Hello all,
I purchased 2023 330XI with 4k miles on it last night. I picked the vehicle up in VA. It appears to be a loaner in the past. This is my first purchase of BMW brand because I’m planning on keeping the vehicle for 5-6 years and decided to go with reliable brand. I know I might sound stupid, but I have never purchased/financed a vehicle in the past but only leased them, therefore I was confused about warranty on BMW. So first off, dealer told me that vehicle that they sold is not BMW certified to my surprise. I was under impression; BMW loaners would be certified since they are under dealership’s wing and dealership should maintain service on their vehicles, while they are using it for their services. When I signed the paperwork, I was presented with option of buying an extended warranty and or prepaying for maintenance upfront and since I have never purchased and always leased vehicles, I wasn’t sure if it’s a good deal to buy an extended warranty or if I should pass on it. They gave me only a few days to reply if I want to get one. Finance manager was giving me what he called " employee pricing" since they wasted 7.5 hours of us being in the dealership. Service was horrible, probably the worse experience of my life and it definitely took the joy and excitement of buying BMW brand but that’s another story.
Here are my options:
Platinum Service Contract - $4139- covers parts, labor and diagnostic mechanical breakdown, towing rental for up to 7 years/75k
Pre-paid maintenance - $4299 keeps vehicle compliant with factory warranty and covers 4 years/48000 of mainenace includes oil service, filter, fluids and more
Road hazard tire and wheels- $2998- 5 years unlimited miles pays for the repair or replacement of wheels and tires damaged by road debris, repairs cosmetic damage to rims available.
Your thoughts?
Thank you for your help Leasehackr members.
Look around the various BMW forums and you’ll find reference to the dealers offering best prices on the OEM platinum extended warranty.
I don’t even know if you were offered the OEM one or something else called “Platinum” since that’s not copyrighted. Any schmuck can sell their own “Platinum” warranty.
That’s a new one for me. Never really heard of anyone buying BMW for reliability.
How much did you end up paying for this non-CPO 330? After adding all those add-ons, it probably would have been cheaper to just buy a brand new 330 instead.
If it was a former loaner, I hope you got a good discount on it… 4k miles is not the end of the world but being a loaner vehicle is something you should know about/have been informed of, especially if purchasing rather than leasing.
Platinum - pays off if something major goes wrong, but you can get a better price than that, especially if you go third party.
The car comes with 3 years/36k miles of scheduled maintenance. You can purchase 3 years of oil changes up front for $225 once your vehicle reaches 5 years/60k miles. $4,300 for maybe 2 oil changes… no.
Road hazard tire and wheels - how many tires do you expect to damage in 5 years? Surely not that many. Cosmetic damage coverage to rims is next to worthless.
TL;DR: Go back and ask them for some free merch, then promptly leave them a middle finger (or even the double salute!) for wasting your time and trying to get a boat out of you. I’m a bit biased as a former owner, but it’s a lovely car–enjoy!
First thing you need to ask is whether or not the car comes with the free 3 year scheduled maintenance. Not all used BMWs get it automatically. If not, ask BMW dealer to activate it for you. I think there is a small fee for doing this. Regardless, skip all the optional extended warranties and other add-ones. You get the remainder of the 4yr/50K mile warranty. You need to know when the clock started ticking on your vehicle, so ask the dealer for the In Service date to figure out how much warranty is left.
When it comes to late model cars, either buy brand new or one-owner used depending on the relative discounted price levels.
Don’t buy a former rental aka demo, loaner, “managers car” or whatever other BS name they have for it. Any car that the driver was not responsible for its maintenance, consider it a rental.
57375- MSRP
330i Xdrive M-sport (fake) package
$42,250- Purchase price
Finance through BMW Financial at 6.29%
Warranty on this vehicle began on 06/25/2023. So I have three more years and/or unlimited milage (as I was told) The reason why I did not lease it is because I’m thinking about passing it on to my son and I was hoping to pay it off within 4 years and let him drive it. It will be used vehicle at that time but at least I will know about all the issues or problems car might have rather than buying him a used car with someone else’s problems which I will not know anyway.
We did not buy any extended warranties that I listed above because I wasn’t sure if it’s a rip off or not. Tire and wheels warranty - I had to commit right on the spot (per financial manager) and I didn’t commit to it, but for pre-paid maintenance and extended warranty- I still have time to get back to them if I want to proceed with it.
Initially we were looking at brand new BMW 3 series with the same packages at $53,300 and the best-selling price I was able to find was offered to me at $49,000 plus tax.
Well, when I said “reliable” I meant to say that BMW does not lose its value that fast IMO as other brands and it’s still reliable brand unless I’m completely wrong.
BMW is not know for retaining good resale value. 3series is probably better than a 7series on resale value. But still, German lux cars in general depreciate pretty hard in the first few years. Since you plan on giving this car to your son in a few years, resale really isn’t of any consequence. By the time he’s done with it the car will have little value anyway (since it will be old and have high miles at that point). On the flip side of that… this car will become very expensive to keep on the road as it gets older. I hope you calculated that into your equation of total cost of ownership over all of the years you plan on keeping it.
You did fine in terms of the discount, at least. I’d be apprehensive about buying a former loaner but odds are it was just treated like a normal car by the average BMW drivers who had it as a loaner. Don’t get the extended warranty/service plans. Just keep up with the scheduled maintenance and get extended warranty from a third party when the factory warranty runs out. Take it to an indie shop for oil changes between the free scheduled ones if you really want to baby it (tell them not to reset the interval).
I wouldn’t say it’s a brand known for reliability, but from my personal experience beating on my previous lease and all that I’ve read on forums like Bimmerpost, the G generation cars and G20 3 series in particular have improved massively in terms of reliability.
The next generation of 3 series was delayed, so it will hold its value relatively “well” until then since it has the M Sport package, but it’s just a 330i. Far from special. Doesn’t matter anyway if you’re passing it down to your son.
Kroos8, I appreciate your feedback. At least it makes me feel good that I didn’t overpay for it. Cause after all of the replies, I really started thinking that I made a mistake of buying this loaner. Ugr.
Thank you and thank Leasehackr’ members for your advises and replies.
Truly appreciate your help guys!
Go to Bimmerfest on the ask a dealer thread and see what they say about warranty. Many there say that usually BMW are ok under 70k miles, maintenance, may catchup on you after 70k. I’ve owned 6 BMW’s and always had good luck with them after 50k miles.
