pred02

Hi,
We are just closing the deal on the 06 530xi with 38k miles. The warranty is good through 01/2012 or 100,000 miles. 2012 is about when we plan keeping the car. We drive around 10k a year and were wondering if its worth getting the Extended Maintenance plan on the car. The original maintenance expires at 50k, which will be in about a year or year and a half.

Based on our previous MB ownerships, we know that "service checks" are expensive. They quoted us about $2300 on the extended maintenance to match the CPO warranty (6 years or 100,000 miles).

1) Is it worth getting the Extended Maintenance? We are not the DIY types (actually, I am but my father is not and its his car).
2) in the BMW Ultimate service I saw nothing about struts/shocks maintenance - I live in MA where roads are like in Beiruit.

I figure the following we will need in the period
1) Regular Service checks between 50k-100k miles (how much do those approximately costs)
2) Brakes and rotors replaced every 1 year - so about 2-3 brake jobs
3) Struts probably at least once
4) Timing belt (couldn't find the BMW service manual but I figure at about 80k)
5) Clutch should be good over 100k
6) Wiper once per year, so I presume 2-3 times

I am just trying to gauge if its worth $2300 to get the extra maintenance or not. Is it possible to shop around for extra maintenance outside the BMW dealerships?

Thanks!

flyingpuck

I would do it in a heartbeat.....aside from all the expected expenses, in my experience, it's usually the Unexpected ones that really hurt!! On a BMW, those can EASILY add up to more than the $2300 for the warranty! Good Luck with your decision and welcome to the Brotherhood!!

rubencr

Congratulations on the new (to you) E60.

I have a MY06 E61, purchased new, so I am under factory warranty and maintenance. The cost of both sides (planned and unplanned) has me scared about the costs I will be responsible for after expiration of the warranty and maintenance plan.

Just be sure to understand that the extended warranty (already in place to 100K) will cover "break/fix" or unplanned repairs, with exception of items that are specifically excluded (you should read the coverages carefully to be certain of items like shocks/struts, etc. that may be excluded). Purchase of a maintenance plan will, almost certainly, not provide coverage for failures/breakage that are not on the factory maintenance schedule.

Please post a followup to let us know what you decide to do, and what the costs/coverages are, especially if you look at 3rd party insurers. There seem to be quite a few of these, and I would expect some of them to be competitive.

Good luck!

gregg2gs

I have a CPO- Defnitely get it. it will pay it own way 1 time...trust me

roadie

I think the posters are largely missing pred02's question.
He's not asking if CPO is worth it.
He is asking about the extended maintenance plan - the thing that provides oil changes and cabin filter changes, etc

porsche911targa

Hi, welcome to the club. I am also from MA and I feel your pain about the road conditions. I also just bought an 06, E60, and I also bought an extended maintenance agreement. The one thing you should do, is to haggle the heck out of the dealer. They started at close to $2500, and after a little back and forth, they agreed on around $1500. Unfortunately for me, I was negotiating from a weak spot, since I had already sold my car to a private party and I was being driven to work by a friend and I just wanted to get a car fast. I am sure that I could have gotten them to go down at least another couple of hundred, but I feel that I came at least $2500 ahead by selling my previous car instead of trading it in, and I got them to throw in a bunch of free stuff on the side..

Anyway, back to your question: Seems like your regular warranty is going to last for another year and three months to 01/2010. In that time, you will be lucky if you get one full service at around 40Kish, and maybe one free brake job, if it has not been done already and one free wiper insert change. Given your expected mileage prediction, you should be at 50,000 miles, when the warranty and maintenance expire. In the two years following the expiration, you will be driving around 20K more miles, meaning that your car will have about 70K, when the CPO and the extended maintenance plan expire. It will be well shy of the 100K limit, but it will still expire due to the time limit.

As you have probably read on this and other forums, BMW allows for very little maintenance of their cars, since they started offering "free maintenance," so the most you will get during the 20K of expected coverage is maybe one oil change, two wiper inserts, and maybe a radiator flush? BMW's brakes last from 30 to 40K, so they would not be replaced every year. You will probably get them done during the first 50K, but almost definitely not in the 50 to 70K miles range. The next major service for your car may occur around 80K miles, when your plan is expired. At that time you will have another car or, you will have found an independent BMW shop that would charge less than the dealer. Also, keep in mind that the BMW center will service your car only when the car says that it needs the service. For example, if your car brakes squeal, they will not change them, but they will spray them with some sort of lubricant to eliminate or reduce the squeak.

