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      10-15-2015, 08:10 PM   #1
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My extended warranty search

My car is coming up to the end of its factory warranty so I began shopping for an extended warranty. This was an unexpectedly difficult shopping experience, a real blast from the past, like buying a used car 30 years ago must have been, with no internet, no price transparency, and dealers who make it look like they are doing you a personal favor by quoting a price etc...

In the end I am happy with what I got, thanks in no small part to help from a couple of forum members here, so I thought I write this up so maybe some folks have it easier next time!

Do I need an extended warranty?

Often discussed, it's a personal decision. Warranties are priced to be more expensive than the expected repair costs, hence anyone buying them should expect to make a loss in that regard. What you are really buying is relative peace of mind, because someone else is assuming the risk. In my case I thought I might treat the car differently once it is off factory warranty, which is a bad idea, because once you start pussy-footing your M3 it makes not much sense as a car anymore. Also, selling a car with a warranty to a private party is a big plus, or you can get a pro-rated refund if you trade it in. So I knew I wanted a warranty.

Should I get the BMW warranty?

The most expensive option and probably the only one that reliably covers repairs at an actual BMW dealer. Did I mention it is expensive? The Gold level covers most of the relevant stuff (just not Navigation), but the dealer price for an extra 3 years (their maximum term) plus 70K miles in total (including your current mileage) is $5450; if you want 100k miles in total it is $6600. (This warranty is the only one I found that is marketed with total miles, all the other are additional miles). The deductible is low, just $50.

One advantage of this plan is that the prices are easily available from any dealer. A forum sponsor from Steve Thomas BMW advertises that they give a discount and I found that to be true, after getting through to their finance manager they offered 10% for forum members.

For me the price was too high, I was looking for something like $1K per year. I also did not like the restriction to a 3 year maximum. So I passed on this one.

OK, you are going 3rd party, which one is best?

If you look down at your feet and see combat boots then the answer is pretty clear: get an USAA warranty. For those like me who have no contact to the military you need keep on looking. My impression was that Fidelity and Easycare
have the best reputation. Whatever you get, try to buy `exclusionary' policies, which cover everything that they don't explicitly exclude. Fidelity platinum and Easycare totalcare do that. An indy shop in the neighborhood also recommended
Fidelity platinum, so I thought I would get quotes for both and buy the better option, piece of cake right?

Well, I phoned up easy care and online they don't cover the M3, bummer. However, the voice on the phone said I could still get Easycare coverage for my M3 at a dealer (she offered to find a non-BMW dealer in my area who could do this); this did not make sense to me, but I left it at that.

Fidelity has no online presence at all, just a simple web page with the helpful suggestion to phone them up to find a participating dealer. I did and they could not find anyone in New York City. Really?

In fact she asked me for the nearest larger city and I could not really think of an answer. She could not search by zip code vicinity or any other of that 21st century stuff.

At this point I looked at other options, and the only true online company I found was Assurant. They had a straightforward web page and competitive quotes for policies up to 3 years (something like $3500 all in for 3 years), but very steep price increases for 4 years or more. So no good.

Now I reached out to a few forum members who posted that they bought fidelity or easy care and contacted their vendors. Some had stopped selling Fidelity, so this was hit and miss. I finally managed to get a quote from an Audi dealer (!), where the Fidelity product is used for underwriting their Audi Pure Protection plan.

This is where I learnt two important lessons: the deductible plays a huge role in your price, and the mileage of your car matters as well. For example, my car had less than 35 K miles and for that a 6 year plan with 60K additional miles and $100 deductible was quoted at $4973 and with a $250 deductible it was $3809 (plus tax)! That's a huge difference and you have to have something like 7 repairs to recoup it, so I decided the higher deductible is worth it.

Also, prices apparently jump at round mileage numbers such as 35K, 40K etc. so if you are getting close to that you might want to buy now, even if your factory plan lasts a bit longer (mine runs out at the end of next month).

You got a quote for a decent plan, now you negotiate like Batman, right?

Well, yes and no. The total lack of transparency makes bargaining very hard, because you have no idea what the MSRP is. When I asked for 10% discount as a bargaining start the dealer did not budge and claimed that his quote was already $2500 less than the MSRP retail price; that is of course bogus but there you are.

