Where can you buy an extended warranty?

[Freiheit]

A couple of the ads I've browsed for E92 M3's showed extended warranties - outside of the BMW warranty - available for transfer. Just in case I happen to bring home a decent, low mile M3 and want to protect it, are these warranties available outside the factory warranty, after it expires?

[PACarGuy]

If it was purchased from the dealer before the factory warranty expired, it might be transferable, otherwise there are aftermarket warranties you can buy. They are expensive though.

[pcohen15]

Mine's aftermarket, although I purchased it through my local BMW dealer thinking that was the best way to be sure it was legit and that there was a good working relationship between the warranty company and the dealership.

I paid $5k for a 4yr/50k miles all-inclusive service contract. I made an upfront payment and then elected to pay the balance over two years at zero interest. My M3 had about 74k miles on it at the time I took out the contract. I would think it would be less expensive with a newer, lower-mileage car.

So far, I'm $2300 into it and it has already covered close to $7k in unexpected repairs. The debate between building up a rainy-day fund to cover the major suspects (TAs, rod bearings) vs. an extended warranty keeps going like the tide in this forum. Given my experience, the warranty is a no-brainer. Building a savings cache is a great idea as long as your expenditures hit at the end of your stockpiling. If they occur early on, you're behind the curve.

Personally, I would never buy an M car of any digit without a warranty. The big hitters that I've had covered in the past 10 months were out-of-sight, tip-of-the-iceberg things that were uncovered only in the course of servicing or repairing something else. Example: I take the car in for blower motor recall, leave with $4k worth of new A/C evaporator, discovered while doing the recall. My cost? The $200 deductible.

I'm happy to share my contract with you or any forum member for comparison while you're shopping. PM me if you're interested.

Either way, good luck.

[CarbonBlack88]

This thread has a lot of good info on warranties. It's far from straightforward...

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showth...light=warranty

[thkfast]

I'm a gambler.




famous last words.

[Mvy]

I just dont think a warranty is worth it. If you have 5k up front to put into a warranty, you already have an emergency fund that could pay out no matter what the issue, without the hassle of filing a claim that may not get paid. 5k is enough to cover most issues and then some. I just keep a savings account called the M3 repair fund that always has 5k in it. And in case of other emergencies, you have 5k set aside.

To the point made above about the warranty, his actual cost was $5k plus $200 each incident, not just the $200 deductible. No matter what you pay the 5k, even if you dont end up being one with 5k in repairs. If you are super unlucky and have 7k in warranty work and they pay out, you got your moneys worth and end up ahead. For some the need to do that work could be due to the fact that you didn't spend the money up front to take care of the car or the time to pick the right used car. I find that cars like this need proactive replacement of parts that commonly fail to ensure that I dont have a lot of hassles during my ownership. I didn't wait for TAs or RBs, I did them when I could afford them strategically with other maint. items that were due. I would not want to use a warranty to replace good maintenance practices but I understand some feel comfortable doing that.


Last thing to consider that pushed me over the edge of not getting an aftermarket warranty. Read the fine print. ANY modification outside of stock, including tire size believe it or not, could void the warranty. Imagine a warranty company finding an aftermarket airbox, brake kit, coil over, exhaust or tune and then not paying for TA's or motor failure. It happens so be sure you are stock with no intent to move away from stock if you want a warranty. Ive heard of some unicorn warranty companies who either miss that you are modded or dont care but I find that most insurance companies are not in the business of paying every claim they get and are way into the fine print.