Hey all,
Does anyone offer a quality warranty product without mileage restriction?
The BMW AUC warranty on my 530i Sport is expiring. Previously, it has been renewed each year. But BMW have now changed their rules, and will not allow me to renew becuase the car has over 100,000 miles on it.
This is a shame - as the car literally did spend its entire first owners life on the Motorway, it is in truely remarkable condition for its mileage. There is not a mark on it bar the usual front end stonechips, the interior is immaculate, and after a recent full checkover by the main dealer, everything was found to be in excellent mechanical order. We also have a 49,000 mile 530 in the family of the same age and my car is easily comparable in terms of condition.
But alas, everyone seems to look at the mileage and refuse to offer any sort of warranty product. Quite how the mileage affects things like the likleness of the DSC computer, for example, failing I dont know - it's probably had the same amount of time 'in use' as a car with half the mileage thats lived in town at an average speed of 20mph!
Does anyone know of a decent warranty product I could use, or am I on my own now?
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Save your money because in my opinion even if you found a warranty insurance product that would take on the risk the actual cover would not be worth a carrot.I speak as one that has sold MBI for a living.If you must,just save some money in an account each month and remind yourself that about 15% of any MBI premium is going to pay any valid claim,but 100% +intrest will pay towards your 'claim'.
Why do you think BMW declined to cover your car,simple really.
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Why do you think BMW declined to cover your car,simple really.
Becuase under new financial legislation introduced last year, extended warranties must be provided by an FSA approved and regulated insurer, which meant their old BMW backed scheme could not legally continue. This scheme covered 100k+ vehicles with no extra clauses, infact, the previous owner renewed the warranty on the vehicle this time last year with the car showing 110k miles.
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I think T Lucas has a fair point. If the car wasn't coming up to the period where it would be a fair assumption that there could be some hefty bills on the way, then warranty companies would be falling over themselves to take the money off you, and that includes the BMW scheme. If it was really worth their while then they would comply with the legislation and offer this warranty somehow.
For whoever does offer a warranty for your car, then they are taking a larger risk with it, than say a 50,000 mile car. And thats what the warranty people want to attract, the smaller risks, not the larger ones.
Its no-ones fault as such, just the circumstances but I think that you will find it harder and harder to get a warranty cover as the vehicle gets older. You might well be on your own with it soon.
And then there is the argument that often these third party warranties aren't actually worth the paper that they are written on...
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I would have thought that age is a far better indicator of wear and possible future expensive than mileage - after all, a 5 year old car with 70,000 town miles is sure to be in worse shape and more likely to suffer mechanical breakdown.
Oh well.
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I would have thought that age is a far better indicator of wear and possible future expensive than mileage - after all, a 5 year old car with 70,000 town miles is sure to be in worse shape and more likely to suffer mechanical breakdown.
Age isn't that much of an issue. Not with modern cars anyway. Take typical japanese import as an example - over decade old Skylines or Shoguns with low numbers on the clock that look like they left factory few weeks earlier etc.
Mileage is different story. Perhaps most important thing is that there is no such thing as "motorway mileage". In insurance terms or otherwise. Even if you could somehow prove it was genuinely used only as a long mile cruiser, to most people term "motorway" nowadays means basically start stop traffic across multiple lanes...
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[Nissan 2.2 dCi are NOT Renault engines. Grrr...]
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Michael -
I wouldn?t worry too much ? if you?ve got a good BMW that?s been serviced and it?s been checked over and found to be ok ? then do as others have suggested and ?allocate? the amount of money you would spend (surely about £6/700 now IIRC? ) to a savings account and it?s there if you need it.
I had a similar situation with a high mileage ?99BMW 323 bought at 80K miles and under remaining 3 months of an (unlimited mileage) BMW AUC .
I renewed for 2 years running but the premiums got so high I stopped 2 years ago.
My experience was that I had 2 issues with BMW, I had slightly noisy hydraulic tappets at 100K and having been told by the dealer that it was a warranty item I booked the car in ? but received a call from the dealer saying that BMW would now only pay 50% cost because of ?high mileage?. I rang BMW at Bracknall, argued, and got all 100% paid (£800 + VAT). A similar thing happened when the car was MOT?d at the dealer, front suspension bushes needed replacing (110K miles) and dealer said ?not covered? and again I refused to pay as the Warranty specifically included MOT insurance and mentioned suspension!???dealers aarrgh !
When I was sent the invitation to renew again I rang BMW Warranty and gave them 2 or 3 hypothetical situations and asked if they would be covered under the warranty (failed gearbox selector, blown head gasket, faulty aircon) should I renew and in each case was told that due to the mileage (130k by then) that these problems would be deemed fair wear and tear ??.because of the mileage..? and that the ?prime benefit? of the warranty ? in my case ? would be the MOT insurance.
I concluded that it wasn?t worth it.
Fortunately since then in the 2 years I?ve had no problems whatsoever (mileage now 166K) and the bonus is that I don?t need to visit the dealer for overpriced servicing to keep the warranty intact. I?ve found an independent BMW garage in my area for the Insp 1 & 2 (every 30K) and do an oil change myself every 7.5K.
If I get a problem I?ll take the hit but I?m about £1700 ?in credit? so far.
Jacks
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