Extending warranty?

trancey

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I bought a 1250 GS which was just over a year old, it would have been sold new with 3 years warranty. I know from experience that extended warranty would have been available following the initial 3 years warranty period. The GS was an approved used bike from a BMW dealer, so came with 2 years warranty from the time of purchase, which is a few months longer than the original 3 years. When the 2 years is up will I be offered a warranty extension from BMW? If not, can I extend from the date of the original 3 years warranty?
 
https://www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk/en/service/three-year-warranty.html - you buy a warranty at any time if the bike meets the criteria. It is an insurance policy that runs from the day you take it out, either for 12 months or a rolling month depending on which option you select.

Also consider self-underwriting as it will cost you the best part of £400 a year. This is the option I have taken for decades. I'm quids in when you total up the premiums I have not paid and the money I have spent on non-routine repairs.
 
I bought a 1250 GS which was just over a year old, it would have been sold new with 3 years warranty. I know from experience that extended warranty would have been available following the initial 3 years warranty period. The GS was an approved used bike from a BMW dealer, so came with 2 years warranty from the time of purchase, which is a few months longer than the original 3 years. When the 2 years is up will I be offered a warranty extension from BMW? If not, can I extend from the date of the original 3 years warranty?

Blimey thats a conundrum
I may be wrong, but i thought you get the balance of the manufacturers warranty which would be 2 years,

if they decided not to honor the original warranty, most SH bikes come with a 2 year parts & breakdown oem warranty

When that runs out, your offered an annual extension up to 100,00 miles on parts, but only 10 years on the breakdown & recovery

You can pay monthly or annually, annually being cheaper than the monthly price (x12)

It comes as a build yourself package

Parts & labour, with £100 excess , P&L with £50 excess, P&L with £0 excess

to any of the above you can add the recovery & support pack for about £60

I've just done the £0 option with recovery and it was £458 PA

Bike dosent need to be BMW serviced, just serviced in accordance with the BMW schedule

The only time they may want to look as service history, is if the claim is related to service item or condition.

Normal wear consumables are excluded ie brake pads / discs
 
https://www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk/en/service/three-year-warranty.html - you buy a warranty at any time if the bike meets the criteria. It is an insurance policy that runs from the day you take it out, either for 12 months or a rolling month depending on which option you select.

Also consider self-underwriting as it will cost you the best part of £400 a year. This is the option I have taken for decades. I'm quids in when you total up the premiums I have not paid and the money I have spent on non-routine repairs.

What is self underwriting? sounds interesting, or is it an industry only thing?
 
What is self underwriting? sounds interesting, or is it an industry only thing?

1. do not buy any extended warranty
2. pay for any repairs out of own pocket

In my experience, the sum of money saved in #1 will be several times larger than anything paid out in #2, over the course of any person's driving or riding experience

Insurance companies would not underwrite extended warranties if they did not make a load of cash from them.

As an example, from 2018 to now, an extended warranty for each of my BMW bikes would cost £350 a year, each. £700 x 4 = £2800. In that time, I have paid absolutely zero in repairs that were not routine maintenance.

If I do similar maths for other vehicles since starting to drive in 1980 the figures become quite large but I have been lucky and I have not had anything major fail on a vehicle I have owned. If I do get a major failure in the future then I will just take it on the chin and cough up, or break the vehicle for parts. Overall, I would still be quids in if that happened to both bikes and my little hatchback car.

If anyone is worried about having a major expense on a vehicle they should open a savings account and put £40 a month in the account for every month they own a vehicle. Draw down cash as needed for repairs. By the time they stop owning vehicles, I am pretty confident they will have a nice nest egg. This would be a more precise form of self underwriting rather than my notional effort.
 
What is self underwriting? sounds interesting, or is it an industry only thing?

Not paying for an extended warranty and saving on the premiums..

Personally I insure the things that legally I have to only.
 