Another dealer quoted more than $6K for the same plan, it's completely insane.

At this time I got one more lead to a finance manager at a BMW dealership in Virginia (it matters little, apparently, in which state you buy the plan). He gave me a whole list of very good prices for all the plans he was selling and simply said he would add $100 as profit to any plan I pick. I can't know how much profit is already built in, but I knew enough at this stage to recognize good prices. So I bought a 6 year 60K additional miles, 250 deductible Fidelity platinum policy from him with a total price (incl tax) of just under $3900. The whole transaction was by email and eventually a quick phone call plus fedex-ing the documents back and forth. All done in 24 h, but it took me several weeks to get to that point. Very happy with the outcome.

So, if you are interested to buy a Fidelity plan here is a definite suggestion for you: contact Joshua Alford at BMW Richmond, VA. I asked him whether I could post his details and he was fine with that, so go for it. JAlford@crownauto.com

Happy motoring until 2021 and stay safe!
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      10-15-2015, 08:36 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Candide13
My car is coming up to the end of its factory warranty so I began shopping for an extended warranty. This was an unexpectedly difficult shopping experience, a real blast from the past, like buying a used car 30 years ago must have been, with no internet, no price transparency, and dealers who make it look like they are doing you a personal favor by quoting a price etc...

In the end I am happy with what I got, thanks in no small part to help from a couple of forum members here, so I thought I write this up so maybe some folks have it easier next time!

Do I need an extended warranty?

Often discussed, it's a personal decision. Warranties are priced to be more expensive than the expected repair costs, hence anyone buying them should expect to make a loss in that regard. What you are really buying is relative peace of mind, because someone else is assuming the risk. In my case I thought I might treat the car differently once it is off factory warranty, which is a bad idea, because once you start pussy-footing your M3 it makes not much sense as a car anymore. Also, selling a car with a warranty to a private party is a big plus, or you can get a pro-rated refund if you trade it in. So I knew I wanted a warranty.

Should I get the BMW warranty?

The most expensive option and probably the only one that reliably covers repairs at an actual BMW dealer. Did I mention it is expensive? The Gold level covers most of the relevant stuff (just not Navigation), but the dealer price for an extra 3 years (their maximum term) plus 70K miles in total (including your current mileage) is $5450; if you want 100k miles in total it is $6600. (This warranty is the only one I found that is marketed with total miles, all the other are additional miles). The deductible is low, just $50.

One advantage of this plan is that the prices are easily available from any dealer. A forum sponsor from Steve Thomas BMW advertises that they give a discount and I found that to be true, after getting through to their finance manager they offered 10% for forum members.

For me the price was too high, I was looking for something like $1K per year. I also did not like the restriction to a 3 year maximum. So I passed on this one.

OK, you are going 3rd party, which one is best?

If you look down at your feet and see combat boots then the answer is pretty clear: get an USAA warranty. For those like me who have no contact to the military you need keep on looking. My impression was that Fidelity and Easycare
have the best reputation. Whatever you get, try to buy `exclusionary' policies, which cover everything that they don't explicitly exclude. Fidelity platinum and Easycare totalcare do that. An indy shop in the neighborhood also recommended
Fidelity platinum, so I thought I would get quotes for both and buy the better option, piece of cake right?

Well, I phoned up easy care and online they don't cover the M3, bummer. However, the voice on the phone said I could still get Easycare coverage for my M3 at a dealer (she offered to find a non-BMW dealer in my area who could do this); this did not make sense to me, but I left it at that.

Fidelity has no online presence at all, just a simple web page with the helpful suggestion to phone them up to find a participating dealer. I did and they could not find anyone in New York City. Really?

In fact she asked me for the nearest larger city and I could not really think of an answer. She could not search by zip code vicinity or any other of that 21st century stuff.

At this point I looked at other options, and the only true online company I found was Assurant. They had a straightforward web page and competitive quotes for policies up to 3 years (something like $3500 all in for 3 years), but very steep price increases for 4 years or more. So no good.

