So I searched the forums and found lots of info on the warranties that the dealers try and sell you at purchase. However, none really pertained to the Countryman and very few were recent. I also thought it'd be interesting now that the car has been out a little while to get owner's input. I typically go with Consumer Reports and think the extra's the dealer pushes are a waste of money.

I'm about to take delivery on my All4. I've read about the tire warranty and the run flats. The jury is still out on that one but I'd love to hear from you guys on your thoughts.

I'm curious about the extended warranty. I'm a little nervous about buying a first year model car. Any thoughts? Our insurance company offers a 100,000 mile/ 60 mth warranty for much less than the dealer.

TIA for the input! I've learned so much here at NAM. This is our first Mini and I honestly feel like I know what to expect.

 

Typically don't go for extended warranties, but recently found out from my wife that our new CM is covered under a similar plan, by our auto insurer, as the dealership offers, and is significantly cheaper.
Ask your insurance company for a brochure of what is covered and then compare to the delaership coverage if you are concerned.
Most of the insurance company's coverage surrounds mechanical issues, I woudl assume the MINI one might cover more of the "little things" but compare them side by side and also weigh the costs......we have GEICO, and their plan seems pretty comprehensive(not a plug for GEICO).....Good Luck!

 

We've had our Countryman S for 4 days now (bought on July 4th) and all good so far.

We did buy the tire and rim coverage because of the run flats and their high replacement cost. Normally, I skip these things, but I have heard nightmare stories about run flats. After reading the 2pt type, the catch is the tread has to be at least 2/32" depth for it to qualify. Hmmm....

 

Wheel and tire warranty was a definite pass for me. Did not make financial or logical sense - plus the finance guy pushed it extremely hard despite my continued balking, which tells me they have a hidden agenda for pushing it (i.e., financial incentive / kickback).

 

Usually extended warranties don't pan out for customers. Otherwise, dealerships wouldn't sell them. They have to make more money on them overall than they pay out in repairs, right?

They do, however, make sense under a couple of conditions, and I'll tell you why I bought one on my Countryman even though I believe that first paragraph. Since the Countryman is such a new model with so much untested engineering in it (the ALL4 system jumps to mind), there's a significant chance of expensive problems that might crop up over the next 6 years or 100,000 miles, more significant than you might see with a model that wasn't quite so new in quite so many ways. For me, the extended warranty was a bet on that. I win both ways. If the car never has a significant problem for 100,000 miles, I've lost my money, but I've had reliability in every bolt of the car for six years. If the warranty does end up paying for itself, well, then I've won there too.

For 100,000 miles, I can take every rattle, blown LED, funny noise, rough idle, and squeak to the dealer for service. For this car, that's a good investment in my mind. I don't think I'd feel the same way about an R56.

 

My guy was a low-pressure salesman on every plan except gap insurance. He was utterly mystified that I'd want to pass on spending $700 to insure a gap that starts around $5000 and shrinks every day.

 

I did get the extended maintenance, but passed on the warranty and wheel/tires.

 

Sorry for my ignorance...what's gap insurance? I don't remember hearing about that one.

 

It's a policy that should your car be totaled or stolen will pay the difference between the value of the car and the loan balance. Some loans used to include it. Now they charge for it.

If you don't put much down it's a good idea. I know people who had their car totaled and it was worth less than the loan amount at the time. They ended up paying the remaining part of the loan for a car they no longer had.

 

FYI, most auto insurers will write GAP for just a few dollars a month. Much less than what most financial companies offer.

 

I passed on everything. The extended warranty is extremely high. I did some negotiating but we didn't get close to my number. I was tempted on the extended maintenance and still thinking about it. That was the closest to being a reasonable deal IMO. I plan to lose the run flats when they wear out and get a slime kit and regular tires. Actually I plan to get a slime kit now so we don't ruin the runflats if there is a leak. The finance person at my dealer was not pushy and was actually very nice.
CN

 

Thanks so much for your help, guys. I've got my plan of action now.

 

Just a heads up....

