Reasonable price for BMW excess wear and tear protection?

Ask the Hackrs
1

I know, I know… in 95% of cases there is no point getting excess wear and tear protection on a lease.

That being said - I think I may be getting a decent deal in the near future on a BMW lease. The problem is that this car is going to be parked on the street in a neighborhood that has just as many beaters as there are normal cars. As a result, I am expecting at least a little curb rash as well as “bumper kisses” front and back. With bumper refinishing in the $300 per end, and $125-150 per refinished wheel, the cost of excess wear and tear protection might make things a wash. I’ve seen it in the $600 range for VWs but no idea how much this costs for BMWs.

What’s a normal “at-cost” price for excess wear and tear? Assume a BMW i3 on a 12k/36mo lease. I’m trying to figure a breakeven point between paying for repairs myself and just letting additional coverage take care of it.

2

I think it’s totally worth it.

I got it on mine in late 2014 for around $950 or so + or - $30. I think it’s worth on the BMWs because windshields are VERY expensive (especially with HUD), Tires are run-flats, also VERY expensive, and parking lots are dangerous places. Repainting and matching the metallic paint on a BMW is not cheap either… I had a bumper respray from a minor accident that was upwards of $800 at the Insurance Company’s “preferred” provider. Gives you peace of mind during lease term too. Scratches, chips, careless parking lot incidents all still harm your beauty, but don’t illicit the stress of an unplanned expense to fix it.

If you’re in CA, be sure to contact Greg Poland at Pacific BMW - no games, very fair / aggressive pricing, easy to do business.

3

Unless it’s an i3…?

4

I was thinking about it on the i3 already because I’ve heard these tires can wear out ridiculously fast with a bad alignment and one flat + no runflats + no spare can easily equal instant wheel damage. So it’s an instant wash if the tires are worn at the end of the lease. The fact that these are weird bicycle tire sizes doesn’t help with trying to get tires elsewhere either.

5

If you’re only worried the tires then I think you’re safe- it’s rear wheel drive-. Unless you’re one of those who don’t drive responsibly or the kid at heart surfaces up… in an i3…

6

I saw a lot of horror stories in the i3 forums about the tires wearing out on the insides within 10k because of a bad alignment, and BMW not warrantying anything within the first 6mo/6k related to that. Not sure if it changed, but to me that pretty much guarantees that I’ll probably have to do a tire change at the end of the lease.

7

Seriously? 10k miles is abysmal. What about requesting an alignment upon delivery?

8

Personally- if I plan on getting another BMW after my lease is over- I’d skip the insurance. They are more lenient on returning customers.

But it’s up to you- it’s always nice to have cushion. I’m planning on getting the new i3 this December.

9

i have an i3

lease protection is usually around the tune of $1k

tires do wear fast on the i3, but depends on how you drive. those tires, when new have about 9/32nds of tread. Im at 9k miles right now and my tires are fine so far

if you dont have windshield/glass replacement, keep it mind a windshield replacement in the i3 will run you $1.5k-$3k

if your rear tailgate window is broken or glass is shattered, thats a new tailgate

tires are about $150/tire, or $200 at the dealer .

theres bmws ding-o-meter that tells you the acceptable wear and tear

10

Just got a BMW X3 lease, the protection plan was $2k or $60/month. Got it mainly for the tires, cause when you return it three years later, if the tread is less than 4/32, then you’ll need to pay replace it which is $200 per tire. It’s worth it just for the peace of mind.

11

Man does everyone on this thread work In the BMW dealer finance office?

Ask yourself this would you pay $900 to insure yourself against $1,500-3,000 in a claim?

I think the answer is simple. Put your money in an account instead of buying wear and tear and use that as your fund. If a repair arises you have the cash. If not you pocket the difference.

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12

Most people here will say you got ripped off

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13

He’s actually paying $2k to insure himself against $800 worth of tires. :thinking:

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14

Old thread, but I guess I’ll chime in.

I returned a Mercedes, Audi, and BMW lease before and BMW is by far the worst.

Mercedes and Audi were both returned with 50% tires or more (bought used prior to return - advise everyone to do so as well).

BMW, wanted to dock me for one tire on the return, i asked for a 3rd party review instead.

