BMW Extended Warranty / Roadside Assistance (Again!)

[MartinK]

My GS will be 5 years old next week.
So far I have maintained the BMW Extended Insured Warranty, and associated breakdown cover.
Usually (with the exception of Covid years) I do TWO Euro tours a year. As such it's seemed quite cost effective (I have also had 4 Warranty claims, so it's paid it's way!)
However my accelerating dissatisfaction with my local BMW dealer is making me want to go to an good Independent Specialist for servicing (not to save money, but just to be sure it's being serviced correctly!)

I have been reading the BMW T's&C's and it does indeed appear that you CAN get your bike serviced by an INDIE so long as they use genuine parts etc, and you have a receipt. Altho I guess you will lose the goodwill (not that I have experienced much of that recently!) of your Motorrad dealer should you need them...

£400 for an Annual breakdown and extended Warranty isn't too scary if you're doing the miles (I'm on 7k miles/annum on my GS, as I use my V85 quite a bit too but just in UK) and the two out-of-UK trips I guess... (last year my mates paid a fair chunk of cash just for a single month of Euro breakdown cover)

What's the current view? Keen to hear experiences and feedback from the collective please?

 

[Wapping]

If there’s a claim in the 12 months, that is greater than the premium, bods will say it’s great.

If there isn’t, bods will say it’s a rip-off.

What they think is immaterial. It’s what you think or believe, that matters.

In 12 months time, you’ll know the answer.

PS This applies to most forms of insurance, which many bods see as an investment (which it isn’t) rather than an indemnity, which it is.

PPS Other providers (other than BMW) provide broadly similar cover. Check them out, too.

 

[MartinK]

Thanks Richard

Re "Other providers" - I was thinking the same.

With 4 Warranty claims (three being Throttle Valve Assy's) from BMW I seem to have had my "value" from the policies thus far, and European breakdown cover isn't that cheap either... I may just Renew...

 

[wessie]

Annual Euro breakdown cover is under £70 if you go to Moneysupermarket and buy the LV policy. You can get it under £50 with companies you have never heard of. The main difference is that you will not always be taken to a BMW dealer, which is not necessarily a problem especially if you have a puncture or something simple like a wheel bearing failure.

 

[Wapping]

As Wessie says, competitively priced alternatives are out there.

Pro’s and con’s….

Save money

You favour non-BMW franchised dealerships anyway

Bods regularly moan that they dislike the repair centre their insurer has sent them to. There again, who they like and dislike at any one moment is very variable, often driven by nothing more than “My mate says…..”

Staying within the BMW ‘family’ (franchised dealership for repair and the BMW branded extended warranty to meet the costs) might make life easier, as you talk to one entity, not two.

 

[stonehenge]

I discussed this extensively with BMW my car dealership and he showed me the warranty field on the workshop booking screen and if ticked the repair process is easy and slick. They will honour the work and you pay your chosen excess. I would imagine same for bikes. So I have their warranty on both my X3 and Mini Cooper S. Both have service plans that are both good VFM and again no hassle.
You can take the vehicle outside the dealer network for work, UK block exemption allows for this, but if you do, expect issues if you expect BMW repair work to be done. In my experience, the relationship is as important as the work done.
Just imagine you have not visited the dealers for three years and your final drive goes. Would you expect the breakdown truck to take it to BMW and them fall over themselves to help?
Just a point - you have basic breakdown already in the extended warranty - if you pay extra, you get home start / foreign cover / replacement vehicle etc. Do you need these?

 

[MrC99]

With 4 Warranty claims (three being Throttle Valve Assy's) from BMW I seem to have had my "value" from the policies thus far, and European breakdown cover isn't that cheap either... I may just Renew...

It can just take one major repair to "justify" the BMW warranty. I've been paying it for years but when the cams/followers went at 52K it showed the value of the package. On identifying the fault the BMW dealer (who know the bike's my main form of transport and service it) immediately lined up a new demo 1250RT and basically said keep it until we ring you and don't worry about the miles or how dirty it gets. They also kept the failed parts to show me what had been replaced. That one repair would've cost £000s and I don't think it would've been as seamless and stress-free if I'd gone with a 3rd party insurance co. or non-branded mechanic. Sometimes it's hard to put a price on "peace of mind".

 

[Rusty]

I agree with Mr C above. For me it is peace of mind. If anything BMW goes wrong it is going to cost you a great deal of money and of course mechanical things do wear and break just as electrical / computer stuff does too.
If you never need it then Hey Ho ... but if you do .......................

