker without some sort of cover. Or Land Rover/Range Rover. Most other stuff, I wouldn't bother.

billyray911

iTrader: (4)

I've an extended warranty on my 335d-BMW Mondial.I pay monthly and Its a comprehensive with £0 excess.
It's massive peace of mind.Went in for an oil and brake fluid service yesterday (main dealer price matched my Indy) and to have a tail gate bracket painted and replaced under warranty and they discovered a fault with the manifold.
Part ordered over night and the manifold was replaced today.
Worth it in my opinion and circumstances.

hodgy0_2

I am with you

It would be my (and it appears totally unrealistic) expectation that a product costing in excess of 40k would be good for more than 3 yrs and 14k miles

Without the user being spooked into paying for extra insurance, especially if it has been serviced to the manufactures specifications.

Surely the extra has been paid in the decision to buy a premium brand

Crazy, what are the design criteria for the major components - I would expect a 3.5 litre diesel to be good for 150k miles at least

nik52wrx

My previous car was a Range Rover Sport, a car over 40k and in my experience I wouldn't dare run one without a warranty. They suffer from several common faults and all usually fairly expensive to repair. Official Landrover extended warranty was a bargain at £1100 a year

Nik.

hodgy0_2

Well having driven across Europe last weekend in a Toyota, no transcontinental drive is complete without an expensive LR product on the hard shoulder

And I was not disappointed

I love them, but would never buy one

Guinness

iTrader: (1)

I've got he extended warranty on my 335d... Not had to use it yet and hopefully never will...Peace of mind for me...

Alan..

Graz

There aren't any manual 535d (or 335d). BMW didn't have a manual box that could cope with the torque. Provided you've got one of the newer x35d with the electronic ZF box then they're considered to be bombproof.

When I bought mine it was from a main dealers it was four years old but with low mileage and came with a years BMW approved used warranty. I don't know what the cost of that was to BMW but for me it probably paid the premium for buying a used car from a main dealers. I had two new injectors and a crankcase oil separator replaced as it was leaking.

But at the end of the year they offered to renew it but with an insurance backed warranty, can't remember the exact cost but it must have been £800+. For £400-£500 I might have considered it but even that sort of money goes a long way to a repair cost. I'm not sure if that commits you to continuing to use a main dealers for servicing, I'd rather use my local independent as he's been doing an excellent job with our cars for years. Anyway I didn't extend it.

Matteeboy

That's why I won't buy another LR product unless it's an old classic I can fix myself.

Peace of mind; until you try and claim. Extended warranties are completely different from manufacturers ones. Porsche is particularly well known for finding incredibly silly reasons not to pay out.

I say bo77ocks to all of them.

hodgy0_2

the old Rover V8 engine (any capacity over the orignal 3.5) has a design flaw that means it has life expentancy of about 120k

Matteeboy

Maybe I'll just avoid them all for good! I will always have a soft spot for the Defender even though ours broke down almost every week.

hodgy0_2

I was given the below car by a friend after it had broken down for the umpteenth time - he just had the AA recovery truck drop it of at my house

(i had always admired it - lovely colour and nice wheels)

sure enough - i diagnosed a ****ed liner (120k miles - on the button)

sold it for £50 (after syphoning of over £100's worth of petrol - used on my Lawn mower and chainsaw)





shame - as i really wanted to keep it - the interior was lovely, but in reality scrap after 12 odd years

Matteeboy

Ouch!

LR does bring out some nice kit but they still can't build properly. Somehow it seem accepted. Bizarre.

zip106

The Porsche extended warranty is no different to the standard two year one - it's bumper to bumper, but you have to adhere to the conditions just as you do with the standard one.
There's also a fair bit of leeway depending on how good your OPC is.

I wouldn't even say they're 'well known' for not paying out - I know of just a few instances of this happening, and in one of those cases they eventually paid out (for a new 911 turbo engine, costing £30k...)

The only warranty companies that refuse to pay out are those like Warrantywise, WarrantyDirect etc - I'd rather run without a warranty than use them, and I have first hand experience of them.

Matteeboy

Me too - utter cr4p.

SRSport

I had a good experience with dealer warranty direct. Same company but sold directly through the dealers.

Depends on the manufacturer. Mercedes for example designed their 2005-2008 B class suspension struts to fail after 5 years.