Now I reached out to a few forum members who posted that they bought fidelity or easy care and contacted their vendors. Some had stopped selling Fidelity, so this was hit and miss. I finally managed to get a quote from an Audi dealer (!), where the Fidelity product is used for underwriting their Audi Pure Protection plan.

This is where I learnt two important lessons: the deductible plays a huge role in your price, and the mileage of your car matters as well. For example, my car had less than 35 K miles and for that a 6 year plan with 60K additional miles and $100 deductible was quoted at $4973 and with a $250 deductible it was $3809 (plus tax)! That's a huge difference and you have to have something like 7 repairs to recoup it, so I decided the higher deductible is worth it.

Also, prices apparently jump at round mileage numbers such as 35K, 40K etc. so if you are getting close to that you might want to buy now, even if your factory plan lasts a bit longer (mine runs out at the end of next month).

You got a quote for a decent plan, now you negotiate like Batman, right?

Well, yes and no. The total lack of transparency makes bargaining very hard, because you have no idea what the MSRP is. When I asked for 10% discount as a bargaining start the dealer did not budge and claimed that his quote was already $2500 less than the MSRP retail price; that is of course bogus but there you are.

Another dealer quoted more than $6K for the same plan, it's completely insane.

At this time I got one more lead to a finance manager at a BMW dealership in Virginia (it matters little, apparently, in which state you buy the plan). He gave me a whole list of very good prices for all the plans he was selling and simply said he would add $100 as profit to any plan I pick. I can't know how much profit is already built in, but I knew enough at this stage to recognize good prices. So I bought a 6 year 60K additional miles, 250 deductible Fidelity platinum policy from him with a total price (incl tax) of just under $3900. The whole transaction was by email and eventually a quick phone call plus fedex-ing the documents back and forth. All done in 24 h, but it took me several weeks to get to that point. Very happy with the outcome.

So, if you are interested to buy a Fidelity plan here is a definite suggestion for you: contact Joshua Alford at BMW Richmond, VA. I asked him whether I could post his details and he was fine with that, so go for it. JAlford@crownauto.com

Happy motoring until 2021 and stay safe!
Great thread! Glad it worked out
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      10-16-2015, 07:00 AM   #3
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Good post, thanks for sharing
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      10-16-2015, 07:28 AM   #4
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I purchased my car from a relative who works at one of the largest porsche dealerships in the US and they highly recommend Continental Warranty Ultra Care.

My car had 42K on the clock when I purchased and I got a 5yr/60K warranty with $0 deductible for $3300. I was able to get a price break on the warranty but as we know warranty prices are highly elevated and there is some wiggle room.
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      10-16-2015, 02:32 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by p-lethal View Post
I purchased my car from a relative who works at one of the largest porsche dealerships in the US and they highly recommend Continental Warranty Ultra Care.

My car had 42K on the clock when I purchased and I got a 5yr/60K warranty with $0 deductible for $3300. I was able to get a price break on the warranty but as we know warranty prices are highly elevated and there is some wiggle room.
Sounds like a good deal-would you mind sharing the contact of the dealer where you got it from? It would be great if this thread had lots of actionable info!

I would also like to know the secret sauce in your negation strategy; I could not think of any argument apart from "I don't want to pay the first price you quote"..
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      10-16-2015, 02:49 PM   #6
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You made a very good decision to go with an extended warranty. Most people aren't aware the evaporators will go out, a very common $3k+ repair. The warranty alone will pay for itself on this repair and the rest of the mechanicals.
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      10-16-2015, 02:58 PM   #7
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OP

