I just got myself a new BMW 335xi - 2011. I read in Consumers Reports that 335xi’s experience ‘worse than average’ reliability. Should I be worried?
The car with a 4 year maintenance plan that’s pretty comprehensive. 4 Years or 50,000 miles. I don’t do 50K miles in 4 years.
They offered me (for around $2K I think) an extended maintenance for around $2K: 6 Years/100,000miles. Given my driving, I am getting an extra 2 years of maintenance.
Given what Consumer Reports said, I am worried. Any advice?
I am only wondering why you didn’t check with consumer reports before you bought this car instead of after.
If you have the money to buy it, and intend to keep it that long, you can also afford the extended warranty, but you better check just what it covers, and compare that to the things that are unreliable before you plunk down someones hard earned cash.
ha,ha. “Someone’s hard earned cash??” Anyway of course the CU thing came out after I bought the car
Don’t you think the companies offering these warranties know if a car has worse than average reliability and set the price accordingly?
the company offering the warrantee is BMW itself. Oh well. Thanks.
That doesn’t change anything. Do you think they set the price so that the buyers win and they lose?
You’re right. I am just stupid.
For your own peace of mind I think you should look at the method used by CR in regards to how they make their determinations. For instance, a person can have an issue with a piece of trim and another can have an issue with a rattle somewhere, neither of these conditions affect a cars reliability but they are used to rate a cars reliability.
I feel that CR’s reliability ratings and the BBB ratings on a businesses practices are both in the same catagory, that is they are both worthless.
Now if CR asked questions like “how many times did you car fail to start” or “how many times did you experience a unexplained dead battery” then their ratings would be of some importance. When you lump a broken cup holder in with a failed emission system component you have lost it. CR needs to keep real isues affecting what the word reliabiliity really means from being mixed up with issues involving trim and fit and finish.
Oldschool makes good points. Statistics based on repair frequency or cost are meaningful. Statistics based on surveys of owners tend to have skewed results across the spectrum of cars and buyers. People who pay as much as you just did for cars have very low tolerance for ANY problem, even the slightest little rattle that no one else can even hear.
That being said, a 335xi is not a Camry, and it won’t be maintained on a Camry budget. But then again, how many people really LOVE their Camrys?
They offered me (for around $2K I think) an extended maintenance for around $2K: 6 Years/100,000miles. Given my driving, I am getting an extra 2 years of maintenance.
Is that an extended warranty or a maintenance? They are not the same thing.
In either case they are likely to cost you more than not. Those are big profit centers for the dealers. The maintenance deal may not be too bad. They profit the dealer be making sure you come to them for maintenance so they can afford to decrease the total cost because they know you are more likely to keep coming to them and in the long run they will make more from you.