BMW and M Power Owners

Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
Posts
25,830
Location
On the road....
Exactl


It drives me insane.

A 520d and a 320d are, for repair purposes, essentially the same car. But because it's priced by series not by model you'll pay significantly more for a manual 520d with no navigation than you will for a fully loaded 440i M Sport with folding metal hard top roof :rolleyes:

It completely writes off the 7 series for me as it's twice the price of a 5 series despite having the same engine, gearbox, electronics system, etc etc
And this (as I had it explained by some BMW Warranty bod over the phone Last year to me) is how the warranty makes them a profit, the higher claims on say a 3 series are more than offset by the premiums paid (usually as a box tick) by a 7er owner.....

The annoying thing is as you say it’s series not model designated, BMW wanted £2.2k for comprehensive on my e38 despite the same warranty on an e39 535i being hugely cheaper.

As you say,drives you insane indeed.
 

DRZ

DRZ

Soldato
Joined
2 Jun 2003
Posts
7,419
Location
In the top 1%
My E89 Z4 35i (N54 engine) had a few grand of warranty work. My E92 M3 had main bearing failure about 10k after I replaced the rod bearings. My M2 will remain under warranty for as long as I own it because you never know when a massive bill is going to turn up when you own a performance car.
 
Associate
Joined
6 Jul 2010
Posts
2,059
I have been lucky (?) enough to have had most of the high risk items associated with N54 engines changed under AUC (high pressure fuel pump, injectors), and I still would not go without the extended warranty.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2004
Posts
15,688
Location
East of England
I'd set fire to my car after all that, too.

E6x M5 is one of the bravest of brave pills, but it's the exception rather than the rule.

TBF, he says in his comments that 90% of his issues came about from poor work being carried out at the dealership which needed rectifying time after time.

If you drive this into a dealer these days with an issue, there is likely to be no one working there who has ever done proper in depth work on these. They only put this engine in the M5 and M6 both of which are not common cars at all and the most anyone in a dealership workshop is likely to have done on one is given it a service.

If you roll in with some sort of engine malfunction, you're going to get someone who doesn't have a clue what they're doing trying random things and ultimately probably causing more issues than their solving. These are the sorts of cars which should be taken to specialists only.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2013
Posts
9,148
TBF, he says in his comments that 90% of his issues came about from poor work being carried out at the dealership which needed rectifying time after time.

If you drive this into a dealer these days with an issue, there is likely to be no one working there who has ever done proper in depth work on these. They only put this engine in the M5 and M6 both of which are not common cars at all and the most anyone in a dealership workshop is likely to have done on one is given it a service.

If you roll in with some sort of engine malfunction, you're going to get someone who doesn't have a clue what they're doing trying random things and ultimately probably causing more issues than their solving. These are the sorts of cars which should be taken to specialists only.
The irony being if you have a warranty I'm not sure you'd be able to get the work done outside the main dealer network (extended warranty that is).
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,616
These are the sorts of cars which should be taken to specialists only

The trouble with that is that most specialists are random garages who stuck a bunch of brand specific posters up.

I used to use specialists for the E39 and had very mixed experiences. Despite the obvious downsides of dealer usage with warranty, the biggest of which is shovelling £800 a year into the bin, I wouldn't run a car any other way now.

If nothing else it means misdiagnosis and throwing parts at a problem is not at your expense.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2005
Posts
2,307
Location
Newcastle
Couple of questions regarding the BMW extended warranty.

My mate is looking at buying a used M235i from a private seller and is thinking of taking out the extended warranty for at least the 1st year to cover his back incase there are any issues.

I presume all he needs to do once he buys the car is go online and purchase the extended warranty? Or are there any pre checks that BMW need to carry out first?
Is it only servicing that you need to use the dealers for, and you're ok to use for own garage/specialist for non warranty work?
Is there an initial period where you can't make a claim, or how does it work regarding if a fault is determined to be pre existing or not?

The car he's looking at is a 2014 model with full BMW service history, he's just trying to go into it with his eyes wide open and determine if the warranty is worth the cost (~£1k as the mileage is round 70k)
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2006
Posts
22,979
Location
London
Couple of questions regarding the BMW extended warranty.

My mate is looking at buying a used M235i from a private seller and is thinking of taking out the extended warranty for at least the 1st year to cover his back incase there are any issues.

I presume all he needs to do once he buys the car is go online and purchase the extended warranty? Or are there any pre checks that BMW need to carry out first?
Is it only servicing that you need to use the dealers for, and you're ok to use for own garage/specialist for non warranty work?
Is there an initial period where you can't make a claim, or how does it work regarding if a fault is determined to be pre existing or not?

The car he's looking at is a 2014 model with full BMW service history, he's just trying to go into it with his eyes wide open and determine if the warranty is worth the cost (~£1k as the mileage is round 70k)

Get a quote and they should send you all the T&Cs.

I would guess this is the latest

https://www.bmw.co.uk/content/dam/b...icy-handbook-2020.pdf.asset.1583936773431.pdf

but should get the correct docs once a quote is done.

Those are quite specific questions.
 
Associate
Joined
13 Sep 2018
Posts
58
Is it just me or are we noticing a lot more Tesla’s around compared to bmw m cars, saw maybe 2 m cars and about 10 Tesla’s yesterday including 2 of the model, x, just general motorway in the north west.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,616
Is it just me or are we noticing a lot more Tesla’s around compared to bmw m cars, saw maybe 2 m cars and about 10 Tesla’s yesterday including 2 of the model, x, just general motorway in the north west.

Because BMW M cars are expensive specialist performance cars and Tesla are everyday cars with huge company car tax incentives that happen to be fast.

A vast amount of Tesla drivers care little for the performance and didn't buy it for that and would never have chosen a BMW M car.
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
Posts
25,830
Location
On the road....
Couple of questions regarding the BMW extended warranty.

My mate is looking at buying a used M235i from a private seller and is thinking of taking out the extended warranty for at least the 1st year to cover his back incase there are any issues.

I presume all he needs to do once he buys the car is go online and purchase the extended warranty? Or are there any pre checks that BMW need to carry out first?
Is it only servicing that you need to use the dealers for, and you're ok to use for own garage/specialist for non warranty work?
Is there an initial period where you can't make a claim, or how does it work regarding if a fault is determined to be pre existing or not?

The car he's looking at is a 2014 model with full BMW service history, he's just trying to go into it with his eyes wide open and determine if the warranty is worth the cost (~£1k as the mileage is round 70k)

Tell him to find another one that's under the 60K mileage limit and then just pay monthly thereafter which avoids any more hikes - what's the point of a warranty on a used car for a year? it isn't suddenly going to be immune from failures once the year is up.

Tell him to check the reg with the BMW warranty website, he'll then find if they will cover it or not, I've run a few registrations through it and been declined in the past a recent 320d I helped a friend source, we had two nice specced contenders from car supermarkets but BMW refused a warranty quote on both despite being apparently ideal criteria - full BMWSH, under 60K etc - maybe a glitch, but I just moved on to a car that they would cover which they did ironically from a private sale, from a making claim perspective, I'd imagine a full BMWSH makes things easier also.
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,616
I've run a few registrations through it and been declined in the past

They don't 'decline' based on reg.

It'll decline if you tick the box that says it's imported or used as a taxi or us a write-off and you'll get a limited product range if the mileage is more than 100k.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom