Struggling to decide whether to renew warranty - help please

[Dan1502]

My 54 X5 BMW insured warranty is due for renewal and I have to decide by tomorrow.  If renewing I would opt for the comprehensive option with £100 excess and no breakdown cover which is £942.12 for the year or £86.78 per month.

I'd probably go for the upfront payment as the interest rate on the monthly option is quite high and the upfront option means the warranty is transferrable if I decide to sell.  I would be interested to know how much value having a transferrable BMW warranty is likely to add on sale though.

It's only covered 43,000 miles and I now do very little mileage as I live very close to work and either walk or commute about a mile a day.  We probably do 3,000-5,000 miles pa.

I've had quite a few claims over the years but would definitely have been better off putting the money to one side instead.

So I am wondering whether to a) renew, probably on a one-off payment basis, b) not renew and put the amount the warranty would have cost aside from this point forward and if opting for b) whether to continue using BMW for servicing or start using an independent.

Another matter from a personal perspective is that we may be about to push ourselves financially by moving home (though I would still set aside a car repair/service fund).

In terms of how long we plan on keeping it, it's the longest I've owned a car for (5 or 6 years) but it does its job well, has loads of life in the tyres, virtually new brake discs and pads and 4 green lights on the service indicator (or another year in terms of time) so I think the sensible thing would be to keep it another year or two and perhaps even just keep it long term.  I think perhaps the main reason I would consider changing it is age and that in my line of work something newer would be more in keeping when I visit clients.

So I suppose the liklihood of big bills even if fixed by an independent (or ZF specialist in the case of gearbox issues), the effect of BMW service history and warranty on resale etc are the main factors I'm struggling with evaluating and I don't really know what it would be worth either.  In terms of spec, it's a 54 Sport with basic stereo, silver with grey leather, panoramic roof, rear blinds, no tints, no heated seats, westfalia towbar, so some decent options but not that high spec but in great condition.

An idea of what sort of things tend to start going around what age/mileage would also help.  There's a little play in some rear bushes that I've been told don't need doing yet but will do before long but other than that t's tip top as far as I know.  Both inner CV boots were replaced under warranty recently and they said there was plenty of grease still in the joints so hopefully they are ok.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[shadrack]

I would say if your keeping it and not handy with the spanners to renew the warranty, quite how much it would add to re sale i hae no idea but would imagine possibly at least half the cost of the warranty, at that age you only need for the pan roof or gearbox to play up and your warranty has instantly paid for itself, if paying garage labour on top of parts even seemingly small jobs could soon land you with a £500 bill

[Reusch]

Just my input I no its not on the scale of your warranty renewal BUT I took out a Rac one parts and labour cover with breakdown cover home start etc etc it came in at £145.00 for the year I'm actually using the parts and labour cover now waiting for the part to come from Germany (fan Porsche Cayenne) £324.00 plus vat plus fitting and it covers it you can have up to 5 claims a year each claim£750.00 max better than nothing.

[Dan1502]

Thanks.  I am quite handy with a spanner and if the house move goes ahead (which I'd say is 50/50 at the moment) we shall have a garage though whether a car will fit in along with all my tools and other stuff is questionable though I will at least have more space to work.  That said with more tricky jobs I would tend to prefer to pay an expert and it's also a case of findng the time.  Each time there is a claim on the warranty I seem to have to argue against it being wear and tear so it ends up being for ages whilst that goes on which is frustrating but they have so far given in the end.

The roof had substantial work just after I bought it but could have future problems, the gearbox/transmission is a potential worry though people say ZF specialists can normally sort matters for a lot less, turbos can have issues I believe and I guess the rear air suspension has potential to play up too.  Maybe the answer is to bite the bullet for another year then reassess.  We bought the Mini this year and the 3 year warranty expires in March and I think the renewal is about £700.  As it has the apparently more reliable N18 engine I was thinking of self-insuring on that one and putting the £700 pa aside.  I suppose what's making me think is if I self-insured both then a total of £1,700 pa in a car fund soon mounts up to enough to cover even pretty big bills...

That sounds quite good Reusch other than that it's the potential for the really big bills which concerns me most.  I had one big claim during year one which was the roof at apparently £3,000 plus then since I have had variable years.  One I think would have been more or less the same as the warranty cost, last year a door lock mechanism, mirror glass decolouration and two CV boots, a year without anything and a couple with minor claims.  The thing is with some of the claims like the CV boots whilst BMW would've charged nearly £300 a side, the whole drive shafts and both joints could be replaced on both sides for less than £300 so I think it's more about the risk of big bills and effect on resale.

[Drpellypo]

Put it this way. The last bill I had from the garage for my 04 was £788, and that was discounted substantially, but non of that was another major. It was just a few jobs where the parts and labour stacked up. These are super expensive cars to maintain so a warranty will at least give peace of mind. I would shop around though. For such low mileage your warranty premium seems very excessive to me.


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[Drpellypo]

*anything major


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[Dan1502]

I missed off the replacement glow plug it needed.  The labour and cost of one plug was covered but I paid for the other five to be replaced at the same time and negotiated some discount on parts.  It's a tough one though as if I don't get a warranty on either car there has to be about £1,700 pa of work required before I'm worse off which is quite a lot.  I guess the last year's bills would have been somewhere around £800 or £900 if my excess is taken into account but probably half that at an independent.  I guess it's the type of big claims that might happen, whether they're very common and how much they would be if the work is done by an independent which would be useful to know.  The panoramic roof can be scary.  I'm not sure about later gearboxes and costs of repairs from ZF specilists and what about engine issues?  If I can't decide by the end of tonight I think I'll just renew and pay upfront.

[Reusch]

Only you can decide pal do what you feel is best for you if it's the big outlay so be it as long as your happy.

[Dan1502]

I decided to go for it, more because I've left it last minute and need to make a decision than anything.  I don't think I'll renew go for the Mini warranty though.