First BMW. . . . EVER

[SquattingDog]

Greetings guys and gals, I have been reading this forum for the past couple of months, and what an incredible wealth of information.

As a former GM engineer, I have owned nothing but GM products for the past 25 years. Well, I did buy a 2010 MDX that I still have and do like a lot. I purchased my first BMW EVER 2 months ago, a 2011 X5d with 13k miles on it. MSRP of $75,200 and I paid $53,500 (from a Ford dealership that bought it at auction!). I think I got a good deal. I must say I am a convert - I didn't know what I was missing all these years.

Anyway, I have a couple questions if anyone would care to answer -

1. Last week, I wanted to see what would happen if I left the rear hatch open while backing out of the garage. The result - the rear glass shattered. My insurance company tried to get me to use Safelite, but then offered to pay $850 minus a $250 deductible if I went OEM. My local dealership repaired it for $1200, and I need to bill Nationwide. Anybody have any luck getting Nationwide to cover the entire cost?

2. The front tires - 20" Dunlop Sport Maxx RFT's - will need replacing soon. I am happy with the ride (Sport Package with Adaptive Drive), but my tire choices are sooooo limited. Is there really a big difference going from RFT to non-RFT's in the ride quality?

3. Anybody have any experience with Hendrick Auto's AutoGuard extended warranty? It's backed by a subsidiary of Hendrick Automotive Group (which my BMW dealership belongs to), which I think might hold a little more weight than an independent third party extended warranty. Cost is a bit less than BMW's extended warranty but I am wary of any non-manufacturer warranty.

Thanks in advance for any input!

[jddssc121]

my two cents would be to get the BMW backed extended warranty if the miles still allow it (have to be under 40K or 50K I think?).

[motordavid]

2- Have only briefly driven an E70 with RFTs...our E53 has reg tires. Fwiw, I went with non-RFTs on my '02 VetteVert, and the diff was like night and day. Do some searching using the Search Tab, upper right hand corner on RFTs vs non-RFTs.

Additionally, surprised the fronts need replacing, and replacing at so few miles. Are the rears a 2nd set? If rears are orig, still surprised the fronts only went 13-15k miles. Something may be amiss, or they ran them with 20 psi and carved corners...

Not sure how non-RFTs would 'feel' with RFTs in rear; you may get posters warning about the 'tire difference' vis a vis the Xdrive system. Hell, you may get that excuse from a dlr when you need warranty coverage.

3-I GOOG'd Hendrick's 'warranty' but none of the links offered details other than bullets on selling a complete 'pkg' of warranty, maintenance, tire insurance and detail work. There were also zip 'reviews' of that warranty; not saying it is good or not good for you, but why worry about it 'today' when you have considerable time and miles left on your mfg'er oe warranty?

Nice car, welcome to a very good board, and I used to do some good biz at the the GM Tech Ctr, Milford MI, back in the early '70s. Saw some amazing test cars, prototypes and mules...
GL, md

[SquattingDog]

Thanks for your reply.

I have 17k miles on original front and original rear tires. Rears appear to have about 6/32 left on them, fronts around 4/32. I'll probably replace the fronts at around 20k miles, we usually have a bit of rain here in the fall. I'm contemplating putting something else besides the Sport Maxx's up front, and replacing the rears with the same tire when they're due. I don't think there's any harm in that? What about if I went with non-RFT's up front for 5k-7k miles before putting non-RFT's in back as well?

I am looking into the ex warranty now because I know I'm going to keep this until it hits 100k miles, and I'd like to lock in the ex warranty cost now rather than 3 years later after the MSRP increases $500.

I worked in Buick's experimental engineering back in the 80's, and we were stuffing the Grand National's 3.8 turbo into anything GM made just for the heck of it. We somehow got the motor into a Trans Am, and thus the '89 Trans Am turbo was born. GM brass picked up on it, and outsourced the work to another company for the production run but it was our idea originally.

[motordavid]

From cursory reading on the net, with the usual varied opins, I don't see any downside to your tire ideas. The Xdrive mavens may jump in with diff opins, however, but I just don't know of/have read of a real potential problem in handling, other than the usual 'not the same brand tire' or 'not to mix RFTs with non-RFTs.' In my low tech opin the Xdrive will not miss a beat, but others may have more technical reasons why one shouldn't...

I still caution getting tied up in an ext warranty with that much remaining oe mfg'er warranty: you may not keep the car that intended long duration for many reasons, you are paying for 'dbl coverage' for the next 3 years, yes warranties will only increase in cost, but a $500 potential upcharge in the amortized cost and running cost of any car is a pittance...etc.

GN 3.8 turbos were pretty awesome. Had a '78 T/A 400 4 spd that I really liked, but my VetteVert may be the best car I have ever owned, and it has run better than my Rolex for 50k+ miles and 10+ years.

The tire/Xdrive mavens should chime in, too...
GL, mD

[ard]

Originally Posted by SquattingDog

G (from a Ford dealership that bought it at auction!)

That strains the bounds of credulity... how is a one year old car selling at auction????? Diesels are hot, selling with ease.

Something is up with that car to have been auctioned. Lemon, branded, accident. Something. (unless it wasnt actually sold at auction, it was the Ford Dealer's wifes car... who knows)

My two cents

Why not see if you can buy a BMW warranty? If BMW comes back and says 'sorry it isnt eligible', that tells you something.

