My trusty 3 year old bike's warranty is about to come to an end and BMW have kindly sent me a quote for an extended warranty of £659.
What ON EARTH, I ask myself, is expected to go so disasterously wrong with my bike that could possibly cost me as much as £659? Maybe they expect the engine to unexpectidly blow up, or the frame to fall apart!
Does anybody actually pay for these warranties? What planet are BMW living on?
ABS if you've got it is a prime candidate, wiring loom disintigrating can take lots of time to fix as well. Plus the usual engine / final drive dramas.
Lloyd
It's not how fast you ride, it's how you ride fast.
Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear
bright until you hear them speak.
That's a lot of wonga ...... how long is the new period for? Another 3 years? If it is and you were to do a lot of miles then for peace of mind it may be worth it. For normal usage, no way!
As Boxerpan says, ABS can be expensive if parts are needed and I remember some guys had problems with the shaft drive at about 25 000 miles or more that caused the wallet to hurt.
Rest assured that if anything will ever fail, it will be on the first Sunday ride after the warranty has expired be that now or in 10 years time! This is as laid down in The Law of Sod!
Neil178 wrote:That's a lot of wonga ...... how long is the new period for? Another 3 years?
Ugh ugh - Just for one year!
Neil178 wrote:I remember some guys had problems with the shaft drive at about 25 000 miles or more that caused the wallet to hurt.
Luckily our drive shaft seal obligingly leaked about 6 months ago and was sorted under warranty.
Neil178 wrote:Rest assured that if anything will ever fail, it will be on the first Sunday ride after the warranty has expired be that now or in 10 years time! This is as laid down in The Law of Sod!
Kinda lucky that it is foggy today then and that biking is out of the question!
There was a time when it was only a couple of hundred quid
Guess BMW's accountants said enough and whacked the price up. Definately keep your hands in your pockets! Like you say, you could be paying for nothing.
Had the same situation so talked to Park Lane about it. Apparently with all the new EU regs they have to deal with BMW can't be arsed with these things as they don't make them any money. Therefore they've priced it so that they can't really lose. Their advice " Put £600 in a savings scheme and use it to pay if something does go wrong". See "Big Paul" at Park Lane for any futher clarification of this policy.
Actually, Andy at Williams Manchester BMW said something to that effect as well. He told me they had priced it so that nobody would be interested - I recall him saying that as I picked myself up off the floor!!
Same is happening on their cars. Providing warranty is considered to be insurance business. Early last year, this became a regulated activity under the FSA. To offer warranty policies, any provider now has to be FSA registered and comply with all the admin etc that comes with it. So BMW GB stopped doing it and have outsourced it to a regulated, commercial business.
The premium on my 3 series has doubled in 2 years, now has an excess of £250 per claim, and a bunch of major items are now no longer included.
For both car and bike, the warranty premium is now greater than my insurance premium. So the risk of damage and the likely cost of reparing it is deemed greater for mechanical failure than it is from a genuine accident! Doesn't say much about their faith in the product !!
Also to put it in to perspective, I just replaced my paralever, shaft, bevel etc. the whole lot second hand for a grand total of £79 and 1/2 a day of my time Even allowing for someone to to the installation......... £659 for something that might (but probaly wont) go wrong seems a little bit steep.
We had already decided that once the bike was out of warranty we would do most of the basic work on it ourselves anyway. It is an easy bike to work on for basic servicing and we have no intention of selling so 'full service history' will not be so much of an issue. It is one sure fire way of BMW ridding themselves of extended warranty repairs!
