I just purchased an extended warranty from Great American. Covers the powertrain (engine and transmission) for 5 years or 100k. Paid $1750. My X5 is a 2001 with 75k. A bumper to bumper coverage was close to $4k. Same 100k but just 49 months.

I would not let them work on my X. I noticed a few little things when first purchasing my car that I wasn't happy about. First of all, they changed the oil with a non-oem filter and oil. This may have been an issue if I tried to drive the suggested 15,000. Also, one of my headlights was fogging after driving in the rain or going through a car wash. They replaced it with an assembly from another X5 on the lot, which was fine with me except that they used a headlight from a non-sport package X and mine has the sport package. I had them find the right one and replace it again. The techs at Carmax work on just about every brand of car and can't be as knowledgeable on the X5 as a BMW techs who see them far more often, IMO.

One thing to keep in mind if you purchase from Carmax is that they reserve the right to resolve any issues themselves within the first 30 days. If I were you I would wait 30 days and then take the X to the dealer you plan on using to have the car looked over. That way, if they find an issue you can chose to have it fixed at that BMW dealer.

My service advisor at BMW invoices my only the co-pay. He works out billing directly with Maxcare. I don't know the ins and outs. All I know is that it gets paid and it is not by me. Example I just had the fuel pump fixed which came to $542.50. My invoice states total of $542.50 less insurance (warranty) of $467.50, so I pay only my $75.00 deduct. I never deal with the warranty company at all. He subtracts the amount that they pay from my bill.

Im glad I bought mine...

I wouldn't consider buying a used X5 without an extended warranty. In fact I'd suggest trying to find a CPO car since that at least gives you an assurance that BMW has looked at the car top to bottom (remember not all used BMW's sold by the dealership qualify as CPO's). Buying from a private party and you really don't know too much about the car.

Remember also that if you decide to sell it because it turned out to be a maintenance headache or whatever, an extended warranty is a selling point and will transfer to the next owner.

Lastly, I've owned LOTS of BMW's to date and I can tell you this, there was a time (70's, 80's) when they were relatively easy to repair and parts were reasonable (many quality parts could be bought at local auto supply shops). Now BMW's are more electronic then mechanical and parts more often then not must (or should) be purchased through BMW. This increase in sophistication of course also means to properly diagnose an ailment you need specialized equipment (computer systems, etc) and training, so fixing the cars is terribly expensive. So if we were back in the 80's, I'd say forget the extended warranty and fix it yourself with a couple of buddies and a few beers. Now, get the extended warranty or lease a car, forget the headache of repairing it yourself (and worrying about it) and spend the time you save with your friends and family.

New to the forum and not trying to highjack
the thread....

Looking at a CPO 2006 3.0i.
The dealer mentioned that the warranty was extended to 100,000.
He also mentioned that if I wanted the maintenance plan to match, it would be $1675.00.
He was saying that "with this plan, the only thing that would require my payment would be tires."

Does anyone have experience with these MX plans?
Seems like a deal to me, what am I missing?
Anything else I should consider?

Thank you
The new guy
Ryan

1. You could probably get a little better price on the extended maintenance plan, try to haggle with him over it.
2. While he is telling the truth, it's still a little bit of a stretch. You will have to pay a deductible (I think it's $50) for every service appointment in during the extended warranty, and I think (double check this) during the extended maintenance. And both don't cover everything bumper to bumper like the original warranty and free maintenance during the 1st 50,000 miles, BUT it's really the next best thing.

My advice. Think it over, but you are DEFINITELY making a very good choice.

buy it.

Thanks for the quick replies.

WP

If you have any mechanical ability don't buy it. On the back page of todays "USA Today" there is a full-page ad that states extended warranties are a bad buy. My 06 has 43,000 miles now and I will not dish out $3,995 when I can perform all maintenance and repairs from rebuiding the engine myself to changing my own wiper blades. My clutch is fine but I look forward to changing/upgrading it at 100,000 miles.

One thing I've noticed here over the years is that most of the folks here do not have a good mechanical ability or that they have the money and would rather pay someone else to perform simple maintenance. There's nothing wrong with that as some people I'm sure can't justify the time spent on their vehicle. My parents had no money to buy me a car and I had to buy and maintain my own beaters through and after high school. My first car was a 70 Nova that I appreciated and took care of or I would've had nothing. I learned how to rebuild engines, transmissions, differentials and everything else because I HAD to.

Yeah, I could buy the extended warranty but part of owning and TRULY appreciating a car is to drive it and maintain it yourself. Until you've done that you will never appreciate and respect everything about your own vehicle.

I too was forced to learn how to work on cars in order to have one from age 15 on and I agree that it made me appreciate them that much more.

I have the mechanical ability as I have rebuilt a couple of engines, replaced suspensions and clutches but for me it is a time thing and keeping my wife happy. I had a '91 Saab 9000 turbo that I started dismantling to replace the turbo and balance shaft chain. I had a car wreck which mangled my ankle shortly after tearing it down and long story short, I never had time or the energy to get back to it so I have been forbidden from doing anything other than changing the oil, brakes and other minor work.

I don't like forking out $4k for a warranty either but it's cheaper than a divorce or even a failed transmission replacement. It also helps resell later on.

My salary is not half of what the labor rates for BMW techs are but more time with my family and peace of mind are priceless. If they did not have such a high propensity for expensive repairs, I may have skipped it. I don't have one on my Infiniti but repairs are nonexistant and when they do happen, the parts and labor are much cheaper than BMW.

just my .02, ymmv