I bought a used 2005 S, when I first took it in for service I was told that I had an extended warranty including extended maintenance service, but the service adviser that used to help us is gone now, and I'm getting different info from the new rep. Can anyone clarify what the demos come with in terms of extended warranty?

 

Have you tried going to the MINI USA Owner's Lounge and seeing what they have on record? You'll need the MINI USA Account and the VIN of your '05 MCS.

Let us know what you find out.

 

i Have an account there, but it doesn't really show the warranty info, unless I don't know where to look

 

Basicly the extended warranty gives you up to 50k on parts and the extended maintanance warranty gives you coverage up to 100k for oil changes, brake pads and rotors and inspections. After 50k regular maintanance will cost you around 3k or more now that inflation is in effect. Get everything in writing. Have mini print out your car history. It will list all maintance done on the car since it was driven off the lot. This gives you a good idea of what has been done and what needs to be done.

 

Here is a screenshot of my info. Yours should at least show a date the extended warranty was initiated, if not you do not have one.

 

The amount of time or service depends upon the warranty type you purchase. My extended warranty is 6 years/100,000 miles. Be sure to discuss with your MINI Dealer Warranty Personnel what all is included in your extended warranty contract. This way you will know for sure.

 

Did you buy it from a BMW/MINI dealership? If so, BMW since the 1990s [and now MINIs] have had "certified pre-owned" warranties. It gives similar protection as the new car warranty, but it is not as comprehensive as a new car warranty. It does NOT extend the manufacturer's warranty.

Inconsistent statements from the service reps may have been because the one CSR thought the warranty was the same as the original, the other correctly saying it is not.

If you bought it from a private party, the CPO warranty is transferable to you.

If you bought it from a MINI dealer, and it was a demo, it most likely came with a CPO warranty. They should have given you a CPO brochure, plastic card [credit card sized] and CPO warranty booklet.

I am NOT aware of a certified pre-owned warranty being referred to as an "extended warranty." If you have an actual "extended warranty" that is a whole different matter because those are extremely varied, not only in the number of different ones that are sold at car lots throughout the U. S., but also in what the extended warranty does and does not cover.

Did you buy an extended warranty without knowing it, or did the salesman refer to the warranty as a CPO, but you are calling it an extended warranty? You say that the car came with a warranty which leads me to conclude that it's a CPO warranty we are talking about.

If it is a CPO warranty, that is NOT an extended warranty. But I suspect that many salesmen and consumers could call it such, but it does not extend the original MINI warranty that came with the car.

I don't believe that the CPO warranties from BMW cover maintenance.

So what warranty do you have? CPO? After-market "extended?"

Also, is your MINI out of original warranty?

Personally, I think dealers should not be allowed to call after-market warranties "extended warranties" because there is no such thing. It misleads the public into thinking that an original warranty that came with a car has been extended. Even those excellent Certified Preowned warranties don't extend the original MINI warranty. For example, as I recall on my BMW that came with a CPO warranty, it did not cover bumper to bumper items such as trim and electronics. Can't recall exactly, as that was 9 years ago that I had that warranty on my BMW.

 

I bought the car pre-owned elsewhere, but when I first took the car in for service, the mini service adviser told me since the car was one of their "demos" it came with an extended warranty to 55,000 miles and an extended maintenance warranty as well. I just can't remember to how many miles the extended maintenance warranty went. Now she is gone ... so I was just asking if the demos came with the same thing across the board. Thanks My owner's lounge info IS NOT up to date, I know it has been in for more service than is on the site, so it is worthless.

 

When you bought it "elsewhere" did the former owner buy if from MINI [as a demo.]

If so, then possibly had the CPO warranty was attached to it. The BMW CPO program goes back to at least when I had a BMW in 1997.

Those CPO programs are standard at all dealers as it is BMW / MINI who provides them, not the dealer. I doubt the dealer gave a separate warranty other than the standard CPO warranty.

All demo cars I have seen have had only a CPO type warranty attached to it. I guess a dealer could give its own unique warranty, including maintenance, but I don't see the logic behind that, especially on a MINI. There would be no reason to "sweeten the deal" with a unique extended warranty. I have known some dealers to throw in some freebies to motivate one to buy a demo, but have not seen extended warranties included.

Two things you can do, sign up for CarFax [$30 I think] and run your VIN. It will show you the ownership history, but also it shows a maintenance record of the car [as done by the dealers]. And it will do a "Warranty Check" and show what warranties were and are on the car.

Also ask member CarterMD to run an ASAP report on your VIN. That will tell you when the car was sold and how it was configured when shipped to the dealer.

http://www.carfax.com/

 

By the way, when I ran the CarFax on my MINI before I bought it [used 2006] the report listed the two times the car had been in the shop for scheduled maintenance, once in October 2007, another in March 2008.

Car only had about 23k miles on it, so I don't think there was more done to it, otherwise it would have shown up on the CarFax report.

 

you bought a demo car? ooooh boy, this is a little scary. You might want to give it an inspection by the dealer and see if anything is wrong right now while you have the warranty. i dont know about you guys, but i thrash the demo cars, thats what theyre for!

 

I didn't know it was a "demo" until after I bought it and took it into mini for service. It's been a great car so far. I'm just wondering if what the original advisor told me about my service plan is true or not before I make an ars out of myself at the dealership

 

One previous owner who purchased it directly from MINI as a demo.

 

Maybe some people abuse demo cars, but I every demo I have seem people buy have been perfect cars. Dealers tend to fix anything that might have been abused.

Do the CarFax, it will tell you how many miles it had when the person bought it as a demo. They tend not to have many miles because otherwise people will shy away from them.

Also, the CarFax will tell you about the warranty and weather or not it included maintenance.

You also might want to call another MINI dealer, say you are moving to the area and want to know about your MINIs warranty status before bringing it in for maintenance. They can look up the VIN and tell you what is on the national database. Takes all of about three minutes, if that. Obviously, write down exactly what the service advisor tells you.

You may be getting bad info from that new person who is now dealing with you. Second opinion from a different dealer, CarFax and that ASAP report will give you the story.

Bonus Tip: Don't feel like you will be making an **** of yourself, nothing wrong with finding out exactly what you are entitled to.