Peace of mind money

On #69 the steering rack and 3x PDC sensors plus modules were replaced under the warranty. About £3k in total including parts, labour and VAT and all for the grand total of about £1200 for the policy plus excess payment (BMW took it as one claim, which was good of them)

I appreciate not everybody will want to pay out for one, but I don't have the space, tools or expertise if anything major goes bang. And for the next 18 months while I'm still covering school fees, kids accommodation in London while on a course and a raft of other commitments, I can't afford to pay for a major fault whereas I can afford the warranty and the excess. As I titled the thread, it's peace of mind and my decision.

Tbh, it's been a bit wearing recently watching people get criticised for their decisions on here. Ruby's now deleted TV thread yesterday being an example of such and Shipkiller finally threw in the towel losing a valuable source of info for all of us.
 
no offence intended by me. I can understand someone factoring risk and constraints into any decision. it's an easier one for me, I have 2 demands on my cash, and neither are huge.

wasn't privy to the tv debate personally.... :?
 
Stuart Truman said:
ranski said:
:o

I think I'll stick with my ageing 2003 3.0

Which, IMHO, ranks as one of the nicer cars on the forum.

Thanks, but I have just implemented the best mods from the forum members

I would love an M, just can't afford the potential running costs / problems


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If it's any consolation Stuart I've had the warranty for £87 a month for 4 years now, because I am probably less mechanically minded than most on here and have no tools to do even the simple jobs really. I have even less interest in trying as well.

That said, my annual mileage is between 2-3k pa, so far I think the only thing I've claimed for is an O2 sensor and so I am thinking of cancelling and putting the cash into an account instead. Mine has just reached 37k miles.

I will probably be selling mine in the next 12-18 months anyway so perhaps not a huge risk to cancel it.

I didn't read Ruby's TV thread - I just smiled when I saw it had stretched to 3 pages and thought it was probably something to do with "mounting" being in the title.
 
original guvnor said:
I didn't read Ruby's TV thread - I just smiled when I saw it had stretched to 3 pages and thought it was probably something to do with "mounting" being in the title.
I have a feeling that thought crossed quite a few minds but no-one had the lack of decency (or the guts) to mention the fact... oh, until now that is :P
 
Stuart Truman said:
Tbh, it's been a bit wearing recently watching people get criticised for their decisions on here. Ruby's now deleted TV thread yesterday being an example of such and Shipkiller finally threw in the towel losing a valuable source of info for all of us.

I'm certainley not criticising you for taking out the warranty. It just doesn't suit my circumstances.

Why did Ruby's thread get deleted, all seemed OK when I read late last night.
 
mmm-five said:
Mrbodger said:
Personally I think these warrantys are a real rip off. As previously stated, stick the £100/month in a bank account. If you're unlucky you spend it on repairs. If your not, upgrades or a family holiday. We own BMW's not TVR's.
I've paid out £80/month since I started the warranty 5 years/95k miles ago, so about £5k in total.

It sounds a lot until you realise I've had an engine & VANOS, diff, 2 sets of PDC, a wheel bearing, a wiper relay, 3 replacement cam chest gaskets and some seals/gaskets for the air-con.

Total value of claims (for parts & labour - remembering that the labour rate is the BMW Warranty rate of about £40/hour, not the £140/hour customer rate) is about £20k.

Whilst I may be an outlier on the bell curve and would agree that it's not the right option for a 1000 mile a year car, a new engine could be needed by anyone whether they've done 10k miles or 100k miles. Mine only had 23k on it when the engine went, and there was £3.5k of labour for diagnosis/replacement in that first bill.

Fair point. I don't blame anybody for taking warranty's out, it's personal choice. I think yours is a worst case but on the whole the s54 is a solid, reliable engine and in my opinion the risk of no warranty is worth taking.

I just hope I haven't just jinxed myself.


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The cost of the warranty at £650 or £800 for a year is reasonable and far less than depreciation on a new car but with lots of the benefits... It's a nice feeling when something goes wrong knowing the amount you will have to pay out is £0 or capped at £250.

I view it as a running cost... My tax, insurance, servicing, consumables and warranty will amount to around £2k at 8k miles per year which is pretty good going for the performance on offer especially is depreciation is minimal :)

Any new car above £15k will lose £2k per year in depreciation alone...
 
FR08MEE said:
The cost of the warranty at £650 or £800 for a year is reasonable and far less than depreciation on a new car but with lots of the benefits... It's a nice feeling when something goes wrong knowing the amount you will have to pay out is £0 or capped at £250.

I view it as a running cost... My tax, insurance, servicing, consumables and warranty will amount to around £2k at 8k miles per year which is pretty good going for the performance on offer especially is depreciation is minimal :)

Any new car above £15k will lose £2k per year in depreciation alone...

That's a good way of looking at it. Well put. :thumbsup:
 
"No idea if WD would have been cheaper if I'd spoken to them. A look on their website a few weeks ago showed them more expensive and I hate them anyway. I've had nothing but pushy obnoxious sales people on the phone whenever I've made the mistake of putting my details into their quote system." from Stuart's first post


i done a quote pre Christmas Stuart, and all i get is calls calls calls or emails non stop, my quote was over a £1000 for a 48k 06 ///M, my son calls me Ed China from wheeler dealers as i normally fix all my problems myself, so far the ///M has been perfect so fingers X :thumbsup:
 
I had a warranty originally, switched to WD when BMW became too expensive due to the mileage.... Would not recommend WD at all; took 6 weeks for them to finally agree that the steering issue was "sticky steering" and needed the column replacing (long phone calls from Russia are also not cheap). You get what you pay for :roll:. I now put the warranty costs into a car fund in case anything bad (read: expensive) happens - keeping away from SWMBO who sees any excess capital as her slush fund :). I also have a local BMW mechanic (and enthusiast) who is great value for fixing the oily bits !

Having said all that, if I had a low mileage example, I'd still be with the BMW warranty.
 
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