Weekend Head Scratcher: When Is An Extended Warranty Worth It?

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer
Kurt Wiley writes in:

Having been a long time reader of TTAC, I now pose a question to the Best and Brightest:

Should one who likes the driving experience offered by German brands, but abhors their reliability and maintenance expense, seek safety with an extended warranty? Or will purchasing one of those warranties be an utter waste of money?

Considering I’m about to embark on a weekend roadtrip in a 12-year-old M Coupe, I’m hoping the answer to this question is “no.” At the same time, I’m willing to admit that I bought the car I wanted and that a little bit of risk was part of the deal. But then, I’m just a callow youth with no kids to worry about… I’ll let TTAC’s Best and Brightest bring their wealth of experience to this question while I pray that Mr M doesn’t blow a gasket this weekend.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Lowell Houghton Lowell Houghton on Feb 06, 2011

    Most of the people that I have know that benifitted from from a purchased warranty bought GM, and made out because some computer chip failed. This just convinces me to not buy GM. Most cars are fine for the first 75,000 miles. One gal I know that bought a VW had her transmission fail during the purchased warranty period and coverage was denied because she was late with an oil change once. Plus the insurance only covers manufactuer defect, not wear and tear or misuse, so many claims are denied. I do not bother buying the coverage, I think that it is a rip up in most stituations.

  • Palmer Jan Ward Palmer Jan Ward on Feb 06, 2011

    Funny - I was just confronted with this exact problem. I have an '06 X3 w/46k miles and ran out of warranty one year ago. I figured....blah blah blah. So suddenly I get a cracked Vortex Oil Separator (?)... $1200 with my discount so I'm still ahead of the game - the BMW Extended costs $2500+/-...BUT - whadoeyedonow? Inasmuch as anything on a Bimmer is a grand to fix, I'm beginning to wonder if I shoulda. Maybe just buy a new one and forget about it? Great conundrum...

  • Brapoza Brapoza on Feb 06, 2011

    I don't think anyone has mentioned that if you decide to sell the car and you bought a transferable extended warranty from the manufacturer it will probably make it easier to sell and you may very well re-coupe most of what you spent on the warranty in the first place. We bought an extended warranty on our Legacy GT that pretty much covers everything for six years or 80K miles and if we sell the car it's transferable.

  • Raincoconuts Raincoconuts on Feb 07, 2011

    Only BMW I owned was a 1993 525I. Bought brand new w/o the extended warranty. Mostly trouble free but head gasket had to be replaced @ 100K(about 2K for belts, pump,etc). Lots of annoying electrical issues as the car aged..lighting on the console near the gear lever kept crapping out as did most of the power seat adjustments. Most of the leather on the doors got unstuck and the walnut trim developed cracks like old china. But it was always remained a good drive (8 years and 153K)and surprisingly reasonable on maint(ind. shop only).

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