M6 Maintenance Costs

[Chili Palmer]

I almost bought a 2015 CPO M6 GC last night with only 10,000 miles, the car was beautiful - Singapore Grey with the Comp. Pkg. We were signing the paperwork and then the extended maintenance (not warranty) contract came up. On my 2011 550 for 5 years/100,000 miles it was $2600. The CPO manager told us of a "service refresh" for $795 that would continue the maintenance services as BMW no longer offers maintenance services anymore for their CPO cars and the warranty ends at 5 years/ unlimited miles. What? That's the reason to get a BMW over the other luxury brands. The car's only got 10,000 miles on it. We asked if the Refresh can be renewed every year and we were told, of course. I say okay how much more can the maintenance contract be? We were told we'd save thousands if we went the refresh route.

Well upon signing the paperwork the the "refresh" for $795 only takes us to the end of 4 years, which is January. If the car had a service at 10,000 miles why am I paying for $795 for 6 months of service? How much to continue the service for another 5 years/100,000 miles? Almost $8,000! That was a deal breaker. If that's how much maintenance costs are on the car, I paid too much for the car. I didn't even get into the extended warranty costs since that is no longer covered by the CPO warranty after 5 years.

If they would have worked with us on the maintenance we would have gone through with the deal, but sticking to the MSRP for their maintenance contracts they lost a sale.

Edit: Are these cars so unreliable that I would need to invest in an extended warranty?
Are the maintenance costs so great that I would actually spend over $1700 every year on just maintenance services? I understand that the brakes will cost a few bucks, but will the costs over 5 years even out or is the maintenance contract a better deal?

[Flying Ace]

...and it doesn't cover CCB replacement

[Chili Palmer]

CCB? What's CCB?

[daddymalu]

Carbon Ceramic Brakes

[Chili Palmer]

Luckily this car didn't have the ceramic carbon brakes.

As much as I want this car, the maintenance and repairs really scare me.

[rsuhandy]

Maintenance costs if you don't have CCBs are not that high.
Don't buy the BMW maintenance program as its a rip off.
I would however consider the BMW extended warranty as if something does go wrong mechanically, it can be very expensive. Normal maintenance though is pretty affordable and shouldn't be that different from owning a non-M car.

[Flying Ace]

Are you new to the M car game? A 2015 M6 may only cost $60k, but the maintenance, warranty and insurance WILL ALWAYS be on par with a $130k car. You pay to play with M cars. If you cannot stomach about $1000 or so every year for maintenance and fixes, don't buy an M car. My old 2008 M3 was costing me the same price...and seeing parts pricing for the E46 M3, it doesn't look like it's that much cheaper to maintain. The best example I've seen is for a early model Ferrari F430. The biennial serving is $10k for a car that costs only $90k today.

And on the plan itself, let me tell it to you straight....BMW makes money off their maintenance packages. They're priced accordingly to the model of the car (X5 is cheaper than a M car, but more than a 3 series) and padded to insure profit for them.

I've done my math on maintenance plans 100 different ways, and any way you cut it, you need to get 2 brake jobs in 1 years to come out ahead. You can easily get brakes serviced for about $1000 parts and $200 labor sourcing the parts and labor yourself. Add an oil change ($160 parts+labor) for the year and you can see, it just won't pay off.


Is annual M6 maintenance really $1700? No, unless you need new brakes every year. For example, while next year I'll need new brakes which will run me in the $1200-$1400 range, the year after I would only need the standard oil change and maybe a rear diff fluid flush. An oil change and diff fluid change isn't more than $500 include parts and labor at a reputable performance shop. So for the two years, I average to a $1000 of maintenance. Now you can see under no condition will I ever buy a maintenance plan. Hell, I'd rather even pay a la carte dealer servicing and their inflated parts and labor prices than pay for a plan that I may not use completely. I've done that math before too for my X5, and the maintenance plan is still a bit more expensive (by a few hundred dollars) than dealer a la carte.

[Chili Palmer]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am new to the M game. I had trouble trying to figure out what the heck would cost $1700 a year in maintenance. For that cost I actually asked a couple performance shops if M6's go through brakes at an abnormally high rate, they said not unless I do a lot of track days (which I won't). I can handle $1000 a year in maintenance costs, that doesn't bother me, but as much as I have avoided extended warranties in the past, I think it makes sense to have a powertrain warranty on any M car.

[Slimm2.0]

I’m also new to the M game. And this helped me alot.

[JC04]

You have to understand dealers/manufactures don't sell you stuff that they'll lose money on it. I used to work in an industry that actuaries would calculate and price packages to sell to consumers. Dealers/manufactures don't lose money on any warranties! In rare cases they lose money but they will void or change the policies.

My car about to be out of warranty too and I'll take my chances. The odds of nothing happen are higher than something will happen. I'll take that chance every time when the odds are in my favor.

In addition, you don't see any dealers/manufactures sell warranty after 100k miles, and there's a reason for it. Statistically bad for them LOL.

[mastatikle]

Get the service history of your vehicle and make sure the 1200mile service was done (very important). If not don’t touch that car. In my experience most vehicles that did not have that service done were the low mileage ones. Original owners bought them and tended to not drive them, not even to the dealer.


