Extended Warranty

[RTinNC]

43 minutes ago, Vtbob said:

Just to be contrarian.   I think extended warrantees are a waste of money.  

 

Remember they are a for profit enterprise for both the issuing company and the commission the dealer makes on the sale.  They do their homework, they always make money in the end!!

 

Only buy the warrantee if a failure's cost is beyond you means to pay to fix.   Most BMW buys do not have that problem.   Save the money you would have paid for the warrantee....over the years it will be a LOT of money!    

 

I've long since spent the money I've saved on trips....

 

I've had 6 BMW's over the last 37 years.  Only the first one had problems with the clutch spline gears failing ever 10k miles (3 times).  The last failure was at s bit over 30k miles and in the 5th year of owner ship...ie out of warrantee.....but BMW picked up the tab, all three times and transport (once for Kapukasing Ontario ) .

The final fix was a new transmission housing ( the original had been erroniusly machined at an angle).  BMW is a stand up company!

 

PS  I kept the bike for 13 years and just under 100,000 mile.  No more problems!

 

If you disagree, send money to an insurance company....they will say thanks!

 

 

You are correct ..... IT"S INSURANCE!   Just like insurance on your home, car, trip insurance, etc.   We hope to never need it but for some it does an amazing thing ... helps you sleep at night. 

 

I've owned BMW's since 2000 with over 100K miles on them.   Had 7 BMW's I believe and had to use the extended warranties twice.  But in at least 3 instances it was the extended warranty that helped me sell the bike. 

 

Personal choice but for me a cost of less than $.50 a day is cheap insurance. 

[Vtbob]

$.50 a day for insurance since 2000!    That is 19 years time 365 days is 6935 time $.50/day  equals $3467,50!     The cost of Good sleeping!

[RTinNC]

 

Actually the "less than $.50 a day" was my current bike ... was even less for earlier models.  So yes $3000 give or take for almost TWENTY years of sleeping well.  

 

 

[JamesW]

I think these extended warranties have become very big businesses.  I am still getting these irritating phone calls trying to sell me an extended warranty on my 8 year old Mustang, just never ends.

 

As I think I said before I would look differently on the extended warranty if BMW was the company offering it like Yamaha does for their bikes as an example.

[EricV]

Like all forms of insurance, there is a measure of us betting we'll have a problem that will cost more than the cost of the insurance Vs the seller betting we won't.  The odds are usually in their favor, it's a business, after all.  That said, for some, the cost provides value.  For others it does not.  I won't buy the extended warranty for my microwave, lawn tractor, TV, washer, water heater, etc.  But I'm not using any of those more than average.  Less, in fact.  The motorcycle on the other hand, gets used far more than average, so there it makes sense for my usage and needs.

 

On the Yamaha, it was so cheap and the bikes were all first Gen offerings, so I just did it.  For less than $100 a year for unlimited full coverage warranty, that's hard to pass up.  The BMW was as much due to the poor first experience as to the high cost of the new bike and parts.  Several years back the BMW dealer we were using got excited about BMW offering extended warranties direct from BMW.  It never happened.  When I asked, he said the dealers never really got an answer other than the corporate bean counters didn't think it would cost out.

[Cap]

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Like all forms of insurance... The motorcycle on the other hand, gets used far more than average, so there it makes sense for my usage and needs....

 

+1  Like all interesting questions, the answer is "it depends."

 

 

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...the corporate bean counters didn't think it would cost out...

 

Of course, we don't really know why BMW won't offer an in-house extended warranty.  The real problem is information asymmetry: BMW knows the cost of ownership after 3 years, and we don't.