 

[Santa-2512]

I had the extended warranty with my 16 plate ex pcp bike so full BMWSH

All was well for the 2 year all in warranty (although i could only use 1 year of it (covid))

Apart from the rear shock that failed and wasn't covered by the warranty goodbye 1.1K

Paid for the extended warranty - and the following failed

Throttle assy

Throttle assy loom

Camshaft sensor

Rear shock - (not covered under any warranty as mileage over 30k)

Main ECU

Fuel pressure regulator

RH throttle body

12 weeks approx between each incident, and a total of around 15 months off the road

The ECU took almost 6 months to arrive & be coded

 

[Mr Bean]

Touch wood, nothing has failed on my Feb 2019 1250. No extended warranty, or 1lb of butter in the fridge.

Happy to take the gamble that I'm save money in the long run by not paying for an extended warranty - not paid for one (on anything) for at least 35 years...

 

[Barnoe]

Martin i was in the same boat.

My GS is now 5 too, 100% BMW service history and never been anywhere else.
the warranty ran out and i was in two minds whether to buy another year.

In the end i decided not to, i wanted to but couldn't afford it on top of other things i had going on at the time
touch wood the bikes been fine.

It was serviced by BMW 2 months back and i did ask the mechanic to check everything over and make sure he doesn't see any future problems, which i hope he did
it had a big service this time too.
Its been a fantastic bike and never missed a beat, i will be exchanging it next summer so fingers crossed it keeps doing the same until then
of course the next bike will have a warranty again

the obvious answer is always YES get the cover if you can afford it... i would have.

 

[rovert57]

Just reading these comments makes me realise that although I’ve been paying the extended warranty for my bm bike for 6 years and have only had a couple of claims the process has been seamless, I did have to wait for a few weeks due to motorrad having a large backlog of recalls to fix on their newly sold bikes and having to order the starter motor from bmw .so I think I’ll stay with them .

 

[Santa-2512]

Martin i was in the same boat.

My GS is now 5 too, 100% BMW service history and never been anywhere else.
the warranty ran out and i was in two minds whether to buy another year.

In the end i decided not to, i wanted to but couldn't afford it on top of other things i had going on at the time
touch wood the bikes been fine.

It was serviced by BMW 2 months back and i did ask the mechanic to check everything over and make sure he doesn't see any future problems, which i hope he did
it had a big service this time too.
Its been a fantastic bike and never missed a beat, i will be exchanging it next summer so fingers crossed it keeps doing the same until then
of course the next bike will have a warranty again

the obvious answer is always YES get the cover if you can afford it... i would have.

If you let the warranty lapse you cant opt for the £0 excess when you take it out again, so you would have to pay £50 for every claim

 

[MartinK]

I never extended the Warranty on any other bike or car. However on my GS it's been very useful, as I have had FIVE claims in all (one camshaft where the hardening failed, 3 throttle bodies and an oil leak). The Warranty work would have cost more than the Warranty costs!

The biggest thing was that I have lost faith in the Motorrad dealer network, and wanted to go with a Indie (not for saving cash, but to be sure jobs were done right), but it appears the Insured Warranty is still intact if indeed you have a breakdown. I do understand I'll lose the goodwill (which I have never experienced with Bowker) of my dealer.

I'm thinking of renewing the Motorrad Insured Warranty with Euro breakdown cover (for my upcoming Euro trip) but the next service (probably in May/June '24) will be done by a top Indie (probably Rainbow Workshop). I'll keep the invoice and make sure only OEM parts are used. Probably the most pragmatic route.

Some great advice above...thanks chaps

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

My GSA is 10 years old and I've renewed the warranty every year and did so again last month.
I've not had to use it so far, touch wood, but an issue with my previous RT showed me the warranty's worth for my circumstances.
I am completely useless when it comes to anything mechanics related, I can't even fix a puncture so I'm happy to pay the premium purely for piece of mind.
Having the extended warranty has also saved me thousands of £s as any time I've considered changing my bike for a newer model I've come to the conclusion that there's no point as I already have bike with a warranty and breakdown cover.

What does surprise me is that the price to renew has only gone up once in those 10 years.

 

[wessie]

My GSA is 10 years old and I've renewed the warranty every year and did so again last month.
I've not had to use it so far, touch wood, but an issue with my previous RT showed me the warranty's worth for my circumstances.
I am completely useless when it comes to anything mechanics related, I can't even fix a puncture so I'm happy to pay the premium purely for piece of mind.
Having the extended warranty has also saved me thousands of £s as any time I've considered changing my bike for a newer model I've come to the conclusion that there's no point as I already have bike with a warranty and breakdown cover.

