Is it worth looking into a extended warranty? Me and my wife got our first mini last year. It's a 2011 non-s cooper. She drives a lot and the miles are kinda racking up. What is your guys input.

 

Non-S I would say you shouldn't have too many issues. If it were an S then I would think about it.

Maintenance is key and take care of it as it will take care of you.

 

Extended warranties are expensive,especially the BMW (mini)warranty.
I was reluctant to purchase one at signing but bought a non Mini dealer warranty.
My wife drives about 20K a year.
If you do a lot of searching here,seems like these cars can have expensive repairs after the factory warranty has ended.

 

We have an 09 Clubman S and did not purchase the extended warranty. Car now has 16k miles and have had the water pump replaced twice, hp fuel pump replaced twice, the aux water pump recall and now the complete timing chain assembly replaced. What else is in store and options. It would be an easy decision of we didn't love the car.

 

That's a tough question. But for most people it's not a smart move. Most warranties cost about $3K+ and cover you fro 6 years, or 100K miles. Most people will burn through time not mileage. And you can pay for a lot of repairs with an extra $3K in the bank... As a bonus, if you don't have any repairs, you can take a nice vacation...

 

Our MINI is an S and has been in the dealership enough that we felt like we needed the extra covereage. I've had the following replaced under the initial warranty: convertible top and assembly, fuel pump, and timing chain with all assoc. parts. Today, we are on the extended warranty period. I've noticed that the vehicle makes no change on steering response with the sport button. I've asked MINI to look at that. I don't know if we will break even with what we spent on extending the warranty... but at 47K miles and this many things needing attention, we think ours might need the extra attention.

I'd much rather be in the "nice vacation" situation, though :-)

 

As one of the first replies said...

Justa: probably not.
S or JCW: seriously think it over.

The Consumer reports are pretty clear, S and JCW are less than average for reliability, while the Justas are average. That doesn't mean you will need the warranty, just that the odds are higher than average that you will with the S or JCW.
On my Civic and Integra, the warranties were irrelevant - I needed service somewhere around 1.5 to 2 times the warranty period. My 2012 MCS, on the other hand has already visited the shop at 9000KM or so...

My wife and I DID buy the extended warranty - it's a gamble, but paying $2000 or so up front was easier than swallowing an $8000 engine (or some other fabulously expensive parts) later, even though we have NO idea if we will actually need the coverage.
Good luck, it's not an easy decision!
E

 

64000 miles and over 8gs in repairs since mini warranty expired. Glad I bought the extended warranty!

 

The part that got me was..... 6 years from the original in service date. I had a BMW with the extended warranty. I ran out of time.

 

I got the 7 year 100000

 

Hi, newbie here. My 25 year old daughter is getting ready to buy a real clean 2009 clubman S with 17,000 miles this week. Dealership has offered her an extended warranty since the mini warranty is going to run out in 10 months. Sounded pricey but after reading these posts about the repair costs I am starting to rethink this. Dealer was going to roll it into the loan. $2200 for 48 months 50,000 miles . He says it is bumper to bumper from a company called NAV. Any suggestions?

 

sumerlady, try calling the service people at the dealership and see what 3rd party warranty they offer and which one is easy to deal with. make sure the dealership you are taking your mini for warranty deals with them directly and easily.

 

Sounds like that is a third party warranty.The BMW(Mini) warranty is lot more money,

 

i would get it on the S for sure. i blew an engine a while ago and luckly after so much stuffing around i got it fixed under good will since i was out of warranty. i would never risk it again though and wish i got one myself.

 

The dealer recommends "Fidelity" a Jim Moran Group insurance and the 6 year 72,000 mile coverage is $6,167.00 WITHOUT maintenance coverage. Reading the list of what they don't cover gives you headaches.

Next I'll be checking with AAA or buying a Hyundai with 10/100,000. I like the Mini but I'm limited to one dealer within a 250 mile radius and they are a bunch of blood sucking leaches.

 

My short answer is NO, do not buy the extended warranty. A more politically correct answer; It rarely works to the owners advantage to buy the extended warranty from most of my reading, for example www.consumeraffairs.com .

My next time tips are;
a) Whenever you have the car service ask for the fluids, belts, and tensioner to be inspected and fluids topped off if needed. Should be part of a full service dealer standard practice, but you will need a record showing that you ask for the service.
b) Check your fluid levels every 2 tanks of gas. Need a backup plan if a monitor board goes bad.
c) On interference engines, increase the number of oil changes($70), and replace the timing belt at 60% used($500). More TLC is too subjective for me, these are more tangible suggestions.
d) Never buy a non-full service extended warranty, they do not make 30% in profit by paying out on claims.