a lot of help for who wanna get extended warranty
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      10-16-2015, 03:49 PM   #8
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My warranty was $2,000 for 4yrs/50k mi of coverage with a $250 deductible through my credit union. This is for an 09 M3 which had 39,750 miles at the time. It is an exclusionary plan and it has already paid out about $9,500 without any hassle. I haven't even owned the car for a year yet at this point; I've put less than 4k miles on it. Needless to say I'm pretty happy I bought the warranty.
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      10-16-2015, 05:53 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iyzmi View Post
My warranty was $2,000 for 4yrs/50k mi of coverage with a $250 deductible through my credit union. This is for an 09 M3 which had 39,750 miles at the time. It is an exclusionary plan and it has already paid out about $9,500 without any hassle. I haven't even owned the car for a year yet at this point; I've put less than 4k miles on it. Needless to say I'm pretty happy I bought the warranty.
Another great deal and the warranty clearly works! Would you mind sharing the name of your credit union?
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      10-16-2015, 06:56 PM   #10
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Another great deal and the warranty clearly works! Would you mind sharing the name of your credit union?
Alliant Credit Union. Warranty is through "The Warranty Group"
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      10-17-2015, 10:17 AM   #11
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Alliant Credit Union. Warranty is through "The Warranty Group"
Thanks, I think BMW Sterling offered me a warranty with this company, but at nowhere near the price you got!
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      10-17-2015, 01:35 PM   #12
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Candide, how did it work purchasing the plan long distance? Do they have you get your car inspected by a BMW certified technician?

I've had mine for about 4 months and have put about 3,500 miles on it (at 48,800 currently) which includes driving it home from Atlanta to OKC. I've gone to my local BMW dealer twice getting 2 fairly different prices from 2 different people ($4,800 and $5,300 for 4 year/50k miles). The first time I gave the guy my key and he went and ran it through their system. The second guy just asked how many miles were on it. I've also called the Tulsa BMW dealership several times and never got a call back. Do dealerships just not make very much money selling warranties or is their service just that bad?

Every reputable warranty company I've heard, I tried calling the company and they all said they didn't sell warranties independently - I had to go to a dealership to buy one of their warranties. Why do they make it so hard? I basically gave up Looking for an extended warranty after all this.

Sorry for the rant, but dealerships suck...
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      10-17-2015, 02:37 PM   #13
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Great write up. Thanks. With most of these warranties are you tied to a particular dealer/Indy shop?
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      10-17-2015, 04:45 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Landman View Post
Candide, how did it work purchasing the plan long distance? Do they have you get your car inspected by a BMW certified technician?

I've had mine for about 4 months and have put about 3,500 miles on it (at 48,800 currently) which includes driving it home from Atlanta to OKC. I've gone to my local BMW dealer twice getting 2 fairly different prices from 2 different people ($4,800 and $5,300 for 4 year/50k miles). The first time I gave the guy my key and he went and ran it through their system. The second guy just asked how many miles were on it. I've also called the Tulsa BMW dealership several times and never got a call back. Do dealerships just not make very much money selling warranties or is their service just that bad?

Every reputable warranty company I've heard, I tried calling the company and they all said they didn't sell warranties independently - I had to go to a dealership to buy one of their warranties. Why do they make it so hard? I basically gave up Looking for an extended warranty after all this.

Sorry for the rant, but dealerships suck...
The long distance and out of state aspect played no role in my case; in fact, I benefited from a lower sales tax in VA (where the dealer was located) compared to NY. The only thing I did was I sent them a snapshot of the odometer so that they can check the mileage on the purchasing day.

As my car was still under factory warranty no inspection was needed, though one company (Assurant) had a 1-month and 500 miles wait period before their coverage kicks in.

I totally feel your pain with the lousy customer experience. One nearby dealer (BMW Rallye) would not offer a third-party plan unless I came in in person, yeah right.

If your car is still under factory warranty (mileage-wise it should be) then I would recommend contacting Joshua Alford at BMW Richmond for a Fidelity plan, like I did.
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      10-17-2015, 04:50 PM   #15
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Quote:
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Great write up. Thanks. With most of these warranties are you tied to a particular dealer/Indy shop?
Thanks. All of the plans I saw were nationwide without restriction to any particular shop. Of course, I bet a lot of plans won't cover the actual labor rate at a BMW dealer, but indy shops will be fine and that's what I am planning anyway. My dealer experience under warranty and maintenance has been fine but not stellar, and they make so much money on the scheduled services that I suspect that they are less great on actual repairs and trouble-shooting.

