640d - do I renew my warranty

[scorcher]

My old BMW E36 M3 Evo had about 8 grands worth of repairs with the BMW warranty in my 10months of ownership.Got rid of it not long after, as I couldn't put up the regular trips to the BMW dealership.

[red_slr]

I have only ever paid extended warranty on an older car once and it worked out ok (C2S 997). About £6-7ks worth of work IIRC. The way I saw it is it was a service year so the car was going in and they might spot a few things. Sure enough they did and corrected some items, I also pointed out a couple of things myself which they did under warranty also.

The car had done c.50k and whilst I was doing low mileage its around that mileage things can start to play up.

Like I said back on page 1, even at £1500 I might be tempted given you are doing 20-25k a year on a car that's already done 50k+.

[turboman786]

DEFFO renew

My 640dgc has a headlight issue that will cost £3400......outrageous price. ...you could buy a nice little car for the price of a light!

[Bonefish Blues]

Pay the £1500 and you're guaranteed that it'll never break down. Such is the law of Murphy. The converse is equally true. I'd pay.

[T16OLE]

turboman786 said:

DEFFO renew

My 640dgc has a headlight issue that will cost £3400......outrageous price. ...you could buy a nice little car for the price of a light!

Oh god! Mine have started misting up recently too.

What's the fault?

This warranty cost is certainly a round for the leasing team

[turboman786]

My car has the LED adaptive lights

When you go round a corner it says dipped beam failure.....but the fault seems to only be when you use auto lights.

Regardless it's a fault, it's expensive to fix and it's flipping annoying!

Really wish I had warranty as otherwise I adore the car

[swisstoni]

[benjijames28]

On a car like that I would say go for it. BMW warranty seems well regarded.

[T16OLE]

Shame I can't germs t bought before it goes over 60k, it goes up £500.

It says you can't buy it if you already have a BMW warranty in place.

[ITP]

Get the warranty if you want to keep the car, one claim will most likely pay for itself.
It's just the price you have to pay for a 'premium' German brand these days.
Warranty price says a lot about how much faith BMW have in their own product, especially after only 60k miles.
Other option is to get rid and get a Lexus!

[T16OLE]

ITP said:

Get the warranty if you want to keep the car, one claim will most likely pay for itself.
It's just the price you have to pay for a 'premium' German brand these days.
Warranty price says a lot about how much faith BMW have in their own product, especially after only 60k miles.
Other option is to get rid and get a Lexus!

£6.5k over 4 years is a real sting.

Thats on top of paying for the car too

One hell of a war chest.

[turboman786]

Trouble is that the bits for these cars tend to be dealer only and as I've mentioned above the specialist bits are ludicrously expensive.....a headlight for £3400.....wth!!

Also the electrics are mighty complex and I don't imagine even specialists would be able to touch them....eg what if the head up display messes up....can't imagine a specialist being able to repair.

I've concluded that I will only buy another premium German car with warranty for the above reasons..

It's just amother coat on top of the usual costs I'm afraid

[djohnson]

I'd extend the warranty. Relative to potential repair costs it's not that much money. For those who say statistically it must be bad value for consumers - on a portfolio basis you're right but if you're the one with a big problem then it's money well spent. I was very glad I extended the warranty on my M6 a few years back when it needed a complete engine change. £1,200 of warranty cost v £15,000 of repair cost!

[djohnson]

I'd extend the warranty. Relative to potential repair costs it's not that much money. For those who say statistically it must be bad value for consumers - on a portfolio basis you're right but if you're the one with a big problem then it's money well spent. I was very glad I extended the warranty on my M6 a few years back when it needed a complete engine change. £1,200 of warranty cost v £15,000 of repair cost!

[V6Alfisti]

Are modern Beemers that unreliable? I have had TVR/Maserati's that have need minimal maintenance i.e just a service and odd new bush.

[scorcher]

V6Alfisti said:

Are modern Beemers that unreliable? I have had TVR/Maserati's that have need minimal maintenance i.e just a service and odd new bush.

I wouldn't buy another based on my m3 evo experience. I will have another TVR one day though. My Griff was far more reliable

[T16OLE]

scorcher said:

I wouldn't buy another based on my m3 evo experience. I will have another TVR one day though. My Griff was far more reliable

In fairness though, an M3 is a different generation of car

[Justin S]

Mate always swears by extending his warranties , although it does limit you to dealer servicing and dealer parts , he says. Although his E92 M3 with foldy hardtop had over 30K spent under warranty in the 3 years he owned it and said he would be living in a tent if he didnt have a warranty. His X6 is also covered, but dont know if as much has gone wrong with it and is a diesel.

[jonah35]

Trouble is £1500 is £125 pm. Plus paying for a heavily depreciating car. Plus non warranty claims. Plus heavy tax. Plus car finance payments.

All of a sudden its not cheap motoring. Lets say £30pm tax £125 warranty, £300-400pm depreciation, non warranty claims £30 pm, £50 pm finance cost or whatever and its pretty costly for a 6 year old car with old tech.

Youre verging towards leasing a new car being cheaper or at least better value eg a new e class, new a8 or whatever.

Mileage is your big killer but that will be killing residuals on your car too. In 2 years it will be a 106k mile car worth verry little.

Id chop it in and see what lease deal you can get on a car with higher mileage limits.

[Patrick Bateman]

scorcher said:

My old BMW E36 M3 Evo had about 8 grands worth of repairs with the BMW warranty in my 10months of ownership.Got rid of it not long after, as I couldn't put up the regular trips to the BMW dealership.

Just as an FYI, knowing what dealers are like when it comes to warranty 'repairs', I'd expect a massive chunk of that could be well be ultimately overkill. I'm thinking things like dealers replacing entire VANOS units when specialists now know how to repair them today for significantly cheaper and such like.