My extended warranty bad experience;
1) Bought a new 2007 MCS and the $2500 limited service 3rd party extended warranty from the BMW Mini Dealer on day one. Turns out there are 3 very different types of warranties; Full-service Factory warranty, limited service 3rd party extended warranty, and full service factory extended warranty.
2) My motivation for buying the extended warranty was that 2007 was the first year of a new series and therefor might be a higher risk and had heard that sport cars in general are higher maintenance.
3) Had the 2007 Mini Cooper S serviced twice a year, at the dealer. This was more often than I had expected or done on any of my previous vehicles, and took it as part of what sporty car owners mean by extra TLC. I doubled the number of service visits, but not the number of services requested or performed. This provided the BMW Dealer with their loop hole.
4) Last serviced at 4yr 1 month 39,000, at 4yr 7 months 44,000 miles the car died.
5) The engine tear down and rebuild process ran 25 days, $9000.
6) GE Auto Warranty Service (GE Capital Management Co.) denied claim due to lack of service and lubrication, stretched timing belt and low oil. The Limited items (loop hole list) is massive; fluids, belts, hoses, rubber seal, and the list goes on and on. So if the extended warranty inspector finds anything wrong in the records or any of the hundreds of little parts, the claim is denied. Lack of service on owner’s part, because the Dealer will show that the owner never requested service on that particular part. I thought limited warranty meant I would pay for routine items; oil changes, brake pads, belts, etc… But it also turned out the owner is responsible for the little items, not the Dealer who did all of the service or extended warranty company. So the owner is responsible for inspecting the car daily for the laundry list of small items; Is that belt to worn? Because if it stretches or breaks, it is the owners fault, and the owner get to buy a new engine.
7) Also the BMW Dealer service standards, extended warranty service company standards, owner’s manual, OBC (On Board Computer) use different language, which provides warranty providers an extensive variety of plausible excuses for deflecting responsibility.
8) Then comes the weeks of grinding you down in the form of a different reason each week implying why it is your fault, and why you are not covered. You did not have the oil changed every 10,000 miles, you missed a service on month 14. None of these turn out to be true and/or required on your model.
9) I bought the car at the Dealer, brought it in for service twice a year, and bought the local 3rd party limited extended warranty, trying to avoiding being in this situation. A 44,000 mile car with $9000 in repairs, because a stretched $500 timing belt with only 50% usage.
10) The dealer kindly provided me with a free loaner, which was thoughtful since they did not have to do that. They also gave me a 20% discount on labor, here I was hoping for an 80% discount on labor.
11) In the end the extended warranty company pro-rated 3/7 of the money back as a refund. When I inquired about a warranty refund, the original purchase date was used and not the 7 months of service. My opinion is that extended warranties are a money scam; problems in years 1-4 are denied because they should be processed by the factory warranty, and problems in yrs 4-7 are denied due to lack of service.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading the rant of someone who confesses to taking the wrong fork in this decision path 4.7yrs 44,000 miles and $11,500 ($2500+$9000) ago. Some lessons it life only cost money, and this is my silly fun car. But I will be looking to pick from the 60% of cars with a non-interference engine for my next new car.

 

Does the 4yr/50k go with the car to 2nd owner? Would be nice to know before that ran out...

 

Thanks for all your thoughts. My daughter did buy the car. 2009 clubman s with 17,000 miles. It has everything and she will have about 10 months of the first warranty. She decided against the extended warranty from the dealership for now. She and I both called the three BMW Mini dealerships in area and talked to service departments. They recommended Fidelity and a couple of others so we checked online and they offer better prices for the same coverage. Since it is an S we have been advised by many people that an extended warranty would be a good idea but we should do it about 90 days before the other one runs out. The dealer did an oil change for her before she bought it but am wondering if she should take it to the dealer to have some regular check up. It does run good and looks brand new.

 

You could ask the service dept. what was done to it (pre-inspection)before they sold it.Might save you some cash.

 

well too late she already got it- I told her she needs to take it to the dealership and have them tell her if it needs anything.

 

Factory warranty is transferable for all car makes in the US by law.

 

Does anyone know if the extended maintenance or warranty is good at all dealers? Seriously considering but am pretty sure I will be moving out of state within the next 3 yrs

 

@SummerLady, Congratulations to you & your daughter, may she enjoy many fun fill miles and you not gain any gray hairs in the process. I would check the VIN number of the car with BMW service area rep. Sorry to be a doom and gloom guy, but I would make sure you qualify for an extended warranty claim before purchasing one. Worst case example is if the car has had only one oil change of record at 17,000 miles then the car is out of extended warranty. The extended warranty company will take your money up front but when it lookup the VIN number as part of the claim process when it comes time to pay up, somewhere around 50,001 miles, they will note (in this example) that the first oil change should have been at one year or 13-15,000 miles and could legally deny the claim. I would suggest you have the BMW Dealer ship walk the both of you through a fluid, hose, and belt check under the hood. Then plan to do the same every 2nd fill up. The MCS interference engines are fun to drives, but they are also prone to catastrophic failures.

Here is a link to a different thread that talks about an engine oil test that may provide some peace of mind regarding the quality of the car. I will have to say that this test is new to me, but it sounded promising; https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-too-long.html