I bought a 1200 GSA new in 2013 and have extended the warranty including the breakdown cover since the manufacturer warranty ran out. It's increased from about £325 to just under £400 p.a. in that time.
I have had no claims so could well be seen as having wasted all of that cash, I certainly couldn't argue with that notion.
I'm not, however, even remotely proficient at anything that might need to be done to the bike so see the cost as the price of peace of mind trouble free motoring.
The ability to extend the warranty has also stopped me from changing the bike for a new/newer one at least once a year since 2015, the last time being a week ago so I could argue that I've actually saved far more money than I've spent.
The one occasion my old RT let me down, in Europe, I was very impressed with the service offered by the breakdown part of the warranty which is why I also take that option as well.
 
1. do not buy any extended warranty
2. pay for any repairs out of own pocket

In my experience, the sum of money saved in #1 will be several times larger than anything paid out in #2, over the course of any person's driving or riding experience

Insurance companies would not underwrite extended warranties if they did not make a load of cash from them.

As an example, from 2018 to now, an extended warranty for each of my BMW bikes would cost £350 a year, each. £700 x 4 = £2800. In that time, I have paid absolutely zero in repairs that were not routine maintenance.

If I do similar maths for other vehicles since starting to drive in 1980 the figures become quite large but I have been lucky and I have not had anything major fail on a vehicle I have owned. If I do get a major failure in the future then I will just take it on the chin and cough up, or break the vehicle for parts. Overall, I would still be quids in if that happened to both bikes and my little hatchback car.

If anyone is worried about having a major expense on a vehicle they should open a savings account and put £40 a month in the account for every month they own a vehicle. Draw down cash as needed for repairs. By the time they stop owning vehicles, I am pretty confident they will have a nice nest egg. This would be a more precise form of self underwriting rather than my notional effort.

And if the ‘big one’ happens on day two of the first month, what then? Ask you for a sub, I guess. :D

:beerjug:
 
1. do not buy any extended warranty
2. pay for any repairs out of own pocket

In my experience, the sum of money saved in #1 will be several times larger than anything paid out in #2, over the course of any person's driving or riding experience

Insurance companies would not underwrite extended warranties if they did not make a load of cash from them.

As an example, from 2018 to now, an extended warranty for each of my BMW bikes would cost £350 a year, each. £700 x 4 = £2800. In that time, I have paid absolutely zero in repairs that were not routine maintenance.

If I do similar maths for other vehicles since starting to drive in 1980 the figures become quite large but I have been lucky and I have not had anything major fail on a vehicle I have owned. If I do get a major failure in the future then I will just take it on the chin and cough up, or break the vehicle for parts. Overall, I would still be quids in if that happened to both bikes and my little hatchback car.

If anyone is worried about having a major expense on a vehicle they should open a savings account and put £40 a month in the account for every month they own a vehicle. Draw down cash as needed for repairs. By the time they stop owning vehicles, I am pretty confident they will have a nice nest egg. This would be a more precise form of self underwriting rather than my notional effort.

On my 2014 gsa , I was given an extra third years warranty due to issues, in 33 months and less than 14,000 miles...... 2 front and 2 rear shocks, 2 sets of switchgear, 2 new gsap units, numerous ecu updates etc etc. Well over £10,000 in total of which almost £ 4000 was in the third year.

2017 gsa in 2 year initial warranty period due to clutch issues it was in twice eventually needing a full clutch pack at over £1200 before the bike was 30 months old, I paid for the extended warranty and at less than 4 years old a 13,600 miles an ECU failure with a bill of £1000, so bills of £2200 which I would have had to pay.

It is the OP's choice
 
And if the ‘big one’ happens on day two of the first month, what then? Ask you for a sub, I guess. :D

:beerjug:

In my case I was running around in £300 bangers for the first 6 years of motoring. 1982: 1970 Capri, replaced by 1973 Escort when the Capri fatally failed the MOT. Engine from the Capri into the Escort. It was 1988 when I bought my first new vehicle so 1990 until the warranty ran out. 8 years of notional self underwriting in the bank whilst operating bangernomics. 40x12x8 = £3840 in the bank before entering a period of a risk of higher cost for breakdowns. First new bike was 1993 so loads in the notional bank account by then.
 
