Third party BMW warranty

Well, I didnt want to do it, but looks like I am going to buy my 2019 530e at the end of the lease this month. Looking for advice on a third-party warranty. Car only has 26k miles and is under original warranty until October. I appreciate anyone’s shared experience.

1 Like

If you get a loan from say PenFed, they offer a Route66 Warranty

I can’t find the thread back to thank the person who posted that :point_up: , so unless s/he is identified, credit goes to Anonymous.

For fun(?) I recently had my brother (who works for a non-BMW dealer) price out a couple of coverage options.

I have better things to do with $6,000.

1 Like

PenFed will sell you one of these even if you don’t get a loan from them.

On a previous vehicle I purchased this PEACE OF MIND from them, and they handled the transaction as skillfully as they do everything else.

Bmw or carmax are the only warranties worth paying for. Carmax would be difficult but might be worth a discussion with a store manager to see if something can be arranged. Otherwise just pay for oem.

That’s not true.

3 Likes

Check out YAA extended warranties. They have very reasonable pricing.

FWIW, I have had Route66 via PenFed on my 335d and had a couple of claims. No issues. Was happy with it.

2 Likes

I’d also look into Fidelity Platinum. Well known in the Porsche community

I had Route 66 coverage on a previous vehicle also.

I never had to make a claim, but before I bought it I talked to a trusted service advisor at the Infiniti dealer, and he said that Route 66 was good about paying claims according to coverage terms.

He also added that the people who were unhappy with the coverage didn’t read what they bought.

Some people thought it included things like brake pads, wiper blades and oil changes. :laughing:

True.

In general, exclusionary ‘insurance’ have better coverage compared to inclusionary ‘warranties’.

Warranties will list items that ARE covered and there is always a huge grey area. Exclusionary insurance will list what’s NOT covered and even though there will be grey areas in there too, the consensus is that they fare far better than warranties.

2 Likes

I saw plans that cover certain systems but not others , thats probably one reason people get confused. Buying a service plan that does not cover some systems is nuts in my opinion, also makes gazillion money for providers but tainting the process and reputation of the third parties.
Did I say “service” plan? Can’t fault a naive customer thinking it covers wear and tear parts.

I had Route 66 plan thru PenFed on my current Jetta. Learned about it on the Mini forums, as Mini and BMW were suffering from turbo issues, and it was discovered R66 was indeed covering these as part of powertrain language, something other third-party warranty companies were not including. I recall reading a story where R66 replaces a turbo several times with no issue. Me, it was wasted money…have 281K miles, still original plugs and brakes, only tires, filters and fluids. But we all know VW reliability sucks.

1 Like

I had it as well…on an engine Blowout.

  • Route 66 would not pay for a remanu engine, had to buy a used engine.
  • Engine was rare so sat in shop for 4 extra weeks. (Knew the owner so he didn’t charge me anything extra)
  • Engine 1, 2 ,3 all defective. (Shop owner called me over to show the crap he got)
  • Engine 4 good.
  • Route 66 Paid for Engine and Labor but not shipping.
  • So I had to pay for 4 sets of shipping (Roughly $500)
  • Plus small amounts of things.

So overall, they paid, but they did put in a rule (used over remanu) and that cost me a bit of $$$

2 Likes

Wow. Glad for you. At least you had peace of mind knowing there are good chances that the car will develop issues and would be covered.

For me, Murphy’s law always kicks in and things never have issues when I have an extended warranty. So I generally don’t buy those. For the 335d I did because I knew it had a couple of major issues that people complained about. I did make a couple claims, were paid without any fuss but in the end, I did not break even. But I feel it was still worth it. I spent more money on tires though because they got smoked too fast because of insane torque ( 425 ft-lb )

1 Like

Yow, that is insane…that’s like the strongest air wrench made. I enjoy watching Costco techs manually torquing in the cross-hatch pattern, as if I were doing them myself.

Indeed, I did have peace of mind until 100K miles flew right by! lol Now, peace of mind is sufferering from transient inflation, and only climbing.

1 Like

The Route 66 documents aren’t hard to understand.

For example, on the coverage I bought I declined the additional charge for covering the navigation/audio unit.

You can view sample contracts on this page: https://www.penfed.org/auto/extended-warranty

And as @pnimith points out, you want exclusionary coverage, which is easier to evaluate value-wise than the alternative.

1 Like

Good for you but the used car manager will sell it to 22 yr old first time car owner every coverage on the book way too easily. Worse, a bad plan will exclude common and expensive issues. That’s why people (generally) hate third party service plans.

There are currently zero clicks on the link I posted, so I know you didn’t go look at the sample contract. :laughing:

This seems pretty clear to me. If someone doesn’t want to absorb one paragraph of exclusions while deciding whether to spend $1,000+ on a financial/insurance product, it’s on them.

WHAT’S COVERED:

INCLUDES ALL ITEMS COVERED UNDERTHE MANUFACTURER’S ORIGINAL COVERAGE except for those items listed under “Items not covered”.

ITEMS NOT COVERED: Any normal maintenance item including tires, wheels, struts, shocks, brake shoes or pads, rotors or drums, belts, hoses, filters, fluids, lubricants, clutch, pressure plate or clutch release bearing and tune-up items. Exhaust or emission parts, sound reproduction components, collision avoidance, lane departure warning system and safety restraint systems, lighting, wiring harness, telephone, clock, television and navigation equipment. Any body parts, interior parts, trim, glass, paint, air bag system and keyless entry/anti-theft.

2 Likes

I wasn’t specifically talking about Route66 but I get your point. Btw, most exclusions make sense but even I can’t figure out the reason why for some. For example airbag components , safety restraint components etc .

I can’t fault someone getting cold feet when they can benefit from it.