snadir

Hello guys, need some advice. My warranty runs out June 31st on my 04 530i. It has 28k miles on it, bone stock except for the 167(m6) rims. I havent had any major problems with my car and its been a dream to own the last 4 years. Now with my warranty expiring, im starting to stress because maintenance and service isnt going to be free anymore.

I went to BMW over the weekend and they gave me a combined quote of over $4700 for maintenance and warranty through a third party(they cover about 80% of what the BMW manafacturer's warranty does) for 3 years and 36,000 miles!

Now thats a CRAP load if you ask me. I was expecting something more like $2000-2500.

Now im contemplating selling it just to avoid future problems if they arise. Without the warranty and maintenance package a regular oil change is i hear about $250 with all the fluids being topped off, it costs more than $1800 for new brakes and rotors....you get my point.

Need some advice, what would you guys do? Are there any other 3rd party warranties out there? I would like to know what other owners with expiring warranties are doing.

Thanks for the help guys! Any kind of advice is appreciated!

juan2mini

snadir:
I purchased the BMW Original Owners Protection Program. Basically it extends the maintenance and warranty for another 2 years (or to a 100k). I was in the same boat as you. My car has low miles and is running great. I couldn't chance something big going wrong. I should get a couple oil changes and a brake job out of the maintenance. Along with a lot of peace of mind.

mk4

Try www.autobrokerwarranty.com they carry the Mercury Warranty and they have a range of warranty's and coverage. I think you can extend the matienance plan for $1500 which plus a warranty is probably going to put you right back in the same ballpark figure your dealer was quoting you. I have a 04 CPO which expires in 11/09. I had thought about purchasing an extended warranty but after seeing the cost decided not too i.e. $4000. I figure if the car becomes a repair nightmare then I will just get rid of it. There surely are a lot of people who drive BMW's without warranties and are not going broke. As far as repairs go perhaps go or maintenance you can always explore other options not just the BMW dealership. Just my two sense.

SMG353

If you get it for the oil changes and the brakes changes, how many tiems are you goin to change your breaks, and change your oil in the time of the warrenty. Will it out cost the amount of the warrenty?....I doubt it. Even if you change rotors with pads, 2x and 5 oil changes, it will still cost you less than their warrenty.

Bottom line, I dont' think it's worth it at all. Especially if you drive an automatic.

anand_rahim

I spoke with my BMW SA this weekend about the extended warranty options through BMW and he quoted me $5000 for an extended warranty and maintenance plan. He advised me that the maintenance plan alone would cost $2100, but that after a few brake/oil changes, it basically pays for itself. The extended warranty which covers transimission, engine, pumps etc. costs $2900 and the SA said its basically useless if nothing goes wrong in the extended time. IMHO I would do the maintenance plan through BMW, not a 3rd party. CAVEAT, neither plan, warranty or maintenance, covers repairs to the electrical system, namely the iDrive. So basically the heart of our cars isn't covered. BMW is a profitable company.....they know what makes them money...

Heloha

IMO not worth it...unless you were able to amortize in the original payment. Chances are you can find a nice repitable independant shop in your area for future servicing.

tex_phil

Mine expires in 2k miles. I'm taking it in on thursday for the software upgrade, another other stuff I should try to squeeze out of them? I jus tgot my oil changed last week.

dbusiness

It's all up to you, I've only owned mine since Feb 2008, but from reading the threads
it seems that your cars either a shop whore or not.

Sounds like yours it not so it might be advisable to get the maintenance for 1595 throughhttp://www.twinkidneygrill.com/catalog/item/4264307/4183757.htm just enter
the code fest for a 50 discount. Rodney is the finance manager at Global Imports BMW in
the Atlanta area. I purchased through him and all he needs is a key read.

Your call I extended my warranty through warranty direct since I wasn't buying CPO.
Don't want to take any chances since I've already had the mirror motor, control module,
software update, throttle control module (I think), and currently have moderate
vibration at idle that goes away when I turn the A/C off and the valve tick.

juan2mini

I don't think it is true that the "electrical system" is not covered under the BMW extended warranty. I think the only items not covered are the radio, cd player, phone, navigation & speakers. All of the electronics addressing the sports suspension and
DTC type issues are covered. I'm not that concerned about my cd player and I don't have navigation, I am pretty well covered.

anand_rahim

The SA said specifically the iDrive is not included so I'm assuming anything the iDrive has total control over is not covered.