I just extended mine. The first time on any vehicle,

It's only because:
1. I have had a couple of issues in year 3 of ownership, I had the DLC fail on a camshaft (RHS) needing a new camshaft, and then an oil leak on the other cylinder (LHS) a couple of months later. As such I had a slightly lower confidence in the bike, so I extended the Warranty into Year 4.
2. I have a couple of overseas trips planned for 2022. The Warranty covers EU if you take that extra option (making the total approx £390 for the year). I have heard good things about the EU cover on BMW Warranty - along the lines of "press the SOS button and the BMW "system" sorts you out" - I deemed this a useful option for overseas tours...

Whether I will extend into year 5 is another issue, it will probably depend on whether (1) I plan to take the bike overseas or not in 2023... and (2) whether the bike stays reliable this year...
 
As with Martin above, just extended mine for year, with the Eu assistance package, not that I've had any mechanical problems whatsoever, its just peace of mind for £388 and reassurance for the next owner too, if I sell it.
 
I tried to extend mine, couldn’t get through and the web link they sent me wouldn’t work, emailed them, called them, even wrote to bmw customer services and called them.

That was back on Sept 2021, and not heard anything from BMW or the underwriter.

I think they are all run by Carol the doctors receptionist from Little Britain.
 
Don't think ive seen such complicated answers to a simple question :-) .

"When the 2 years is up will I be offered a warranty extension from BMW?". Simple answer , yes.
 
Worth its weight in gold when your rear wheel bearing collapses when you're touring in the South of France with the wife. And the best customer experience ever from a company. Bike transported from our holiday let to nearest Motorrad dealer, taxi sent to take us to nearest Hertz car rental and given a VW Polo for the week of holiday. We were updated every day on repair progress and told if the bike wasn't ready when we were due to return home, use hire car to return and they will repatriate the bike. Luckily the bike was ready. Didn't pay a penny for a thing, no stress, and carried on enjoying holiday. If it wasn't for the extended warranty/breakdown it would have been a nightmare to sort out. Also had numerous other items sorted via the warranty, such as 'distorted' !! final drive, both handlebar switch control units, exhaust valve. Worth getting if you tour about a lot like we do for that piece of mind.
 
On my 2014 gsa , I was given an extra third years warranty due to issues, in 33 months and less than 14,000 miles...... 2 front and 2 rear shocks, 2 sets of switchgear, 2 new gsap units, numerous ecu updates etc etc. Well over £10,000 in total of which almost £ 4000 was in the third year.

2017 gsa in 2 year initial warranty period due to clutch issues it was in twice eventually needing a full clutch pack at over £1200 before the bike was 30 months old, I paid for the extended warranty and at less than 4 years old a 13,600 miles an ECU failure with a bill of £1000, so bills of £2200 which I would have had to pay.

It is the OP's choice

A testament to the quality of BMW products!
 
On all the bikes I have had I received notification from BMW when the warranty was due to run out and offering me the option to extend cover for a premium. I personally like the peace of mind of the cover, if you're still doing all the miles that you used to then probably still the best option.
 
Worth its weight in gold when your rear wheel bearing collapses when you're touring in the South of France with the wife. And the best customer experience ever from a company. Bike transported from our holiday let to nearest Motorrad dealer, taxi sent to take us to nearest Hertz car rental and given a VW Polo for the week of holiday. We were updated every day on repair progress and told if the bike wasn't ready when we were due to return home, use hire car to return and they will repatriate the bike. Luckily the bike was ready. Didn't pay a penny for a thing, no stress, and carried on enjoying holiday. If it wasn't for the extended warranty/breakdown it would have been a nightmare to sort out. Also had numerous other items sorted via the warranty, such as 'distorted' !! final drive, both handlebar switch control units, exhaust valve. Worth getting if you tour about a lot like we do for that piece of mind.

Good to know. I heard aa similar story of a guy who had a breakdown on the Stelvio pass. Pressed his SOS button, and the response was awesome, as you sa, was able to continue to enjoy the holiday! Yours is a great story :okay
 
On all the bikes I have had I received notification from BMW when the warranty was due to run out and offering me the option to extend cover for a premium. I personally like the peace of mind of the cover, if you're still doing all the miles that you used to then probably still the best option.
Extended warranties are never ‘probably’ the best option.
They may be best for you depending on you circumstances and attitude to risk but based on probability….no.
 


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