There are some reputable companies offering aftermaket warranties. One advantage of some is that you can get warranty work done at a non-dealer, a real boon for those of us who don't live near a dealer. Anyone had experience with one? Did the use justify the cost? Thanks.

 

If you plan to keep your MINI for longer than 4 years (The total length of the factory warranty), investing in an extended warranty contract may be a good idea.

Unfortunately, BMW/MINI does not offer an "In house" extended warranty plan as General Motors or Ford Motor Company do. So your only choices are aftermarket warranty contracts. You have to shop very carefully and try to get references on how these companies honor the coverage.

Read the small letter carefully because some of these aftermarket companies have wacky definitions of what constitutes a "covered repair" and what components/parts are actually covered under the terms of the contract.

Some of these companies may require you to pay for a repair expense out of pocket first and then you have to submit receipts to them to receive full reimbursement. I have heard of horror stories people not getting coverage because they took the car to the corner mechanic and not a dealer service dept, etc.

The ideal extended warranties to have are those offered directly by the manufacturer with $0 or the least amount possible for out of pocket deductible. If you have a GM car, say a Chevy and you have a GM extended warranty contract with $0 deductible, all you have to do is to bring the car in and your service advisor calls GM on the phone and you get an approval over the phone on the spot.

It seems to me that BMW does not really like to encourage its customers to keep cars after the factory warranty expires, because this means that these patrons will go back once again to purchase a new MINI or BMW after the warranty on the old car goes out of comission.

I tend to keep my cars anywhere between 1.5 to 4 years, or even 5 as a stretch, so I don't worry about extended warranties. To me it makes more sense to order a new car once the warranty expires, unless you develop a strong bond with the vehicle and you want to keep it indefinetely.

 

They do offer a extended warranty in house

 

do they?

 

My experiences?


Pros = None. Unless you're the person selling them.

Cons = The people selling them.

 

Warranties are based on odds and guess who the odds are in favor of? To me asking if you should buy an extended warranty is like asking if you should go to Vegas and plop down $2K on a roulette wheel. Sure your number may hit and you will come out way ahead. More likely however, your number won’t hit and you will walk away empty handed… just like with an extended warranty.

 

I've had aftermarket extended warrenties on two cars:

95 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST that I bought used. I'm really glad that I purchased that time. I got every dime back, that car was always in the shop for something. Loved it when it ran, but I had everything but the gear shift **** replaced.

01 Audi A4 that I bought new, but the dealer sold a WarrenTech (sp) warrenty. I think I probably broke even on that one. The car was reliable, and I traded it in with only 80K miles so it wasn't into it's really expensive stage yet.

The key things to look at are:
1. Restrictions on where you can get it serviced. The dealer will generally try and imply that it is only good at the dealer, but generally that is not the case.
2. The deductible. With the ones that I've had, there was a deductible per visit. Which means that you can save up a few small issues, and have them all fixed at once for the price of one deductible. Lower deductible, will likely mean a high initial cost. Usually in the range of $50-$100.

I haven't decided on getting one for the MINI yet. I guess I'm waiting to see how it holds up over the first year or so. Since you can get them up until the time the factory warrenty runs out, I can afford to wait. I'll probably try and buy it directly from the company instead of thru the dealer.