335D 3 year service plan - good value?

[greyt]

Picking up a new 335D next week. Moving from an E46 M3 the 60,000 miles of servicing for £745 seems good value. Is it? I assume with the extended service interval this equates to 3 services?

[MattOz]

Is it the full maintenance package or just the "normal" servicing package? If it includes brake disks and pads, wiper blades etc then it appears to be reasonable value.

Are you going to keep the car for 60k miles or 5 years? If not, then the maintenance package becomes less attractive.

Matt

[greyt]

It is for the basic service, including oil, brake fluid etc, no pads and discs. I do 30,000 miles a year and will keep the car for two years, so will use the full allowance. It is mainly motorway driving so pads and disks last for ages. For info I think it was £900-£1000 more to have pads and disks included in the maintenance plan.

I suppose the question is how much is the first 3 services on average for the 335D. If it is around £745 anyway then I might as well pay as I go. On paper it looks a good deal, but I have yet to see BMW do anything charitable, so I assume at best it is cost neutral?

[MattOz]

You'd be better off paying as you go. Servicing should average out at about £200 every 20k miles. If you provide the oil, you'll knock at least another £50 off every service.

Matt

[wobert]

When I bought my 120d I negotiated a Service Inclusive pack that lasted for 36k miles. At the time I was doing 30k miles a year.

This covered the initial 20k oil service, a brake fluid change, micro-filter and some other items / checks.

The first service I had to pay for was at 45k miles, which was an oil service, cost me 150GBP inc oil.

Beware with the condition based servicing the car is in service quite regualarly doing that kind of annual mileage, so if you're paying yourself, take this into account.

Also watch the prices of the LL04 oil used. BMW charge 90GBP for 6 litres. The best I could find was around 75GBP. I bought some off ebay for 50GBP all in. Don't be tempted to use anything other than oil with this rating, don't use LL02 which a VAG standard oil.

Here's the entries from my service book for info:

22k miles - oil service

31k miles - brake fluid change

37k miles - vehicle check

45k miles - oil service

The first 3 were covered, the second oil service wasn't.

ETA - My service indicator is showing that the brakes won't need attention until after 60k miles, so having these covered under the maintainance agreement may not be worth while.

HTH

Robert

Edited by wobert on Wednesday 5th March 17:04