bmw - you gotta pay to play

[veeman]

This is utter exaggeration in my opinion.

a. You are not a "slave" to the appointment the car makes, it is a convenience feature. Don?t like it just don?t go or cancel it.

b. The extended warranty "bs" if not provided directly by BMWNA has nothing to do with them. It is likely provided by a third party.

c. Any car with about 40,000 miles may have some issues. Go bore yourself to death in the Lexus. Who cares?

Finally, studies have shown that the most important criteria for a man?s competitiveness and sense of self-worth are how he does professionally compared to his brothers in law and the husband(s) of his wife?s sister(s).

Thus, great pleasure derived by the OP in mocking his brothers in law BMW here. Sorry.

Thanks a lot for all the posts.  The point of my post was mostly to relate a humorous incident.  I never really thought about suggesting to my brother in law to go to an independent shop which specializes in bmws.  Makes a lot of sense. 

The extended warranty "bs" was provided by bmw and usually i've found extended warranties have so many exceptions and rigid criteria they are useless.

"you gotta pay to play" I think applies to most luxury makes.  Honestly, most people who own luxury makes can't or won't do even routine maintenance on them themselves.  The cars are so sophisticated now it is virtually impossible to do most of it anyways.  Once the warranty runs out which is way before the useful lifespan of the car, costs are very high particularly with german makes (forgetting about supercars). 

german auto engineering sets the world standard.  its innovative, elegant, and beautiful.  But they have not done a good job regarding reliability of electronic gizmos.  there are many many happy lexus owners out there in the U.S. who are mercedes or bmw converts who won't go back. 

i'm not in the market right now for a luxury car but in the next 5 - 10 years i probably will be for something to replace the buick enclave.  if i had to replace the the enclave right now, i'd be choosing between the new infiniti jx, land rover lr4, and mercedes gl.  The audi q7 is short on third row space.  Infiniti has nothing, I mean nothing, over the land rover or mercedes in terms of engineering, driving dynamics, interior luxury, and safety.  Except one thing - which would be the deciding factor for me.  I know its going to be unlikely to cost me nearly as much to maintain it for 10 years/150,000 miles.  I'd even be willing to pay the 15 grand premium of the mercedes over the infiniti in upfront costs if I felt it would be worry free.       

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

The extended warranty "bs" was provided by bmw and usually i've found extended warranties have so many exceptions and rigid criteria they are useless.

Tell me about it! 

[SVT666]

Tell me about it! 

I bottomed out the suspension on my car when I hit a dip in the road at 150 km/h and I bent both suspension arms in the front and my extended warranty covered it.  I don't know why, but they did. 

[MexicoCityM3]

I bottomed out the suspension on my car when I hit a dip in the road at 150 km/h and I bent both suspension arms in the front and my extended warranty covered it.  I don't know why, but they did. 

Cool.

[MexicoCityM3]

Thanks a lot for all the posts.  The point of my post was mostly to relate a humorous incident.  I never really thought about suggesting to my brother in law to go to an independent shop which specializes in bmws.  Makes a lot of sense.  

The extended warranty "bs" was provided by bmw and usually i've found extended warranties have so many exceptions and rigid criteria they are useless.

"you gotta pay to play" I think applies to most luxury makes.  Honestly, most people who own luxury makes can't or won't do even routine maintenance on them themselves.  The cars are so sophisticated now it is virtually impossible to do most of it anyways.  Once the warranty runs out which is way before the useful lifespan of the car, costs are very high particularly with german makes (forgetting about supercars).  

german auto engineering sets the world standard.  its innovative, elegant, and beautiful.  But they have not done a good job regarding reliability of electronic gizmos.  there are many many happy lexus owners out there in the U.S. who are mercedes or bmw converts who won't go back.  

i'm not in the market right now for a luxury car but in the next 5 - 10 years i probably will be for something to replace the buick enclave.  if i had to replace the the enclave right now, i'd be choosing between the new infiniti jx, land rover lr4, and mercedes gl.  The audi q7 is short on third row space.  Infiniti has nothing, I mean nothing, over the land rover or mercedes in terms of engineering, driving dynamics, interior luxury, and safety.  Except one thing - which would be the deciding factor for me.  I know its going to be unlikely to cost me nearly as much to maintain it for 10 years/150,000 miles.  I'd even be willing to pay the 15 grand premium of the mercedes over the infiniti in upfront costs if I felt it would be worry free.        

