Advice to Extend a Second Time or No

[Gigi]

I have been approached by my extended warranty company to go out another 55,000 miles on the warranty (for a total of 155,000) for a cost of $3,000. The price is based on the fact that my 2009 R56 has 85,000 and change miles. I drive an average of 4,000 miles/month but my car is regularly maintained. I'm trying to decide what the likelihood is (outside of an accident or vandalism) that I will incur more than $3,000 in engine repairs within the next year and a half. What's likely to poop out? I have an automatic transmission if that makes a difference.

 

I have to make a decision before the end of the month if I want the extended, extended coverage at that price point. Any and all advice is welcomed!

[TATTRAT]

Well, it is one of those thing like any insurance. . .will you need it? Who knows. Will you be glad you have it if something goes wrong? Damn Skippy.

 

IMO, it is cheap peace of mind. I have had my MINI is the dealership twice since purchasing. With my plan, I paid a $50 deductible, plus overage on the labor(my plan only covers X$/hr). . .2,300 bill/invoice was a LOT easier to bare when I only had to pay $178.

 

3K upfront isn't too bad, if you break it down to what it is per month($166 per month) and if something did go kaput, you won't have to worry.

 

Just my $.02

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

That's a great price. I did it with AAA, it cost me about $3800 for 48 more months and Tigger has less miles then your car. I did get the platinum coverage since it would cover my super charger and also had some coverage for the motors of the convertible top.

 

Is the deductible per visit or per incident? Mine is per visit, so I save them up if possible. With the AAA policy it's $100 ded but $50 if I went to an AAA shop. I'll probably just keep going to the dealer and pay the $100.

 

MINIs are expensive to fix, I like having the peace of mind of budgeting out that warranty.

 

Ali

[Gigi]

Thanks y'all for the advice! The 155K plan will the be same as my current 100K warranty plan in that I have no deductible. But, the 155K plan won't cover audio (speakers, USB jack, etc.). Do y'all have audio covered?

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

I would have to dig out the policy, but I seriously doubt I have audio covered. I didn't think it was something that anyone covered. I was shocked and pleased that they cover the motors for my convertible top which is frequently excluded. I have an all inclusive policy, if it's not excluded then it's covered.

 

How did you find a 0 deductible at that price? Good work!

[Gigi]

I went thru a MINI dealership owned by AutoNation when I bought my 100K warranty and maintenance plans. I don't think I even knew at the time there were plans that had deductibles. (Not surprising, the dealership having been the recipient of a whole bunch of my cash on doodad crap and accessories never mentioned cheaper plans.) AutoNation recently bought a warranty company so when they approached me to extend my warranty a second time it under the same terms (i.e. zero deductible) except no audio. Audio being the one thing that I most likely will trash within the 155K warranty period.

[TGGRRR (Ali)]

I went thru a MINI dealership owned by AutoNation when I bought my 100K warranty and maintenance plans. I don't think I even knew at the time there were plans that had deductibles. (Not surprising, the dealership having been the recipient of a whole bunch of my cash on doodad crap and accessories never mentioned cheaper plans.) AutoNation recently bought a warranty company so when they approached me to extend my warranty a second time it under the same terms (i.e. zero deductible) except no audio. Audio being the one thing that I most likely will trash within the 155K warranty period.

 

 

I bought Tigger used through Carmax, who didn't tell me that I had 18 months left on the factory warranty and sold me an extended warranty that ran concurrently. I may have only had half the time on that thing, but I made sure I got them to pay more then I paid for it. So when that one was coming to a close I started looking around. I did speak to a few dealerships, and had the worst customer service experience ever with a random auto warranty company on the web. AAA had the best deal I could find so I took it, MINI of Atlanta had the next best deal and Passport MINI was way higher then anyone.

 

Carmax has now changed their policy and when Mark bought Max they added the extended warranty to the end of his factory warranty. So with them combined he's covered well into 100k

 

Ali

[Mach V Dan]

In general, extended warranties are EXTREMELY profitable for the companies that offer them. That means it's extremely unlikely you will get your money's worth. It's always possible, but the numbers (probability of a warrantee-able problem * the cost of fixing the problem) mean it's not a good value for you, the consumer.

 

--Dan

Mach V

FastMINI.net

[Gigi]

I really, really appreciate everyone's input.