BMW extended warranty: should I buy?

[clrankin]

Hello all.

I bought a 2004 X5 4.4i with 46,000 miles at the beginning of January (still covered by the original warranty, but getting close to that magical 50,000 miles). During the purchase, I negotiated an extended warranty to be thrown in with the vehicle (this warranty was from a third party company, not the one BMW offers at its dealerships, since the purchase was from a non-BMW dealership to begin with). In reading the fine print of this extended warranty, it appears that the warranty company gets to choose where the car gets serviced, and that non-OEM parts may be used during servicing (obviously to save the warranty company money). Neither of these clauses leave me feeling too comfortable with what I can expect service-wise after I hit 50,000 miles. This leads to a few questions:

1. Am I too paranoid about the extended warranty I already have?
Somehow I'm getting mental pictures of my X5 sitting in some greasy, dingy shop with a guy named Stu who smokes cigars all the time fixing my problems with parts from a junk yard... Should I worry about this, or will most of my extended warranty servicing stuff likely send me to a BMW dealership anyway? What have your experiences with non-BMW extended warranties been?

2. Is it worth just buying an extended warranty from BMW? Any idea what the cost would be if I did this on my own? Will the warranty I buy from them be serviced at BMW dealerships? Would it be worth it for peace of mind?

I welcome any thoughts and opinions. Thanks for the help in advance.

[BruinMan]

Welcome to X5 World and congrats on your X5 purchase.
Buying warranty is a crap shoot and is something you need to decide on your own. BMW will charge you about $4500.00 ($100 deductable) for a 4 year extended warranty upto 100,000 miles. The maintenace is an extended 2 year program for $3000.00.
I can say this is an expensive car to own.
Good luck!

[FSETH]

Just curious, did you purchase from Carmax?

[Quicksilver]

Clrankin;

First of all welcome to the board. As far as the extended warranty is concerned, you will find an endless post from many people on this subject. If you use the search field it will be easy to bring them up. The concensus seems to be that it can be worth it if it's the right warranty. (Warranty Direct or BMW) and if you decide to buy it your vehicle will be repaired at the dealership and not at Harry's cigar shop.

B

[clrankin]

Originally Posted by FSETH

Just curious, did you purchase from Carmax?

No, bought it from a local dealer around the Tyson's Corner, VA area that specializes in used European makes. But CarMax was one of the places I checked out, though... as a matter of fact I sold my '03 GMC Envoy to them after buying the BMW. (As everyone might guess, there is no comparison between the two... I think I'm hooked and will be a BMW owner for life now. )

Thanks for the welcomes, BTW. I've been lurking around here and Bimmerfest for a couple of weeks now and have found a trove of great information... Today I'll be finishing up installing an XM radio kit and DICE HD radio in the X5-- some of the guides from both of the forums have been very helpful!

[Quicksilver]

Glad to hear that....Wish you well with the warranty thing.

[FSETH]

[quote=clrankin]No, bought it from a local dealer around the Tyson's Corner, VA area that specializes in used European makes.

I was asking because I purchased my 02 4.4 from Carmax about a year ago. I bought their extended warranty for about $1,800. It is a 3-year 30,000 warranty and they had some of that same wording in their contract talking about used parts and so on. The good thing about the Carmax warranty is that BMW honors it, so I never take my X to Carmax only BMW dealers.

I would have to recommend you getting some sort of warranty. My X had 65,000 miles on it and within the first year of owning it the valve cover gaskets started leaking ($660), the alternator locked up ($1,200), and the water pump and valley pan needed replaced ($1,800). I still have 2 years or about 15,000 miles left on the warranty and it has already paid for itself.

The X5 is a great vehicle, but it does have it's issues and they are usually very expensive to fix. Remeber that the X5 was very expensive when new, so they really get you for repair costs.

Who knows though, you may not experience any of the issues that I did.

[TowX]

Welcome to the family. I just purchased my '04 4.4 last month. Went through the same deliberations. Ended up buying a CPO car from a dealer.
I personally wouldn't buy a German car that didn't have some sort of warranty coverage. Even the smallest repair can be big $$. For point of reference, one of the '04's I looked at was at a BMW dealer, had 39K on it and hadn't yet been certified. So I had the opportunity to compare the certification cost vs an extended warranty. To do a 36/36 full coverage warranty (a 3rd party warranty) was going to be $3200, and it was just 1900 to certify the car.
Wonder if Heishman (oops Arlington) BMW or one of the other local dealers would certify it for you so you could get factory coverage. Dealers aren't supposed to do that but I know a few out here in Chicago that will.
Regardless, the LKQ (Like Kind and Quality) language in the used warranty your considering is common in most independent warranties. And most can even specify used parts too. That's why I'll only buy certified cars. But a reputable warranty is better than no warranty in my opinion.

[Werewolf]

Car companies and insurance companie make money on the warranties, so on average no it is not worth it to buy a warranty. That said, insurance works the same way, so it is up to you.

Either way I would suggest you get a good independent mechanic to do a pre-purchase-like inspection on your x5 before the bumper to bumper OEM coverage goes away. That way, you can hopefully avoid some costs.

I looked into this a couple of years and came to the conclusion that Warranty Direct was the best provider but they don't provide coverage in CA. So I started setting aside a repair fund and that has seemed to work pretty well

[Boston X5 4.4]

All warranties and warranty companies are not created equal - it is difficult to comment on the quality or not of the one that you have without knowing the company name and rep., the scope of coverage, the deductible etc.