What does surprise me is that the price to renew has only gone up once in those 10 years.

BMW has had around £3000 from you for the 8 years you extended the warranty without any expenditure on their part? They make shed loads of money from that scheme as the vast majority of people are like you, make few if any claims.
My philosophy, sometimes having a car and two bikes, is to put a notional £300 into an account for each vehicle each year to cover non-routine maintenance. I now have one car and one bike. I have owned a vehicle since my first car in 1982. Even if I get a £3000 bill for an unexpected repair, I am thousands of pounds up over those 4 decades of self underwriting.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Indeed.
As I've said, had I not got the extended warranty BMW would have had considerably more out of me over the years in terms of expenditure on new bikes so as far as I'm concerned it's money well spent, as I'm sure your route is for you.
It's nice that we're both happy.

 

[littleade]

My GS will be 5 years old next week.
So far I have maintained the BMW Extended Insured Warranty, and associated breakdown cover.
Usually (with the exception of Covid years) I do TWO Euro tours a year. As such it's seemed quite cost effective (I have also had 4 Warranty claims, so it's paid it's way!)
However my accelerating dissatisfaction with my local BMW dealer is making me want to go to an good Independent Specialist for servicing (not to save money, but just to be sure it's being serviced correctly!)

I have been reading the BMW T's&C's and it does indeed appear that you CAN get your bike serviced by an INDIE so long as they use genuine parts etc, and you have a receipt. Altho I guess you will lose the goodwill (not that I have experienced much of that recently!) of your Motorrad dealer should you need them...

£400 for an Annual breakdown and extended Warranty isn't too scary if you're doing the miles (I'm on 7k miles/annum on my GS, as I use my V85 quite a bit too but just in UK) and the two out-of-UK trips I guess... (last year my mates paid a fair chunk of cash just for a single month of Euro breakdown cover)

What's the current view? Keen to hear experiences and feedback from the collective please?

I posted this poll in 2019 which might help you with your dilemma. The sample size isn't that large so there will be a degree of statustical error in the results but never the less it's useful reading if you're wondering if a BMW extended warranty is for you.

Did you take out an extended Warranty for your R1200GS LC

The warranty on my GS expires in a few months so was wondering for those that have a 1200GS LC that's now over 2 years old did you take out a warranty or not? Have you had any problems with your bike since that you had fixed under warranty or either paid for it yourself or had a contribution...

www.ukgser.com

 

[MrC99]

BMW has had around £3000 from you for the 8 years you extended the warranty without any expenditure on their part? They make shed loads of money from that scheme as the vast majority of people are like you, make few if any claims.
My philosophy, sometimes having a car and two bikes, is to put a notional £300 into an account for each vehicle each year to cover non-routine maintenance. I now have one car and one bike. I have owned a vehicle since my first car in 1982. Even if I get a £3000 bill for an unexpected repair, I am thousands of pounds up over those 4 decades of self underwriting.

Which is fine but a) costs of repair can and do easily exceed that £3000 and b) if you need to call on your self-funding in the first few years there's a big risk the cost of the repair will far exceed what you've banked to date. Some people have made multiple claims in which case self underwriting would fail to cover the cost. You also miss out on the secondary stuff like the included breakdown cover and goodwill stuff like replacement bikes while yours is being fixed. BMW are funding things behind the scenes (the breakdown cover and admin costs being part, plus I doubt that they underwrite their own policy).

At the end of the day it's good to have the choice to suit our personal preferences.

 

[MartinK]

From my own perspective (as I'm the OP) I have had:
* THREE...yes THREE Throttle Bodies (at £520 ea according to Bowker PLUS Labour!)
* One Camshaft (RHS, the "diamond like coating" failed)
* One oil leak fixed
Plus, I have had 5 years European Breakdown cover as well (bike is 5 years old next week) (for the 2 years post Warranty, that's saved me ~£200
I reckon I have done well! Had I bought 2 years Euro Breakdown cover, plus 3 throttle bodies, plus a camshaft, plus all the Labour it would have been over £3k easily (if done at a main dealer)!

In all my bikes (incl 6 BMW's) I have never had extended Warranty before, but it's been fab this time!!!

BUT - as I said, Bowker have been appalling especially in the most recent visits. I really have had a BAD time with them, so much so that I have lost trust and do not ever want to go back! I want an Indie service... Hence my summary in post #14 above (fingers crossed my Bike now runs without a hitch for a year or 2, otherwise it'll be my last BMW!)