By the way, some plans I saw would waive the deductible if you bring the car in to the vending dealer, so that would be nice to have but did not work in my case as no nearby BMW dealer carried the plan I wanted.
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      10-17-2015, 04:56 PM   #16
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so with this warranty from fidelity can u bring it in a normal bmw dealer and u just pay deductible?
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      10-17-2015, 05:09 PM   #17
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so with this warranty from fidelity can u bring it in a normal bmw dealer and u just pay deductible?
I think the only plan where that is 100% guaranteed is with the BMW-owned plan. However, there are many post on this forum where 3rd-party warranties (including Fidelity) were successfully used to cover repairs at dealers, but I have no personal experience with it. The Fidelity contract itself does not exclude any dealer shops. It might help if you get it through a BMW dealer that is local to you, because then they have more skin in the game. In my case this was not possible.
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      10-17-2015, 08:50 PM   #18
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All three of my claims were for dealer repairs. Covered 100% every time.
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      10-18-2015, 11:06 AM   #19
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All three of my claims were for dealer repairs. Covered 100% every time.
Excellent. I hope you are still enjoying the car despite the trouble, what was the problem?

BTW, the most emotional car I ever owned was an Alfa Romeo that needed to see the dealer nine times in a year (under used car warranty); in the end they changed the engine. Still loved the car though.
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      10-18-2015, 11:10 AM   #20
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The long distance and out of state aspect played no role in my case; in fact, I benefited from a lower sales tax in VA (where the dealer was located) compared to NY. The only thing I did was I sent them a snapshot of the odometer so that they can check the mileage on the purchasing day.

As my car was still under factory warranty no inspection was needed, though one company (Assurant) had a 1-month and 500 miles wait period before their coverage kicks in.

I totally feel your pain with the lousy customer experience. One nearby dealer (BMW Rallye) would not offer a third-party plan unless I came in in person, yeah right.

If your car is still under factory warranty (mileage-wise it should be) then I would recommend contacting Joshua Alford at BMW Richmond for a Fidelity plan, like I did.
Mine is actually a 2010 so warranty went away last year before I purchased the car. Can I still go through Joshua? I'll probably send him an email and see.
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      10-18-2015, 12:29 PM   #21
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Mine is actually a 2010 so warranty went away last year before I purchased the car. Can I still go through Joshua? I'll probably send him an email and see.
Definitely worth a try; I got a Fidelity quote from a VW dealer as well, who wanted a fairly simple inspection done before they realized that the car was still under factory warranty.
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      10-18-2015, 09:34 PM   #22
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Excellent. I hope you are still enjoying the car despite the trouble, what was the problem?

BTW, the most emotional car I ever owned was an Alfa Romeo that needed to see the dealer nine times in a year (under used car warranty); in the end they changed the engine. Still loved the car though.
First claim was for when it started leaking oil through the valve cover. The plastic cover on one of the VANOS gears broke apart which allowed the VANOS tensioner to swing out at high RPM and drill away at the valve cover and timing chain cover. That led to replacing the entire VANOS system and dropping the oil pan to clean out metal and plastic debris. That was fun, 2 months in the shop.

Second claim was for the driver seat side bolsters. I like to keep them inflated 100% and I noticed that over the course of a week or two they would deflate down a bit. Then my seat belt extender started slipping so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and have them fix both issues. These are the types of little issues that I wouldn't even bother with if I didn't have the warranty, but since I do, I plan on using it to the fullest. They ended up replacing the side bolster air bladders, pump, and lines. Since it was such a slow air leak, they actually weren't even able to replicate the issue and just took my word for it.

As I was leaving the parking lot from having the above repair completed, I got a DSC error message and the car went into limp mode. That turned out to be the infamous throttle actuator issue. Since I hadn't even left the parking lot, the deductible was waived (combined with the last one). They replaced an o2 sensor and the throttle actuator hall sensor before finally realizing the throttle actuator had to be replaced, as I had been telling them the entire time they were trying to diagnose it.

I'm hoping that the car is squared away for a while now and I can finally begin enjoying some trouble free miles. I love it when I actually get to drive it. If I didn't have the warranty I would be pretty badly screwed right now so I guess you could say I'm enjoying the car because I've only paid $500 out of pocket for all the serious issues it's had. If it keeps acting up I will be selling it as soon as the warranty coverage is up, otherwise I plan on keeping it for a very long time.
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