It seems like I overreacted to your op.

Was the extended warranty provided by the dealer or by BMWNA?

In any case, In my experience, maintenance has been very reasonable and I do as people recommend here. Indie shops for most work. And I do the brakes myself.

[Gotta-Qik-C7]

I bottomed out the suspension on my car when I hit a dip in the road at 150 km/h and I bent both suspension arms in the front and my extended warranty covered it.  I don't know why, but they did. 

And all I need is 3 of the effin control arms replaced! UGH!

[GoCougs]

This is utter exaggeration in my opinion.

a. You are not a "slave" to the appointment the car makes, it is a convenience feature. Don?t like it just don?t go or cancel it.

b. The extended warranty "bs" if not provided directly by BMWNA has nothing to do with them. It is likely provided by a third party.

c. Any car with about 40,000 miles may have some issues. Go bore yourself to death in the Lexus. Who cares?

Finally, studies have shown that the most important criteria for a man?s competitiveness and sense of self-worth are how he does professionally compared to his brothers in law and the husband(s) of his wife?s sister(s).

Thus, great pleasure derived by the OP in mocking his brothers in law BMW here. Sorry.

It is completely reasonable to expect to have no issues on a non-exotic vehicle with 40,000 miles.

[280Z Turbo]

It is completely reasonable to expect to have no issues on a non-exotic vehicle with 40,000 miles.

[hotrodalex]

It is completely reasonable to expect to have no issues on a non-exotic vehicle with 40,000 miles.

I think it's kind of silly that magazines do "long-term" tests of cars to see how well they hold up over 40,000 miles. A better test would be at least 70,000.

[Colin]

I think it's kind of silly that magazines do "long-term" tests of cars to see how well they hold up over 40,000 miles. A better test would be at least 70,000.

40,000? In the UK, the longest the mags ever seem to keep one of the indulgent trinket laden toys that the manufacturers loan them is a year, and they rarely get even to 20,000 miles. They learn absolutely nothing of any consequence, as either the mfr takes the car back to service and "update" it, of the dealer knows who the car belongs to, or if the mileage is low, they never go to a dealer at all. They all express surprise, though, that at 10,000 miles, that nothing has broken.

That said, Autocar's Mercedes E63 AMG, with ?35,000 of options did recently need a service and a new set of tyres after 8,000 miles. If I had to pay the costs for that, I'd be furious. The Audi needs a service at 19,000 miles (30,000 km) and on the S6, the tyres lasted four times as long. 

UK Magazine Long term tests have become simply a few more column inches of publicity once a model is out of the "brand new" spotlight. They tell us nothing of any value apart from the fact that the journos are a bunch of spoiled brats who have lost all touch with the real world and affordability.

[GoCougs]

I agree about long term testers - worthless. I lol at the commentary, such as: "wow, it's bit stiff and it's kinda hard to park but boy it sure hauls a lot of stuff!" (about a Duramax Silverado in M/T long term fleet).

[sportyaccordy]

I thought IL did some pretty good ones. They at least buy used cars. I think a more realistic picture of a car would be to pick it up off lease. It would have real miles, but be somewhat better maintained than an outright purchase, and would represent a good middle ground of what kind of used car you'd pick up. I mean they did the E46 M3, an old 911 and now the NSX, as well as a C5 Z06. Now they have that old ES too. Its not all shit.

[hotrodalex]

I thought IL did some pretty good ones. They at least buy used cars. I think a more realistic picture of a car would be to pick it up off lease. It would have real miles, but be somewhat better maintained than an outright purchase, and would represent a good middle ground of what kind of used car you'd pick up. I mean they did the E46 M3, an old 911 and now the NSX, as well as a C5 Z06. Now they have that old ES too. Its not all shit.

That could actually be a great idea. As long as the used car is in good shape when they buy it, the test would be able to tell a lot more about the durability and reliability of the car, since it would be further along in its life.