Anyway, the hendricks warranty is backed by a Risk Retention Group they put together- it isnt as secure as BMW backed, but probably cheaper. The dealer definitely makes a lot more on that than they do with the BMW warranty. Are they trying to scare you into buying now to beat the price increases? HAHAHAHA Contact Sponsors here or over on Bimmerfest for a quote on the BMW warranty.

GL

A

[SquattingDog]

I was very suspicious myself. The car was 700 miles away, but I thought it was worth a plane ticket to check it out. I brought the X5 to the local BMW dealer for a PPI. They were familiar with the car and it's owner, and were perplexed why he did not sell it to them. We went over the car panel by panel, and everything checked out.

My local BMW dealer also looked it over, and said it was in perfect condition. It has been verified as BMW warranty eligible. I guess I just got lucky.

I think I'm going to go with the BMW warranty, no sense trying to save a few bucks.

Thanks.

[Zoich]

Originally Posted by SquattingDog

1. Last week, I wanted to see what would happen if I left the rear hatch open while backing out of the garage. The result - the rear glass shattered. My insurance company tried to get me to use Safelite, but then offered to pay $850 minus a $250 deductible if I went OEM. My local dealership repaired it for $1200, and I need to bill Nationwide. Anybody have any luck getting Nationwide to cover the entire cost?

I have Nationwide, for the "On your side" glass repair and related claims, they are actually outsourced to Safelite. So even though your replacement was done by BMW (mine as well), you will be directed to Safelite's claims and adjusters.

So- My wife had a huge rock chip (she claimed it was an astroid from outerspace since no dump trucks were around and she was driving 30 MPH. Mind you when she backed into a tree previously it was because the tree moved). Nevertheless, the chip was about a size of a quarter and it was in the line of sight. I was redirected to Safelite Solutions to file an report for claims. The agent said they will send someone out to repair/fill it. I told him it was a really huge chip and it would obscure my vision and I would like it to have it replaced. Without any questions, he said okay, let's get you to a safelite shop. I told him I have had good and bad experience with safelite. Let this be a lession for all of you: espeically with their mobile unit when they only have one person to set a large windshield and the glue beads ended up not sealing propely causing air leaks. When I took it in the shop, they replaced it with 2 poeple, problem solved. The second time I brouhgt in a different vehicle to the shop, they had again one person doing it since the garage was full, they did it in their parking lot - guess what? air leakage sound. Anyways. I told him I will have ask my dealer to do the replacement since they I have Headsup display, and I doubt they made after market glass for that. He looked it up and agreed. Then he told me they will reimburse up to 1200 dollar since that was the avg replacement cost in my area. I said Ok. I called my BMW and was directed to their in-house bodyshop. the estimate ended up being just over 1400. I didn't mind paying 200 out of pocket, but I still asked teh BMW supervisor to see if he can bring the cost closer to 1200. He said he couldn't and he would bet that Safelite's quote were missing some parts (he said it required to replace the rain sensor and the moisture sensor, I didn't know they were 2 different things). He called safelite on my behalf, even though he doesn't get directly reimbursed by safelite. Sure enough he was able to talk the claim adjuster to cough up the full cost. Safelite then sent me and the bmw body shop an work authorization paper with the agreed company and price. after it was done, I faxed in the receipt and the claim paperwork, I got my 1400 check in the mail less than 10 days. I think the key is you will need BMW to talk to Safelite claim directly to explain the cost first. But looks like the work is already done. I wonder safelite may only pay up to what they think is the average cost in your area.

additional note, because of the HUD function, the car needed to be recoded, because the dimness of the HUD is tied to a light sensor on the dashboard. when I first got the car back, the light sensor is tell the car it is at night the entire time, which turn my headlight on constantly and I couldn't see the HUD. I had to "educate my dealer" as they couldn't believe replacing a windshield required recoding. They ended up eating that 1 hour of labor cost since it wasn't in the estimate.

Good luck.

[SquattingDog]

Thanks Zoich, good info.

I checked out Safelite, and their website quoted me something like $450 total cost to replace, total work time of 1.5 -2.0 hours. My dealership wanted $1700, discounted down to $1200. They included 6.0 hours of work. I told them of the Safelite quote, and my SA laughed. He then offered me a large glass of dealership coolaid, and I drank it. He said there was absolutely no way they could replace the rear glass that quick. He also said BMW does not publish their glass specs, so Safelite would only be guessing. My BMW warranty would be void if glass leakage lead to rust which lead to parts failure.

I'm sure I would have been fine with Safelite . . . . oh well.

[Zoich]

Originally Posted by SquattingDog

Thanks Zoich, good info.

I checked out Safelite, and their website quoted me something like $450 total cost to replace, total work time of 1.5 -2.0 hours. My dealership wanted $1700, discounted down to $1200. They included 6.0 hours of work. I told them of the Safelite quote, and my SA laughed. He then offered me a large glass of dealership coolaid, and I drank it. He said there was absolutely no way they could replace the rear glass that quick. He also said BMW does not publish their glass specs, so Safelite would only be guessing. My BMW warranty would be void if glass leakage lead to rust which lead to parts failure.

I'm sure I would have been fine with Safelite . . . . oh well.

I wouldn't trust safelite with your vehicle. this time I only delt with their claims people. BMW peformed the work, and safelite/nationwide paid. The trick was BMW had to talk to teh safelite claims to get my reimbursment whole.

previous two times I had older cars and what I thought was pretty straightforward replacements so I let safelite's shop replace them.