Early BMW 645i - warranty for peace of mind?

[Legend83]

Hi all, I while back I was pontificating about whether to move my diesel Civic on and get something a bit more exciting (and costly) for my puny commute.

The idea of a lovely, comfy, auto grand tourer came up and a 645i seemed to fit the bill (still not discounting the Lexus RX). Early cars appear to be available for around £10k but I am not naive to think cars like this can be run on a shoe-string (£2k for a new steering rack fitted anyone?).

So, firstly - what are the known issues that I might expect to cause me financial pain on the 645i?

Secondly - should I pay a bit extra to ensure I get a sub-60k mile car and pay for the BMW Mondial warranty? Currently priced up at £75 a month Named Component (Comprehensive was £101 a month). Part of me would love to just sleep easy at night and enjoy the car - it's going to be fun enough paying £1000 for a set of tyres!

Thirdly - any thoughts on this AUC car: http://www.approved.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/bmwauc/details/0,,1156___ask-4%40adm-xx,00.html?ch=_V0JBRUg3MjA5MEI1MzcxNzg=&btp=1x24-distance_ASC

To me it seemed to be a bit light on options but obviously comes with the peace of mind of being an AUC car and I'm unlikely to do more than 8000 miles in 12 months so would still be under 60k come warranty renewal time.

Thanks all in advance.

[anonymous-user]

I've heard horror stories, but you hear horror stories about every car. My biggest concern would be the gearbox. Aside from that you're going to be replacing suspension components on an older, heavy car like that. As for the rest, I think it's pot luck...

[jcelee]

One of my team had one for a while (sold because he was moving to London). Don't think they are too ruinous providing you check the car out very thoroughly when you buy it, ensure you buy one that has been meticulously maintained and find a good specialist. He used a particularly good one in Poole called MVT (I've also had good experience using them on wifey's 520D.

[The GMan]

I ran mine out of warranty for 4 years until last year.

The only problems I had was a screen washer pump that stopped working, couple of the parking sensors failed and I had to get the gear box sump replaced twice as it was leaking. The iDrive system sometimes played up in the summer due to overheating but resetting it use to get it working again. Probably cost me about £1000 for all of that.

Others things like discs and pad where replaced and I use to get it serviced at a specialist regular that was not to expensive at all.

Mine was my motorway car and I averaged over 700 miles a week for about 18 months in it. It use to eat petrol, I remember working out it cost just shy of £1200 one month. I never worked it out again after that.

Great car and I loved it.

[Ozzie Osmond]

A comprehensive warranty for £100 a month sounds like decent value on one of those because, let's face it, there won't be much depreciation. Driving a 645i for, say, £2,500 a year (depreciation plus warranty) compares favourably with the higher depreciation on a newer car.

The catch is you'll have to commit to the manufacturer's service schedule - which is likely get expensive in itself. You can't cut corners at one end and claim at the other.

[andymc]

Ozzie Osmond said:

A comprehensive warranty for £100 a month sounds like decent value on one of those because, let's face it, there won't be much depreciation. Driving a 645i for, say, £2,500 a year (depreciation plus warranty) compares favourably with the higher depreciation on a newer car.

The catch is you'll have to commit to the manufacturer's service schedule - which is likely get expensive in itself. You can't cut corners at one end and claim at the other.

do you have to use them to service it Ozzie?

[Pappagallo]

I've a 2005 (55) 550i. I've owned it for nearly two years (doing about 9k a year in it) and it's been great so far. I would imagine the 645i would be a very similar proposition.

I bought it privately and after a few months, took out an Extra Car Lite policy with Warrany Direct. It's the same level of cover as their full warranty but has the condition that you have to have the car recovered to a garage before you can claim. It's also about a sixth of the price. Haven't needed to claim yet but it's nice to know it's there.

http://www.warrantydirect.co.uk/bri.html

In regards to the car I did manage to spend several hundred shortly after I got it on some suspension/steering refresh work, software updates (inc updated IBS lead to allow this), prop donut and some but saw this as par for the course. I changed all the discs and pads myself last year and this was inexpensive despite the big brakes.

[Ozzie Osmond]

andymc said:

Ozzie Osmond said:

The catch is you'll have to commit to the manufacturer's service schedule - which is likely get expensive in itself. You can't cut corners at one end and claim at the other.

do you have to use them to service it Ozzie?

You'd need to read the small print of the particular warranty to answer that one. I'm pretty sure DIY or a mate down the road would not be enough to tick the box under any circumstances.

[andymc]

May be VAT reg'd garage

[Legend83]

andymc said:

May be VAT reg'd garage

Yes, I believe it has to be serviced in accordance with the BMW servicing schedule and used approved BMW parts but can be done at any VAT registered garage.

So yes, as Ozzie rightly points out, I will be paying extra come service time or if consumables are needed - I doubt I will be able to get them a third of the price from EuroCarParts.

[AdeTuono]

There's an increasingly common problem with a coolant pipe in the valley of the 'V'. It's around £3k to fix at dealer rates. It's age-related rather than mileage.

[Council Scum]

Take a good test drive and make sure you are happy with the autobox, I personally find them dim-witted and finding a nice manual version is difficult.

[sjj84]

Why is the warranty on the 645 so expensive? The fully comprehensive no excess warranty on my z4 coupe is only £40ish per month, on my previous m3 the same cover was £80ish. I take it the 645 has some costly failures to be priced like that?

[mr_tony]

Not sure about the 645, but my 745 of a similar vintage was very costly to run.

I had multiple failures of hydraulics in 7 years (2 steering racks and a complete refresh of the Dynamic drive system and a partial set of fixes to it). It went through a few window motors, had a complete failure of the electronic handbrake unit, and a complete new iDrive computer / control unit. OVer 8 years i spent on average around 2k per year on servicing and fault fixing, with consumables and insurance and tax on top.

Great big comfy barge and I do miss it, in sport mode it growled away happily and was a great place to while away the motorway miles at 20mpg...

[23rdian]

Don't bother with the warranty, just self insure. Put the warranty price aside each moth as a contingency fund. Chances are you won't need it, if the worse comes to the worst raid the fund (any extra on credit card?)

[hornetrider]

23rdian said:

Don't bother with the warranty, just self insure. Put the warranty price aside each moth as a contingency fund. Chances are you won't need it, if the worse comes to the worst raid the fund (any extra on credit card?)

I'd take this approach tbh.

I've run my 550i Touring for 14 months and 16k miles now and the only issue outside of servicing has been a new diversity aerial required at under 300 fitted. And that could happen to a 520D.

[mr_tony]

hornetrider said:

I'd take this approach tbh.

I've run my 550i Touring for 14 months and 16k miles now and the only issue outside of servicing has been a new diversity aerial required at under 300 fitted. And that could happen to a 520D.

I'd do this as well - it's likely that any warranty won't necessarily cover the items that can go pop anyway. It's a risk for sure - buy an honest car from an enthusiast that's been well maintained and you'll be better off most likely..