Value of an extended warranty....

R

RankBajin

Member
I regularly see posts asking if it's worthwhile getting an extended warranty with arguments on both sides. For what it's worth my Z4MC wouldn't start last weekend resulting in a trip for it to the local dealer. It turned out that an ECU had been malfunctioning leading to the fuel pump failing... over £500 in parts and 7 hours of labour to diagnose and repair brought the bill to over £1200, even after my £250 excess and assuming nothing else breaks that's me still well ahead for this year.....

Oh yeah, and the dealer Eastern BMW in Edinburgh, very slick, professional and lovely shiny premises, it's clear why their hourly rate is so high!
 
Yep, these are expensive toys and when something does go pop, it's nice to have the warranty to fall back on. I'm about £1200 ahead now on mine.
 
RankBajin said:
I regularly see posts asking if it's worthwhile getting an extended warranty with arguments on both sides. For what it's worth my Z4MC wouldn't start last weekend resulting in a trip for it to the local dealer. It turned out that an ECU had been malfunctioning leading to the fuel pump failing... over £500 in parts and 7 hours of labour to diagnose and repair brought the bill to over £1200, even after my £250 excess and assuming nothing else breaks that's me still well ahead for this year.....

Oh yeah, and the dealer Eastern BMW in Edinburgh, very slick, professional and lovely shiny premises, it's clear why their hourly rate is so high!
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Not keen on Eastern BMW for the record, I prefer to travel through to Menzies BMW at Stirling, great service and no complaints and worth the drive. The warranty has been discussed before in some depth. Its down to personal choice in the end, however I am not lucky at gambling so for me I have an extended warranty on my zed, so far not really any major issues, but worth having for peace of mind as there can be expenive repair bills when they go wrong.
 
Looks like I'm keeping my car now , my warranty is expiring on the 8th of August . I will renew at a cost of roughly £850 , well worth it for peice of mind . :thumbsup:

4x new tires (1k), extended warranty (£850) , insurance renewal (1k) , road tax (£470) ....been an expensive month or two !

Now that I am keeping the car I am considering full wheel refurb from BMW (200+vat), ding removal (£50) leather upholstery repair (£?) and maybe.....Aeroskirts :evil:
 
Jamster1 said:
Looks like I'm keeping my car now , my warranty is expiring on the 8th of August . I will renew at a cost of roughly £850 , well worth it for peice of mind . :thumbsup:

4x new tires (1k), extended warranty (£850) , insurance renewal (1k) , road tax (£470) ....been an expensive month or two !

Now that I am keeping the car I am considering full wheel refurb from BMW (200+vat), ding removal (£50) leather upholstery repair (£?) and maybe.....Aeroskirts :evil:
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It certainly adds up! :cry:
 
On the other hand I've been without warranty for 2 years and suffered one seized brake calliper at £250 and enjoyed indy servicing so I'm about £1900 up. Swings and roundabouts.
 
Had my extended warranty 3 years now at £56 a month. Never claimed! What a fantastic car :D

Only thing is: I keep thinking 'cancel it. you don't need it' but we all know what will happen if I do! lol. :headbang:
 
sammyz said:
Had my extended warranty 3 years now at £56 a month. Never claimed! What a fantastic car :D

Only thing is: I keep thinking 'cancel it. you don't need it' but we all know what will happen if I do! lol. :headbang:
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mmmm, i'm beginning to question mine.

does it cover 'investigation' work?
 
pilchardthecat said:
sammyz said:
Had my extended warranty 3 years now at £56 a month. Never claimed! What a fantastic car :D

Only thing is: I keep thinking 'cancel it. you don't need it' but we all know what will happen if I do! lol. :headbang:
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mmmm, i'm beginning to question mine.

does it cover 'investigation' work?
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Do you mean the time spent to fault find?
Well I have never paid for this time and had various things done on my zed.
Although I have generally had warranty work looked at during servicing time apart from
When the nav lost its mind, then it went in a few times and I never got charged any fault finding time for the first two visits when they couldn't find anything wrong. Forced me into making a video of the issue after which they knew exactly what to replace!
 
pilchardthecat said:
does it cover 'investigation' work?
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Think it depends on the warranty and the circumstances; I took mine in with steering 'issue' knowing it was the sticky steering. Sopers analysed and reported the steering column needed replacement - the analysis was part of the labour charge covered by warranty in this case. If they had not found an issue, I expect I would have had to foot the bill. However, you can get prior approval for investigation, and if you get that, its covered by warranty.
 
The milage most people will do in their M's, the warranty is a waste IMO. However, for some the suprise of an expensive bill might be too much so for them yes it's worthwhile I suppose.

I never extended the warranty even though my yearly milage is well above average. Bought mine on 6800 miles or thereabouts and it's now on 78,000! Things replaced not covered by the original warranty = 1 caliper along with front discs and pads (doubtful if some/all of this would have been covered anyway give my car was already over 70k miles), one rear spring and the rear hatch which was covered anyway under the anti-corrosion warranty so never had to pay for that.

Like any insurance scheme, the cost to the customer always earns nice £££ for the company. That means the average customer will lose money over the long term than if they had just paid for the repairs as and when required.
 
It'll be another 10 years before I'll have paid BMW Warranty what I've taken out of them so far :P

£14k for new engine & ancillaries, £200 for wiper relay, and £150 for wheel bearing. If it hadn't been for the engine I'd probably not have been scared enough to have continued paying for it.

Although I am seriously considering stopping it this year as the car has almost 70k miles on it, and it's only been in for 2 small items in 4 years (60k miles).
 
I have just cancelled my insured warranty, been paying just over a year, and the first time i go to use it it turns out to be useless. (On thing they don't tell you is that even for stuff that is covered, there are "tolerances".... which mean they still won't authorize the work)

Feels good to be free of the dealer network.
 
Def worth it IMO because one claim could be more than the cover costs... including labour. Had £1500 spent on mine in first 3 months. But I would never buy a car without it.
 
tomscott said:
Def worth it IMO because one claim could be more than the cover costs... including labour. Had £1500 spent on mine in first 3 months. But I would never buy a car without it.
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Or you could buy the warranty, find out it won't pay up and end up paying for both :cry:

Would that have cost you £1500 at a good independent?
 
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