I no longer have a maintance package any more and pay for everything out of pocket. So I’ve learned how to save money doing it. I do almost 25k Miles a year so I have to do brakes and oil changes regularly.

Oil change can be well over $200 plus at a dealer. You can buy the the filter for ~$33 at dealer and two 5 quart jugs of the reccomended Castrol for ~$55. The filter canister cap was like $20 and a one time purchase. So can do it your self for $100 or pay extra $18-30 to have a shop do it. Still save at minimum $100 over dealership.

Aftermarket brake pads can be anywhere from 100-400 a set. Still cheaper than oem and they out perform them. The issue is using aftermarket brake components ruin brake warranty. Like if a caliper starts to seize they might blame the pad or rotor. If not, oem for just front set was like $2,000 for rotors and pads.

The there’s the cabin filters and what not that are cheap online. I’ve never worried about those though.

[Flying Ace]

Originally Posted by mastatikle

Get the service history of your vehicle and make sure the 1200mile service was done (very important). If not don’t touch that car. In my experience most vehicles that did not have that service done were the low mileage ones. Original owners bought them and tended to not drive them, not even to the dealer.


I no longer have a maintance package any more and pay for everything out of pocket. So I’ve learned how to save money doing it. I do almost 25k Miles a year so I have to do brakes and oil changes regularly.

Oil change can be well over $200 plus at a dealer. You can buy the the filter for ~$33 at dealer and two 5 quart jugs of the reccomended Castrol for ~$55. The filter canister cap was like $20 and a one time purchase. So can do it your self for $100 or pay extra $18-30 to have a shop do it. Still save at minimum $100 over dealership.

Aftermarket brake pads can be anywhere from 100-400 a set. Still cheaper than oem and they out perform them. The issue is using aftermarket brake components ruin brake warranty. Like if a caliper starts to seize they might blame the pad or rotor. If not, oem for just front set was like $2,000 for rotors and pads.

The there’s the cabin filters and what not that are cheap online. I’ve never worried about those though.

You sir.....are doing it right. That's how I enjoyed my M3 on the "cheap". DIY oil changes, buy OE parts as cheaply as possible, pay for indie labor when the work is beyond me...

The problem is, you just cannot avoid the $1000 brake jobs. I've priced out aftermarket OEM parts, they're not that much cheaper.

[Flying Ace]

Originally Posted by JC04

You have to understand dealers/manufactures don't sell you stuff that they'll lose money on it. I used to work in an industry that actuaries would calculate and price packages to sell to consumers. Dealers/manufactures don't lose money on any warranties! In rare cases they lose money but they will void or change the policies.

My car about to be out of warranty too and I'll take my chances. The odds of nothing happen are higher than something will happen. I'll take that chance every time when the odds are in my favor.

In addition, you don't see any dealers/manufactures sell warranty after 100k miles, and there's a reason for it. Statistically bad for them LOL.

revisiting this topic here...You must mean that "the probability weighted costs are less than the warranty price."

The odds that something/anything will happen is likely higher than nothing happening. But odds of lower costing small issues adding up to the warranty cost or a single large expensive issue occurring is likely much lower than the warranty cost, aka, probability weighted cost.

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by Chili Palmer

Luckily this car didn't have the ceramic carbon brakes.

As much as I want this car, the maintenance and repairs really scare me.

I was almost ready to buy a used M6 Gran Coupe in San Marino Blue (love the color) but maintenance costs also caused me to pause the sales process.

[mberbic]

Maintenance isn't that bad from my experience. Changed plugs and coils for ~$400 and oil change for about ~$100 and the car should be good for a good while without any major maintenance. Mine is at 25k miles now but you gotta pay to play. I thought I'd have to spend a lot more than I am actually spending on the car.

[Havy]

You have to remember that the brakes and oil are not coming every year. Except it’s your daily. Ask Fliying Ace how much he spend for non regulars i.e. broken this or broken that. In general the M6 is very reliable if you treat him well. My guess, with 1000$ per year you should be more than good.

[mastatikle]

Originally Posted by Havy

You have to remember that the brakes and oil are not coming every year. Except it’s your daily. Ask Fliying Ace how much he spend for non regulars i.e. broken this or broken that. In general the M6 is very reliable if you treat him well. My guess, with 1000$ per year you should be more than good.

You don’t drive more than 3,000 miles a year for an oil change?

[Havy]

Of course I do. In general I have my cars every 2 years in for a bigger service. Or when the DIC say so. maybe it’s different between US and EU a normal oil change cost here about 400€.

[Airz]

Those are some crazy prices. In the UK I've paid £2200 which includes:

Your Services
No Description Approximate mileage / date
S1 Oil Service 2 34000 miles / Jan 2019
S2 Oil Service 1 51000 miles / Mar 2020
S3 Oil Service 2 68000 miles / May 2021
Additional Items
Description Quantity
Brake Fluid x 2
MOT x 3
Vehicle Check x 2

So basically all servicing costs minus things like brakes up to 70k miles. I priced the whole lot up if I paid as an when I had services and it worked out way way higher than the £2200 and that's not taking into account price increases over the next 3 years.