[Closed] Extended Car warranties... worth it?

I had one with my car - everything that I had issue with wasn't covered, bar one thing & they only stumped up the first £100 of the bill.

Feels like peace of mind, but unless it's as good as a new car one, then I wouldn't bother again.

I had a look at and everything that caused me concern (e.g. DMF, DPF, Injectors etc.) wasn't covered so didn't bother.

You need to look closely at what is and isn't included.

I have just replaced our Shitroen with a Leon ST & the 12 month extended warranty was an extra £300. I looked at what was included & it seemed to be most things that would cause me to weep into my morning coffee, so I thought £300 was sensible. Probably more for peace of mind in hindsight, but hey ho.
It kicks in once the manufacturer warranty ends.

The official BMW extended warranty was good not sure if they still do it or if it's still the same but as others have said the aftermarket ones aren't worth the paper there written on better saving the money and using it for paying for any repairs required

Feels like peace of mind, but unless it’s as good as a new car one, then I wouldn’t bother again.

Well, I've 3 options - official BMW - in order of cost:

a) Everything except fluids and wear and tear to the original purchase price of the car

b) Named stuff, e.g. drive train, turbo's, brake failures etc to the original purchase price of the car (probably my choice)

c) Named stuff, e.g. drive train, turbo's, brake failures etc to £5k per annum.

Policy its here if you want to read it - I'm not a mechanic but a&b seem to cover quite a lot of expensive things: https://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/Product/Index

No, save the money/ spend elsewhere. Often they will only replace on failure so you could have shonkey part that annoys you for a long time or parts that regularly fail/ wear are not covered (led light units for example). Then after 5 years the price goes up etc. You may spend thousands over the years for something that is never needed and then when your car is too old for cover, a part fails and the money paid to the warranty company could have covered that failure.

For a 3 year old car just out of official warranty I’d go for the most expensive one, at least for the first year, then reconsider. Things can sometimes fail just out of the official warranty, but once you’re past the first year or so, then anything ropey should have emerged. New cars can be hellish expensive to fix. Often one claim and you’ve got your payback...

Oh but to add - I had the official manufacturers one - never failed to pay out, never had any questions. Guessing non manufacturers versions may be less useful...

There are also some weird things not covered. Mate had injector go and this was covered as was the labour just for this. Apparently as good practice there should have been an oil change but this wasn't covered nor a couple of other "proper job" jobs.

Mine has been worth having. On an older car where the £500/year on the warranty has always been less than the amount I claimed. Will be on my own from September as nobody will cover a car older than 10 years/100k miles.

Gotchas are...check the small print for what's not covered, and on mine (not a manufacturer's warranty), they have a limit for labour rates, for each job they decide how many hours they'll pay for, and also with parts they'll pay what they can find the part for, rather than manufacturer's RRP.

But once you know all that you can make it work for you. Had most of the big stuff sorted on my car for not much money over 3 years.

BMW extended warranty from the dealer prob a bit different.

BMW warranties are well worth having but you must obviously consider the cost versus risk.

A fews ago my wife's 3 series convertible had an issue with the folding metal roof where the hydraulic system failed. The car was a few months outside of warranty but as the car had a full BMW dealer service history BMW issued the parts FOC.

Still an expensive job though as labour was around £900 but the parts would have been £960.

At the time the extended warranty would have cost us around £600.

I took the view that the extended warranty is a fixed cost, but the cost of repairs is unknown and potentially very expensive. No brainer on that basis. Again this only works if you can have faith in the warranty which is why I went the manufacturer route..

Classic Weibull distribution stuff.
I looked at the BMW extended warranty when I had mine and didn't buy it in the end - I can't remember why though. 🤔

A couple of years older than yours but my brother's had a couple of problems with his F31, a headlight motor failure which apparently needed both headlight units to be replaced to fix (not sure on cost but several hundred) and an iDrive problem which was over £1000. Of your OEM warranty options it looks to me as if only the Comprehensive would have covered him.

I dunno tbh, without knowing what the quotes are I don't know what I'd do.

I dunno tbh, without knowing what the quotes are I don’t know what I’d do.

a) Everything except fluids and wear and tear to the original purchase price of the car - £613

b) Named stuff, e.g. drive train, turbo’s, brake failures etc to the original purchase price of the car (probably my choice) - £527

c) Named stuff, e.g. drive train, turbo’s, brake failures etc to £5k per annum. - £420

It’s insurance. I tend to think for modern cars it’s probably worth it. Things are much more complex and expensive on modern cars and specialists and local mechanics are no longer much cheaper than dealer prices and things like headlights can cost thousands of pounds.

depends on the motor imo.

the more bling* it is the more i think its worth it .

* i dont do bling - one of my key factors when buying is - can i fix this my self reasonably easy without requiring a whole new skill set in computer programming. Leads to boring car choices but then they do prove to be reliable.

In the end it comes down to your attitude to risk, they're obviously pricing it so they make money which means the average payout per car is a good bit less than the premium. If you pass on the warranty you're just betting that you'll have below average repair costs and not be the guy with a timing chain failure holding the average up! On a 3 year old BMW I might be inclined to take the cover, and I'd go comp or nothing.

Although this is all theoretical, I've never paid more than £6k for a car in my life, and have only had 3 cars in the last 24 years.

I'm a simple soul, so I like simple rules. One of mine is "never pay to insure something that you could afford to replace yourself". Insurance companies are not charities. The premiums have to cover the costs that they pay out plus some profit for them. So, if you add up all the optional insurance policies you could take out over your life (extended warranties, phones etc) then on average you have to lose out.

I'll pay to insure buildings and contents as I can't afford to replace everything I own or my house. I'll pay travel insurance for medical cover as that can get very high. I'll pay to insure my car in case I cause a lot of damage (and because it's the law). But that's pretty much it.

Of course I'll get left with a big bill somewhere (my money is on the dog) but all the money I've saved in not taking out warranties or other insurance policies over the years will more than cover it.

As above, it's insurance. All insurance does is spread the cost of claims (plus overheads) across the premiums; if you're an average claimer, you would break even if the overheads were zero. So it's good for predictability and peace of mind, but it's unlikely to save you money unless your vehicle is at higher risk for reasons you know but they don't.

I also wonder how good a job you'll get from somebody who already has your money, gives you no choice in who does the work and wants to spend as little as possible, compared to a good independent who you can choose and get a quote from, if and when you need it.

I've had good and bad with manufacturers extended warranties.

Good with Mercedes, was expensive monthly but the bill was a lot more for the parts, labour, hire car etc when it did go wrong.

Bad with BMW, cooling fan stopped working and car overheated, it was eventually found to be a broken wire inside the wiring loom, not covered apparently as wiring isn't, dealer did me a deal to fix it and afterwards said they would never offer that to a customer again, took about 3x longer than they thought.

As has been said, check what is and isn't covered.

Decided to go with the - a) Everything except fluids and wear and tear to the original purchase price of the car – £613 - max option.

With Mrs K being made redundant it'd help not to have any large bills in the next 12 months.   I'm not driving the car much though which - having it sit around - makes me think its either a waste of money or - because sometimes things stop working because they aren't used - is the right thing to do.  Its also got 14000 miles/2 years to the next services so I'm basically using that financial gap.

Ah well, you takes your chances...