They got me for a door ding (probably the size of pen drop because i didnt see it)
They got me for a small dent on the hood (not bent in but noticeable)
They got me for minor scraping of under bumper/Mgrill
They got me for missing emblems (Audi did not charge when I returned it without them)
Total - $1200 and 3rd party did not fault for the tire.

EDIT: BMW Run Flats are around $250-300 a piece before mount and balance. Keep in mind, M/B is about $20-25 per tire. So if you were to get 4 new tires, you’re going to be spending a lot money, because when you return a car, they’re going to charge you for a new tire replacement, not used. I spent a lot of time digging for deals for used tires but I still spent $500 for 4 after mount and balance. Good luck

So I say it could be worth it for sure!

15

I have some other information to offer. I have turned in a BMW 328i recently and they said the only thing that needed attention was the tires. I had about 28,000 miles on it and the tires were at approximately 2/32 on each tire (not in good shape; most people would consider replacing these due to road noise and wet/bad road performance). If I had needed to replace them, I would have gotten cheaper non run flat tires.

I had lease protection/excess wear and tear coverage. So I paid just $633 for the protection which was financed along with the car (you can also pay for it all up front). That means that I didn’t have to pay for tires at all. The tires for the 328 were valued at $1200. So the contract I had says it covers up to $7,500 and $1,000 “per incident”. I have found out that each tire is considered an “incident” so that means all 4 are covered with no shortage.

You also want to make sure it’s non-deductible so there is no out of pocket expense. Make sure you turn in your car before the grace period ends because there is sometimes a limitation on how long it’s covered (usually fine).

So the second time that I leased a BMW the cost was $1275, also financed with the lease, which covers up to $5,000 and $1,000 per incident. The reason that the cost of the coverage varied is because each dealer negotiates with a BMW financial services approved 3rd party administrator to come up with an offering. With that being said, each dealer can offer passthrough cost or charge you up to the MSRP (list price) of the protection, which is somewhat less obvious. They don’t seem to advertise the details on all of this so I called each of the 3rd party administrators and asked a lot of questions. The dealer advised me that they couldn’t adjust the price so I had no choice to take the price they gave me; because it is still worth it to not have to pay for tires and/or other incidentals that could come up.

I would advise anyone to follow the same practice and consider a cost built into the deal while you are car shopping. One dealer had a higher lease price on the same car but offered lower lease protection cost which evened out to some extent. In this particular situation I ended up taking the lower cost vehicle lease and higher protection cost as the overall cost was still quite a bit lower.

In short, I would definitely suggest you strongly consider it for piece of mind; it’s not insurance and won’t pay for wreckage, just excess wear and tear. Insurance will not cover tire wear, I don’t know of any coverage that does. However, you can also opt to get tire and wheel coverage which would pay for bends and breaks, road hazard damage to tires and that sort of thing. Perhaps the guy who paid $2,000 for protection paid for both types of coverage and that is why it was more than the MSRP of lease protection.

Read the fine print very carefully and ask those question at the beginning of your deal making, else, you will be blind sighted and it will come down the last minute and you are surprised at the additional coverage you had no time to truly consider.

Also, just FYI, the new dealer I went to said that I didn’t have coverage on my 328 but that is because they just failed to mark my lease properly. The contract that you sign (KEEP ALL PAPERWORK) will give you the details and NOT the dealer. You will need to submit final lease inspection paperwork, a copy of the lease, a copy of the lease protection contract as well as proof that you turned in the vehicle. They may require other information but in my case it sounds pretty straight forward, then the 3rd party administrator pays BMW financial directly.

Also, I utilized my option to pull ahead for my new lease so they paid the last 3 payments on my 328 lease as well. I also recommend that you pay your taxes and registration on the old lease car before you turn it in, if you are, perhaps, getting another more expensive car the next time. This allows you to pay the lower property taxes on the lesser, 3 year old car, and skip a year on the new car’s value. By the 2nd year, you don’t owe as much because the tax assessor devalues the car over a yearly basis. This worked for me anyway; check you own state’s laws, mine is NC.

Please be an informed buyer/lessee, it pays big to know your stuff; especially for fiscal piece of mind. Just my long 2 cents. Happy car shopping!

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