Extended Waranty Opinions

[jafo_9]

So I just purchased my '14 M6GC off lease. I love, love this car. I meticulously followed the break-in procedure and it has run flawlessly for 6 years/33K miles. (she requires about 2 quarts oil/year). There are occasions when I drive it hard, but most miles are daily commutes or 3-500mi road trips. I have the Competition package as well as DINAN Stage 2 and Acrapovik exhaust.

Upon acquisition the dealership offered 60mo/60,000mi Comprehensive Extended warranty for $4,274.00 w/$200 deductible.

I discussed with my Service Tech (who is excellent) and he advised that although they service very few M6's, they have ALOT of M5's (w/S63 engine) and that since introduction they've had only 1 total engine fail. Completely seized. It was under factory warranty and BMW NA wouldn't let the dealership look at it at all. They replaced all under warranty and took the seized engine for study ($35K total bill (!!)). Beyond this they've had only 2 major engine fails that each totalled ~$5K in repairs.

So do I get the extended waranty? At first it seemed right, but now I'm inclined to pass (or perhaps tuck $4,274 away in an interest baring acct as a safety net). I kinda sensed that my tech was leaning against (surprising). I'm fortunate enough that no repair bill of any size would interrupt me or my family financially, but still want to do the right thing. Opinions?

P.S. The dealership confirmed in writing that the DINAN tune would not affect the warranty.

[Flying Ace]

Just to clarify, the extended warranty only adds another year to the original 4-year 50k warranty. So one additional year costs $4k.

I can tell you this much based on my experience owning a CPO M6 (2014 MY, 2018 CPO warranty expiry), and my previous experience owning a 2008 M3 up to 2017, and my current ownership of a 2012 X5d....

These M cars on average costs about $1000 per visit to the dealer for any minor repair. The most typical issue for the M6 will be oil or coolant line leaks. A catastrophic engine failure is on the rare side. If it does happen, or if one of those $5k issue arise, my understanding is that if it happens within year 1 after expiration of original warranty, BMW tends to "goodwill" the fix. Depending on when and what breaks, you can reasonably expect a 80-20 split of costs, you paying about 20% of it.

This is not a guarantee, and as you age further from original warranty expiry, that ratio drops.

All in all, my opinion is that you're better off just saving the money yourself, and maintaining the car properly. A potential way of ensuring no major engine failure is to follow proper warm up procedures, use BMW dealer oil and to get oil samples every oil change.

That's what I do to stay on top of what's going on internally in that motor.

Now all that other stuff... coolant leaks, hose leaks, ignition issues, etc that does seem to pop up will just have to be one of those $2-$5k fixes that come up from time to time. You pay to play with these cars, it just comes with the territory. But when this happens, you're still even or ahead by not buying that warranty.

FYI, most M6 owners are not reporting issues on this thread, but head over to the F10post side of this forum and you can see lots of S63 issues pop up for M5 owners and some more for E70 and F15 X5M owners. The key thing is to learn from what happened from those owners and figure out how to detect these issues beforehand.

I've never bought extended warranty for any of my BMWs. I religiously maintain them with oil health being top priority. You can say I "theoretically" paid for extended warranty by buying both my X5 and M6 CPO, as CPO cars do carry a slight premium, but CPOs do not sell for $4k more, I view this 1 year extended warranty worth no more than $2k due to that probability weighted goodwill cost.


All that said, during year 5 of my M6, my car did have a coolant leak fixed under the 5th year CPO warranty. I don't have my paperwork with me, but my guess is it would have cost me around $2k.

[jafo_9]

Thanks for the excellent reply. I truly appreciate this information. To clarify the extended warranty is an ADDITIONAL 60mos/60,000 mi. So 5 years and 60K beyond the original warranty.

[Flying Ace]

Originally Posted by jafo_9

Thanks for the excellent reply. I truly appreciate this information. To clarify the extended warranty is an ADDITIONAL 60mos/60,000 mi. So 5 years and 60K beyond the original warranty.

Wait, you sure? This is a warranty sold at BMW dealership? I wasn't aware they had that product. All that for $4k, and not $4k per year?

[DRKNTM6]

Originally Posted by Flying Ace

Wait, you sure? This is a warranty sold at BMW dealership? I wasn't aware they had that product. All that for $4k, and not $4k per year?

Yes, my included warranty and maintenance is up in August so they have already started trying to sell me an extension. They offered extensions of 3 additional years of maintenance, and 3-7 year extensions for the warranty (they are independent of each other...and not cheap obviously)

[jafo_9]

Certain that it is a warranty for 60mos/60000 mi beyond Manufacturer warranty (see attached). This is a product offered by the local dealership.

[Surge21]

Thanks for sharing this info. FWIW I just purchased a 2014 MC GC and the first thing I wanted to do was to get it warrantied. I ended up going with a 5YR/100K (not an additional 100k but until 100k on the odometer) warranty for roughly $3200 from Freedom Warranty of America LLC. I currently have 57k miles. It's an exclusionary policy that seems pretty solid. I can share the parts that it doesn't cover if anyone's interested.