I own a 2003 MINI that is nearing 36,000 miles. I was at the dealer last month and my SA mentioned the extended warranty. He just said, "you're nearing 36K miles, if you want to purchase an extended warranty it is $551.00" We didn't talk about specifics and what it covers and for how long.

Surely someone here knows the details on the MINI dealer-offered extended warranty?


Thanks,

-boognish

 

Your warranty is 4yrs/50k; your free maint. is 36k. They have both extended maint. and extended warranties. Be sure you know which you are considering...

 

I'm starting to rethink the Extended Warranty question, now that I'm at 43,000 miles and I just had both my clutch and tranny replaced under warranty on my 2003 MC. The tranny failed internally causing it to dump oil into my clutch so that had to be replaced as well.

Seems Warranty Direct wants around $2,500 to extend my warranty to 100,000 miles--or another 57,000 miles or 4 more years. Since I reached my present mileage in just under 2 years, I gotta think about what other major repairs might I need in the next 2 years that might cost me $2,500 to make it worthwhile?

So far, of all the repairs made, none have been over a few hundred bucks, so unless my tranny and clutch fail again, it's hard to justify such an expenditure, don't you think??

Richard

 

My extended warrenty/ maint. was about $2200 CND when new. It covers everything the Factory one does. We don't get free Maint. up here, but a discount that lasts the life of the warrenty.

My warrenty is for 5 years or 150k KMs, 93k miles.

I ran out of the factory warrenty, at 2 years, almost to the day of getting my MC.

 

Read here: http://www.carnutgarage.com/warranty...nty_Index.html

 

From what I have seen, extended warrenties go up in price the further you get from new.

 

Are the extended warranties from the dealer through BMWUSA or 3rd party?

I'm leary of the 3rd party ones myself, I'm a skeptic, but would consider if it was a BMWUSA extention.

and if it's BMWUSA... can the warranty be purchased anytime w/in the factory warranty?

 

An extended warranty is almost always a losing proposition. The deck is stacked in favor of the insurance company. That said, if the peace of mind of being covered makes it easier for you to sleep at night, it may be worth it to you, but from a dollars and cents perspective it is not usually a good investement. Occasionally you will hear of a person that saved a ton of money because they had an extended warranty, but that is the exception. It is like the lottery, somebody has to win but 99.99999999999999999999999% of the players lose!

 

You are absolutely right

Car dealers actually make more money from the sale of extended warranties than they do off the car themselves. If you are so sure that the product you have is going to break then why would you keep it? If you simply saved the amount of money you would pay for the warranty that money would in the vast majority of cases cover the repair.

In my mind you should only buy extended waranties when you can be honestly look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself...."I am financially irresponsible, I can't possibly afford a single unexpected expense, I can't trust myself to deposit that money I could be saving if I don't buy this warranty and Im okay with that, I don't want to change"

Then you should buy an extended warranty because it's like just having to pay for a dad who will come in and take care of anything that may come up so you don't have too plan for these things yourself

 

I got the extended warranty for about $1800, it extends the warranty to 7 years/100,000 miles I think. It does make me sleep better, because I sold a Chevy truck that had a lot more than $1800 worth of transmission and engine work done at around 4 years old and 70,000 miles. Maybe once I'm used to reliability in a car, I won't feel the need for an extended warranty on my 2nd MINI.

 

1. If you want to give your car super performance mods, you could wait til after your warranty is up. You could spend the money for extended warranties on extended mods instead. More fun....more risk...

2. I don't think extended warranties on the internet other than the company that makes the car is a good idea. I have an extended Ford warranty up to 75k on my Escape SUV. Internet warranty companies are more likely to go out of business leaving you in the lurch.

 

Yea, so I bought one...

Actually is through the dealer. I think (remembering back) it will cover all service work to 75000 miles. (don't remember the years but will not factor in)

They cover everything that Mini covers except the wear items. Will cover towing and service (at nearest dealer) no matter where I am as well

 

I've always purchased the extended warranties for my cars and have NEVER been burned. It seems the extended warranty has always ended up paying for a major item just after the standard warranty has run its course [like the cruise control for one car, the onboard computer for 2 different cars, and the a/c-heating unit for another]. Maybe I'm part of that lucky .1%...or, maybe they ARE worth it afterall. For me, the latter has seemed the case, and when I purchased my Cooper, I also purchased the extended warranty. Better safe than sorry....

 

Never bought an extended warranty, never needed one. It is a crap shoot, but as someone else said, 99% of the time you'd be much better off just putting the money you would have spent on the warranty in the bank. If you don't need to spend in on repairs you can use it for a down payment on your next MINI.

 

$2500 is not bad. Think of it as paying for a clutch now and getting it later.

Of course with the resale on them you could put that $2500 towards a new mini,

 

My extended warrenty can be tranfered to a new owner. Helps with resale.

 

Since there is only a very small chance of needing the clutch you mentioned, why not just put the money in the bank and only pay for the clutch if you need it. You can even use the $2500 for a clutch after the extended warranty would have expired....another big advantage of money over a "promise". Many people, I'm sure, finance the $2500 with the car, meaning they actually pay $3000 for the extended warranty.

 

If the extended warranty does not cover "wear items" would it cover a new clutch? Isn't a clutch a "wear item." I guess you could say the same about an engine. I'm not sure what the term "wear item" means. I guess the answer is they you have to read the warranty very carefully before buying, whether it's an extended warranty from the dealer or an after-market warranty.

To the person who just had a transmission and clutch replaced toward the end of the warranty period, you should have a new warranty claim if the new trans/clutch is defective. The repair creates a new warranty that the repair was properly performed. Sometimes there is an express warranty given at the time of repair, and sometimes it is implied in law.

 

No not really, The value of the car itself is not raised one bit. If someone pays you more than the straight value of the car they would be foolish.

 

No it won't raise the value, but next to one without, it will help sell it.

 

i was also debating over getting the extended warranty for $2500, and my '02 is at 45,000 miles right now. instead, i just decided to trade in for a brand new cooper!