[jho]

Sorry for the long post. I have been doing a little digging into the extended warranty and maintenance but I haven't been able to find anything super informative. Here's what I've gathered:

Maintenance:

Doesn't seem to have any room for negotiation, everyone quotes me the same $1595 that you see on the "build your own" on the BMW site. Not sure what's up with that. Apparently the big selling point (from conversations I've had) is that the maintenance would cover inspection I and II (ie major service jobs). According to some other posts, there's no longer any scheduled inspections.

However, if you feel more comfortable getting serviced at the dealer, it *should* be a worthwhile purchase. While I don't dispute that one would definitely save money with an indy shop, from what I've read it would cost more than the price of the maintenance to service at a BMW dealer - they pay dealers a lower rate for work like this.

Conclusion: I'm leaning towards getting. Likely to be worth my while to get serviced at the dealer.

Warranty:

Whole can of worms with this one. First off I'm not even sure that the "Original Owner Protection" program is really offered by BMWNA. No matter. There is a new set of options you can pick from. There's the original 6yr/100k, as well as new 7yr/70k, and 7yr/100k. For the 6yr/100k I've gotten quotes as high as $3300, as low as $2700. Old MSRP IIRC was around $2800. Even worse, deductible is apparently now $100 per visit (up from the $50 previously). Doesn't cover iDrive/stereo, doesn't cover convertible top panels/fabric.

Essentially it's a form of insurance, and as many have pointed out, not the same as factory warranty. Works out to be $42 a month over the 6 years, or $125 a month over the actual 2 year period.

However (there's always a one) with the 335s there are going to be a whole load of things that will likely need fixing, HPFP, turbos to name two (I think that turbos are rated for 150k, so might not matter anyway).

Conclusion: Going to wait it out. Who knows? Whole new 3 will be out in a couple of years. Might be time for a new car.

Any thoughts? Am I totally off base?

[nhhiep]

$1595 is a fair price, just a little above invoice. but that is fair. no need to buy it now. Just wait until you are near 50k or when they raise the price like they did last yr (yep, I bought it at $995, days before the new price)

brake job alone will be enough....and I am getting other stuffs too until 6yrs/100k

I didn't get the extended warranty because I see it as an expensive "insurance"

[JO3]

I also got the extended maintenance program when I bought the car. I skipped the warranty since BMW has a reputation for being trigger happy when it comes to "voiding" warranties.