Being from Massachusetts myself, I've only needed one strut, in my other BMW (an E46), at around 48K miles, and now that I am a little past 100K, all 4 struts/shocks are still great. I've had the rear shock mounts replaced, but those were covered by CPO. There are no timing belts to replace on the E60, so you don't need to worry about that.

The E60 is a fairly new car to me, as I have only owned it for two days, so I am definitely no expert as most of the people here are. The reason that I bought the extra maintenance is because I drive many more miles than you, and I expect to be at the 100K mile range by the time my coverage expires. By that time, I expect at least one brake job (around $1,700.00 for all four wheels, one oil change, and one major service at 80K, probably around $1,000 for the E60, and a couple of wiper inserts, so you can see that it was worth to me, given how much how was able to take off the original quote for the maintenance.

If you can negotiate the price down to about $1500-1,600, I think it may be a good thing to get, as your driving habits may dictate more (or less) service than me. If they won't budge, I'd put the $2300 in an interest bearing account and use that money for whatever little service your car may need.

I urge you to read the forums about the lack of maintenance for all BMW cars and to change your oil much more frequently than what your car says. Every 5,000 miles/6months for you (at your expense) and replace the transmission and differential fluids (every 50K/2 years, at your expense, again), even though your service advisor will tell you that those are "lifetime" fluids.

Anyway, here's my story, but please do not interpret it as "advice" on what you should do. I am just stating what I would do. Of course, it would be interesting to see what more experienced E60 owners have had done during the first 70K of their car's lives and specifically, what they had done between 50K to 70K.

Maybe I'll see you on the Mass Pike or 128, sometime.

Happy motoring, and enjoy your beautiful car!

Joe

pred02

Hi,
Thanks everyone for their support and prompt feedback. I did some research on the forums (yes, I should have done more first before asking).

1) The car is a CPO so I am ok with the warranty until 100k/Jan 2012. For example, if the iDrive fails, I would consider this to be the warranty repair.
2) The Extended Maintenance is the extension of the 4year/50,000 included "BMW Ultimate Maintenance" program that BMW provides for all new vehicles. As the car has 38k miles/06 model, this will experience @ 50k miles/2010 (prob 50k miles). For example, if I need to replace the brakes or do a 60k service (on the computer) this program would cover that.

I found this via the forums:
http://www.twinkidneygrill.com/catalog/ite...307/4183757.htm

Which is $1650 and is a better deal than what the dealer is offering today. I presume - and if someone can verify, that this is ok and that it will work at any BMW dealership as I present this contract.

One thing that I found odd is that this contract does not cover such items as struts, joint, wheel bearings as such.

Experience of the dismal Massachusetts roads (rt 9 anyone) has proven that I had either struts, the wheel joints, or both replaced on 2 of our 3 previous cars in less than 100k miles. Strut replacement is for sure $400-$600/axel (at non BMW dealership). However, this is not covered neither by the Extended Maintenance or the original BMW Ultimate Maintenance. I find this odd, but then again it might be us suckers in MA that drive on pot-hole ridden roads.

I am just not sure how frequent and how expensive is the regular scheduled service - i.e. 60k service, 75k service, etc. If our previous 99 C280 is the indicator, service was done at 10k intervals and each regular scheduled service was approximately $400-$800.

With this being true, then the Extended Maintenance plan for $1650 is definitely worth it.

One last question - I am asking the dealer to throw in the iPOD adapter on the 06 as a deal. The car does not have the Logic7 (6 spd and the 4wheel drive were priorities for us). On some of the E60s I heard you had to utilize the BMW1, BMW2, etc playlists, where as some newer models support full iPod browsing via the iDrive. Is there a different adapter available, if so please let us know so we can tell the dealer what to install.

I appreciate everyone's support and look towards lots of fun with the new E60!!!

Thanks,
George

roadie

George
may i ask what dealer you are buying this from and for how much...

pred02

Foreign Motor West @ Natick for $32.5k. Its owned by Herb Chambers. Those guys say they use the "smart" price system so they are not willing to negotiate much, but we wanted a 6-spd (not many available) so we are kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. Options: Navi, Premium, Cold Weather, Xenon, 4whl drive but no Logic7.

Phil75070

As I understand it, and maybe I am wrong being a relative newcomer to the bimmer family, there is no "scheduled maintenance" like you are using the term. The car will tell you when you need to service it and only then will the dealer do the required maintenance under the maintenance program. It is referred to as "Condition Based Service". There are sensors that determine when brake fluid, brake pads, spark plugs, microfilters, etc. need to be serviced. If the car does not say you need brakes, you pay.