We had extended warranty on my wife's BMW... The car started downshifting very hard, would actually cause the wheels to chirp.. took it to the dealer and it was fixed via software (a majority of fixes seem to be software). Turns out programming isn't covered under the extended warranty, that was another $400 on top of the warranty cost

 

Wait wait WAAAAAIT!!!!!


mjgood, you had go pay $400 for a SOFTWARE FIX???

Thats something that YOU could not have used or abused!!!
THAT is 10000000% THEIR FAULT!
Charging you for that is just WRONG!!!!!

I would battle that out with them...TO the death!

 

The car was out of the manufacturer warranty, the fine print in the extended warranty excluded programming... I wasn't very happy about that...
I have bought several cars since then, whenever the finance guy tries to pitch the warranty I remind them how lame the warranty is.....
BMW North America was the one that insisted they reprogram the car with something called an 'urban program' , I think the dealership was going to replace the transmission until they stepped in....

 

Get the MINI tire and wheel warranty...

My wife destroyed two runflats w/in two weeks of each other...Craters (Potholes) was the cause in NYC area.

1. MINI Roadside Assistance came and took the car to the Morristown Dealership...Replaced the RF at no charge.

2. Morristown Dealership replaced another one...a day before I went to MINIs On The Dragon...No charge.

Please ask your MA, GEN MGR, Service MGR, and Financial MGR about it.

 

In the MINIs, the electronics have to be added to the warranty. I guess the same is true for Beemers.

HOWEVER, that's true for electronic accessories. If the computer that controls engine and transmission functions isn't working, that should be covered under any warranty that covers the engine. I hope you didn't get took.

 

Again, it's all about what you pay for the warranty up front. Warranties are like a bet. If it's $1000, like they tried to charge me, it doesn't seem worth it unless you have extraordinarily bad luck.

 

We got the warranty protection for the tires, and the extended warranty as well. for us and the kind of driving we do, it just made sense. Those run-flats are expensive to replace. On our last MINI we used the extended warranty just before trading her on our CM. Saved us a bundle, well worth it. I guess it just depends on your luck. Ours is usally not the best, so we go with the warranty and ahve not been sorry.

 

I don't see a wrong answer. I agree with a previous poster that it's a bet. The only wrong answer is to pay full price. They will negotiate on most if not all of the warranties.

I choose to pass on the warranties but was willing to pay for some of them if they met my price. We were too far away on the extended warranty. I may go back and get the extended maintenance if I can get them to drop it a bit more.
CN

 

I didn't have the warranty on our R56 and ended up paying for two sets of rims/tires and three more replacement tires.

But I still have two sets of rims/tires and a set of tires.

Some of the reasons, why I don't drive with the wife or let her drive when I'm in the car.

 

My advice (based in no runflat tires) is:
If you have rational tire profile (16 or 17' wheels) you dont need aditional warranyt but..
If you have "nice tire profiel (18 or 19' ) your probability of distroy it is higer... and may be you will need this because you have less inches of tire... more wheel... nice but only for new higways... not in real world .... (or my world .. than means Spain and France..)

 

But warranty also covers the rims.

 

Thanks so much, guys!! We picked up our ALL4 yesterday and they were not willing to negotiate the price on any warranty.

Here's what we did.

Tire Warranty - $800. Even the finance person commented on how much they hate the run flats. Coming from a truck, I had no complaints with the ride but....when we could replace them with standard steel belted radials for less than the warranty and do the slime with possibly improving a ride we were already happy with? No thanks and they agreed that was probably smarter.

Extended warranty - $2300. I'm shopping around on that one and have a few days to decide. I will probably go with someone else. Finance person even tried to tell me that they wouldn't accept the warranty in their service department. I didn't feel like arguing but that's where we pay up front and get reimbursed. Their warranty had a $100 deductible also.

Gap insurance was moot with our trade in and downpayment.

Extended maintenance - We're an hour from the nearest Mini dealer and have always done our own oil changes, no need to change now after the 3 year maintenance is up.

Love, love the car! I'd heard about how fun they are but I wasn't prepared for just how fun. I'm looking forward to many years of enjoyment from this car!!

 

Congrats Justmenmymini!