Dear Readers,
I am thinking of going with Warranty Direct for extended warranty insurance for my 2011 BMW 535i. All opinions are welcomed!
Thanks!
I Donât Know A Thing About Warranty Direct, But I Would Definitely Check Out BMWâs âFactoryâ Extended Warranty. Have You Done This ?
If Warranty Direct is less expensive than BMWâs own warranty extension then youâve got to ask yourself, âWhy ?â
Personally, I wouldnât even consider additional coverage through any aftermarket organization, but I would consider coverage through the vehicleâs manufacturer.
With warranties, trying to understand what is covered and what is not, is very difficult.
CSA
Doesnât such a new vehicle already come with a factory warranty? I would be very careful about buying any kind of extended warranty. Too many of them are the equivalent of throwing money away (difficult to impossible to get them to cover anything), and if you follow the scheduled maintenance, which you have to do and prove it to keep any warranty valid anyway, you dramatically reduce your chances of having a breakdown. Consider taking the money you would use to purchase an extended warranty and putting it into a savings account for use in the event of an unscheduled breakdown of your car, i.e: to cover any âwarrantyâ issues once the factory warranty is up. Two pretty neat things will happen: one is that the money will build interest while it is not being used, and you may never have to spend it and will have a down payment for your next car when it comes time to replace this one.
Purchase the coverage offered from BMW not a third party if you want one. The major issue is these after market ones are painful to collect from, have a nasty habit of fraud/going out of business, and written against the consumer.
âone is that the money will build interest while it is not being usedâ
Put $5,000 in a savings account and in 5 years youâll have an extra $255, before taxes. You just bought a BMW. Treat yourself to a nice lobster dinner and forget the additional warranty.
SunnyAl:
Can you describe what you expect the warranty will do for you?
Warranty contacts, especially from aftermarket companies, are carefully written with fine print to allow the company to not pay you for many of a vehicleâs expensive repairs.
The odds are heavily against you that youâll ever recoup the money you spend buying the warranty.
Extended warranty coverages is just a very very very expensive insurance policy. Iâd never buy one no matter who was selling them. They are not worth itâŠnever have been worth it.
âThey are not worth itâŠnever have been worth it.â
Tell that to the folks who have received more in paid for service work than theyâve spent on their extended waranties. I will agree that those people are no doubt the minority of purchasers, but to say âneverâ is a stretch, in my opinion.
Obviously, if a company paid out more than they took in, theyâd either discontinue the service, charge more, or go out of business.
Peace Of Mind is what many purchasers are buying.
Many people sleep better at night knowing theyâre covered. I pay well over $1500 per year just for Home Owners Insurance. I donât have a mortgage. Iâve done this for decades and hope Iâll never make a claim. I will probably be able to look back on all the money Iâve âwastedâ on coverage Iâll never use, but I sleep at night, quite peacefully.
My problem with the factory extended warranty is that we own several cars and Iâd need several expensive policies. According to Murphyâs Law the car that did not have coverage would be the one to break, not the ones with warranty coverage. In my case Iâm better banking the money for peace of mind. One car ? Thatâs different.
I say that after one does adequate homework and some comparisons, itâs a case of âwhatever floats your boatâ. Never worth it ? That depends . . .
CSA
I would never buy a third-party extended warranty, period. That industry is just too full of scammers and outright thieves. If you want an extended warranty, only buy a BMW factory-backed extended warranty. At least the peace of mind, expensive as it will be, will be real.
I Agree With Texases.
CSA
If these warranties offer piece of mind I think they are worth it for a consumer. Many people get spooked by a $1000 repair and dump a vehicle at serious loss between 5-6 yr depreciation and serious value loss at trade in due to repair/owner panic.
If it allows a person to comfortably in their mind keep a vehicle 3-4 more years than it may be well worth it.
Financially aspects alone it obviously makes more sense to not buy however car buying/selling is emotional for many folks.
Tell that to the folks who have received more in paid for service work than theyâve spent on their extended waranties.
And the people whoâve paid out far more then they received far out numbers the people whoâve bee paidâŠWhen I last worked writing the software that kept track of this information for insurance companiesâŠthe ratio was about 100:1.
So yesâŠthere are people that it worked forâŠThere are people who win the lottery tooâŠDoes that prove that lottery tickets are a good investment???
MikeInNH, Youâre Agreeing With Me, But I Guess You Donât Realize It.
If Youâre Looking To Argue, Look Someplace Else.
CSA
I think far too many people want to be insured for every single expense. The problem is to insure against every single expense is expensive. I donât mind paying for an office visit to the doctor, nor do I mind paying for dental care. I want to be insured for a major problem if I have to be hospitalized for surgery. I donât have a mortgage, but I do carry homeownerâs insurance for peace of mind. I carry high liability on my automobiles because I donât want to lose everything if I had a judgment against me in a major accident.
However, I have the maximum deductible on my homeownerâs insurance and my collision insurance. I insure myself against the small losses. I never purchase extended warranties on automobiles or anything else. I feel that the factory warranty is sufficient.
The problem with extended warranties is that things go wrong after a lot of miles are on the car. They might fix it if you can show that it was not a wear issue and if you can show that poor car did not cause it. I think that you are unlikely to get almost anything paid for unless it occurs under 50,000 to 60,000 miles. It is certainly possible that something big might fail, like your transmission, but it is unlikely. I have only owned one car that needed untimely repairs under 60,000 miles. It was the transmission, and it had to be replaced at a cost of $3000. But Olds gave me a 60,000/60 month extended warranty when I bought the car because they had already announced they were closing. I paid nothing. But that is one car among 13. And I lead a charmed lifeâŠ
Any more opinions about Warranty Direct extended auto coverage?
SunnyAl, youâve gotten just about a 100% ânoâ vote on thisâŠ
SunnyAl, if the car is ânewâ and the dealer is presurring you to buy it - tell them this:
âif you are telling me that this NEW car needs an extended warrenty, then what you are telling me is that this NEW car is a p.o.s.!â
This one sentence has shut up every salesman I have ever encounteredâŠ
No dealer is pressuring me; I am pressuring myself. I know BMWs are like boyfriends and girlfriends: they are expensive to maintain. î
I read that the consensus is to put aside money into a rainy day BMW account, and hope youâve picked the right stocks to keep it going!! î