buying a used F15 X5....

[leftbank]

dealer wants to sell me an extended warranty for almost 6k CDN.
car has 14,000 miles for a 2014.

My first though was no but wife seems very hesitant to not have a warranty.

Need some pros and cons to this.

Thanks

[originalgoods13]

I bought the extended warranty from Secure Drive which is the standard offering of BMW Canada dealerships. I remember it being CAD $6,700 for 5 years or 100,000 kms. (I rack about 10K kms. annually).

There are some incentives if you don't claim during the warranty period like $2000 on your next vehicle or accessories like tires or $1,000 cash back I believe.

X5 have higher priced parts and labor hours in terms of other models so you can easily make the price of the warranty worth it, plus it is a piece of mind if something catastrophic happens.

Here's my post about it:

https://www.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...php?p=22594152

[KRS_SN]

Originally Posted by leftbank

dealer wants to sell me an extended warranty for almost 6k CDN.
car has 14,000 miles for a 2014.

My first though was no but wife seems very hesitant to not have a warranty.

Need some pros and cons to this.

Thanks

2014 x5 with 14 k miles.
in my book its a high risk product.
i would pay £1500 for year 1
If it runs well un year 1 hopefully it will do so in following years
my overall suggestion is buy 1 year warranty and chance the rest.

[leftbank]

Just received a copy of the service records from dealer - battery swapped out, power nozzle had to be replaced, control unit of adaptive headlight module replaced and replaced “integrated supply module”.

Why do you consider this a high risk item? I thought being low in mileage would be a bonus. Car appears to be clean. Am I missing something?

[-c-]

Originally Posted by leftbank

Just received a copy of the service records from dealer - battery swapped out, power nozzle had to be replaced, control unit of adaptive headlight module replaced and replaced "integrated supply module".

Why do you consider this a high risk item? I thought being low in mileage would be a bonus. Car appears to be clean. Am I missing something?

Well it depends people have had mysterious engine failures out of nowhere at low miles, heck my dealer literally blew my engine up after a oil filter housing gasket replacement.

Then depending on engine you could have other costly repairs, just for instance theirs a part on my trans on my 40e that costs over 6k just for the part not including labor and it's been known to fail.

You never know you can roll the dice.

My n55 powered e70 gave me 56k problem free miles until the dealer blew her up!

So you may be ok. If you plan on keeping it for a few years it doesn't hurt. Your already ahead as your buying used so you've already saved 10s of thousands.

BMW's in general have lots of teck and over engineered bits that are expensive to fix when they foul out so vs a standard car you may have more issues but don't be fooled thinking a new car would be problem free, I've had plenty and they broke just as well as cars with 100k miles. Cars today are way better built but as anything with moving parts they can fail.
The x5 is a great machine but it comes with a price and whatever fails could be pricy.

Just a water pump failure will set you back almost 2k but I'm in Chicago so everything here is stupid priced.

[ComasF15]

Warranties are not a good bet for the consumer. Warranty companies have made a fine art of exclusions. The risk is that the car is a bit under used at 14k miles. It has had the time to weed out most early failures. Self insure.

Here's how I would spend the warranty money. Take it to another dealer and pay for a pre buy inspection. If they won't fix, walk.

Are you handy and do you have a place to maintain the car? If not learn how to do basic maintenance. With the kind of money spent on a warranty you could buy a dedicated laptop and a copy of Rheingold to diagnose problems before you take it to a shop. There are several less expensive tools that will help you to demystify unscheduled maintenance and allow you to change your own battery for example. Develop the habit of repair before failure. There are companies that will repair modules that a shop would just replace. Module Masters comes to mind. Worst case add towing to your insurance it's very reasonable.

Lastly the warranty company is betting nothing more than its cost that things won't fail. Take the bet yourself.

[sdk8103]

Originally Posted by ComasF15

Warranties are not a good bet for the consumer. Warranty companies have made a fine art of exclusions. The risk is that the car is a bit under used at 14k miles. It has had the time to weed out most early failures. Self insure.

Here's how I would spend the warranty money. Take it to another dealer and pay for a pre buy inspection. If they won't fix, walk.

Are you handy and do you have a place to maintain the car? If not learn how to do basic maintenance. With the kind of money spent on a warranty you could buy a dedicated laptop and a copy of Rheingold to diagnose problems before you take it to a shop. There are several less expensive tools that will help you to demystify unscheduled maintenance and allow you to change your own battery for example. Develop the habit of repair before failure. There are companies that will repair modules that a shop would just replace. Module Masters comes to mind. Worst case add towing to your insurance it's very reasonable.

Lastly the warranty company is betting nothing more than its cost that things won't fail. Take the bet yourself.

I agree, the warranty companies have all the stats to make intelligent decisions when calculating rates and costs, and are obviously making money because most of their customers lose, and few win, just like Vegas. If not, warranty companies wouldn't exist.

[CHECKERED]

Originally Posted by ComasF15

Warranties are not a good bet for the consumer. Warranty companies have made a fine art of exclusions.

...

Lastly the warranty company is betting nothing more than its cost that things won't fail. Take the bet yourself.

This is true,
In some cases buying a warranty might bring some piece of mind, knowing that you just pay upfront for any unexpected repairs.

I bought a ‘platinum’ warranty on my S4 for $1900 (3 years 36K miles), with $100 deductible, warranty paid out $8,600, so I guess I was ‘lucky’

[ComasF15]

Originally Posted by CHECKERED

This is true,
In some cases buying a warranty might bring some piece of mind, knowing that you just pay upfront for any unexpected repairs.

I bought a ‘platinum’ warranty on my S4 for $1900 (3 years 36K miles), with $100 deductible, warranty paid out $8,600, so I guess I was ‘lucky’

Like you said, you're buying peace of mind. Im glad it paid for you.

That said, you can have peace of mind with the self insured option too. Each of us have to make our decision on how our money is best spent

[sdk8103]

Originally Posted by ComasF15

Like you said, you're buying peace of mind. Im glad it paid for you.

That said, you can have peace of mind with the self insured option too. Each of us have to make our decision on how our money is best spent

I have never bought an extended warranty on anything. I always bet with the pros-the insurance/warranty companies that know the risk. I have saved many, many thousands of dollars, and could even take a big hit on my X5 and still be way ahead of the game. That's my piece of mind, but to each his own.

[The Libertine]

Been years since I bought an extended warranty - on anything for that matter. That’s because I learned early on it’s a waste of money.

Would rather budget a certain amount, per month, for any repairs. If I need to use it the money is there; if not, I’ve come out ahead and will roll the money over towards a new car when the time comes.

[kwstandard]

Go with your gut... I've owned 9 BMW's, and quite a few other makes. I have bought extended warranties for exactly 2 of them - a Mercedes GL and a used Mini Cooper for my daughter. For some reason, I just felt uncomfortable not having the warranties on those 2 cars. Turns out my gut was right and they paid for themselves many times over. (The mercedes probably had $15k in repairs before that warranty ran out...) Knock on wood, but I've never needed to repair my BMW's at a cost beyond, or even close to, that of an extended warranty. JMHO.

[unluky]

If I added up all the warranties I have turned down in my life and took out the repairs that they would have actually paid for - I would have enough left over to buy a car....

Even if I grenade a tranny at this point - I am $ ahead.

[alphaod]

It's peace of mind vs is it really worth it. That's why they sell extended warranties or insurances; if it was a money losing operation they wouldn't be selling them.

If your wife wants the peace of mind, that's important too. Personally I trust that with good regular maintenance and being vigilant about the how the car is performing, I don't need the extended warranty.