Cricketts

If your car was as simple as a '78 Impala - NO. But, it is not. I purchased my ride 9 months ago. At the time of purchase I also got a Premium warranty. the cost was $4120.00 for FULL coverage for 36k miles. Ihave now had the car for 9 months.

Active suspension $2,220..00
Oil leak at Alternator $1,800.00
Oil leaks at Timing chain cover $2,000.00 (aprox).

Total expense to me; A one time $250..00 plus the cost of fluids, and taxes.

Examples if costs.

Transmissions are about $7,000.00
Engines (V8) new $16,000. Used $4,000.00 New head complete $4,200.00

Your car.
6 cyl. $10,000.00
Radiator $1,000.00

Now you can make an informed decision???

Giowizzy

The only warranty that i have now is for the PowerTran.... For 2 or 3 years (have to check my documents ) is that enough for now or should i upgrade? What would u do?

naitch

Mine is ending at the end of the month and I wasn't going to get an extended warranty. I too only on about 5k a year. I'm just thinkig of rolling the dice

Rez

My warranty expired 4 days ago, and 2 days before it had expired I dropped it off at the dealer for them to check a few things. It came back to me with a new A/C compressor, New front brakes and new front suspension sway bar bushings.

The SA mentioned to me that had i went in just 2 days later, it would have been 250 just to look at the A/C. The total of the repair would have been around $5000. I'm the 2nd owner of this car, so I'm seriously thinking about getting a warranty.

Costco offers a premium warranty through Century Warranty Services, and it looks like a good bargain.

Giowizzy

Oh Yeah?!!!, I have many friends working there I'll check them out this weekend. Any idea what's their coverage plan like?

Rez

They have various plans depending on upto how many miles you want to cover it for and how much deductible you want. You have to fill out a web form or call a number to get the details from them.

CVTBenhogan

Agreed. Helps to know the car and to DIY to avoid costs. I probably incurred $200 in part costs in foregoing the warranty. Time flys and warranties run out.

Rez

Just bit the bullet and purchased the Vehicle Repair Plan of Costco Auto Program serviced by Century Warranty Services. I got the 36 months/ 36000 miles add on warranty with $250 deductible. I shopped around and this was the best deal that I found. Luckily they have a no fee payment plan with 10% down and then 18 equal payments.

I really hope it works to my advantage.

akirax

I bought the extened warrantty (around $3k)that took the coverage to 100k instead of the 50k. I did not do a cost analysis but I did have repairs after the factory warranty ran out and it felt good those few times taking it in and having eveything done under the extended warranty no charge ..

I am now at 117k miles, I choose not buy another warranty because I had no major problems during the first 100k miles. However, since that first 100k, I've had to fix an oil/pan leak($1,500) and as of today my timing chain broke(dont know cost to fix yet)

I believe the cost to extend the warranty(the one from the bmw dealership) past 100k miles may have been around $5k for GOLD coverage,so I decided go without. Like someone said in this thread, if you can handle an ocassional spike for a repair bill then you should be good without one.

Let me say this though, If I would have taken the time to shop around for an extended warranty past 100k, and was able to find one for around $3k, I would have went for it again without hesitating.

I would do the 100k extension I originally bought with car all over again, no regrets.

jm545i

Wolrab I'm with you generally on your line of thinking.

One thing to keep in mind is that while this might definitely be the case with a third party warranty company, a warranty from the BMW costs BMW much less to fulfill, as they get both their parts and labor at cost (the third party warranty company is effectively paying retail for the services they're purchasing on your behalf).

While it's true that BMW might still be making a profit from the warranty measured against their actual costs, for one of us to self-insure, unless we're able to get the same labor and parts costs (which as great as some indy-shops are, is sometimes not possible - they need to make money too), may in the end cost more.

In my view it all comes down to mileage - if you're only putting a few grand a year on the car, to pay extra for the warranty will most likely mean you're leaving money on the table. I know I probably did, as I paid extra to have the car CPO'd when I bought it, and then it expired with only 60k miles on the clock!