In general terms I agree with you. Currently at the moment there seems to be all manner of insurance products around covering risks that I for one would rather self-insure (and indeed in the case of some of these products I’m at a bit of a loss to understand if they’re really covering anything at all). I’m firmly of the view that most of the time minimal insurance is the way forward (I’d never take extended warranty on an electrical product preferring simply to buy a new one if and when it breaks). However personally I always maintain a manufacturers warranty on my cars. I suspect that you’re right in that over a lifetime the odds are such that you’d be better off paying the bills as they arrive. However whilst I could have paid the £15k+ bill when my M6 engine went pop a couple of years ago and would probably have recouped this over the next 15 years by not paying the warranty I would have been rather annoyed at a one of bill of that level and am glad I had the cover.

have had my M5 for 15 months.. it has had circa £9k worth of warranty work carried out on the extended warranty.. no brainer imo!

i think the premium goes up beyond that, altho iirc paying monthly you may benefit from the same preimium as <60k miles

And here lies the problem with this type of car. If you cannot afford to pay more than £15k for the cheapest example of that type of car you most likely wont find one with a warranty (unless its been run with a warranty all its life). In turn if you cannot afford to pay a little more for a car thats eligable for a warranty then maybe you should be looking at a more forgiving brand. If you can afford the running and repairs without a warranty then fair play but if youre struggling to buy above the base rate then its not looking like a smart car choice in my opinion.

Its not a class thing or snobbery, its just financial common sense. Your best bet if you want to run it on minimal costings is to save a little longer and fork out for a car with lower miles and a warranty. You pay more on the car purchase but will save in the long run on repairs.

Does any of this ring a bell ref the E39 M5, E46 M3, B7 RS4, C5 RS6, E55 AMG etc? Wont be long before the sub £10k E60 M5 appears on the system awaiting the barryboys delicate touch and sympathy.

Although one may have £000000's in warranty work, remember that this is at BMW's standard labour rate which exceeds £120/hrin London as well BMW part fitter replacing rather than repairing.

This is what would cause a large bill which Joe Bloggs would never have commissioned payment for.

Take an example of a broken condensor I had on my Z3M Coupe. If BMW had repaired that, it would have seen a bill of over £1500. My indy repaired it for for £200.

Woah there chief! Nobodys saying YOU cannot afford more than £15k. Had you explained in your first post the details in your second post all would have been clear. Take a breath and start again! Look at your first post from the viewpoint of the reader.

Nice bit of cockwaving at the end there too.

worth mentioning that I 'only' spent 15k on my M5... I don't have the warranty and have spent around 1,500 on tyres and front discs/pads in the 10,000 miles I have done... not spent a single penny on anything else that might have been claimed on warranty.

given that I could have spent an extra 3k buying a lower mileage car to the same spec and another 1k on warranty so far I am 4k up!... and a lower mileage car couldnt possibly be more reliable?

same was true of my old M3 that after 7 years I still havnt had any major issues dispite it having 160k and been only used on track for last 3 years!

To be fair, other than the wiring, clutch and a couple of sensors my running cost is pretty similar. They are in truth very reliable cars, its just when they go bang, the do it in a big way.

quite clearly there is a band of people who you think dont deserve to own such a prestige car

I don't know ecaine from Adam but let's say he earns £50k a year so that would mean you earn in excess of £600k.

What the f@ck are you looking at £15k snotters for?