Today I visited the dealer who sold me my CPO 2011 328i/Nav etc., and sat down with the Finance Manager, a nice lady. This car has 35,000 miles on it. I don't rack up a lot of miles annually; probably around 7500 at most. IF I put on 7500 miles a year, then in two years I'll hit 50,000 on the odometer. There's no way I'm going to hit 100,000 miles on this car in the near future. In fact I'd probably trade it on another CPO in 4 or 5 years or so, which has been my game plan all along.
All that is by way of background.
The CPO covers maintenance for one year or the next 15,000 miles; in my case, the one year is up Jan. 2015 and I will not rack up 15k miles in that time. Probably half that.
I have a "Certified Pre-Owned Protection Plan" which runs out to Jan. 16, 2017 or 100k miles (in other words, three more years, but clocking from the original in-service date, not the date I purchased (which was 2/1/14...not a big difference in my case). This does not cover maintenance, upkeep, suspension, body, interior, or accessories (with fine print under each heading). In other words, this appears to be covering under the hood and the power train, and probably wheel bearings, but not brakes unless (I guess) a component fails...not wear and tear.
I can buy a "BMW Maintenance Program Upgrade Agreement", which would essentially extend the CPO maintenance for another 24 months from Jan. 2015 or 100k miles, for $2,395 now. I have a blank copy of this Agreement, 1.5 pages in "aspirin bottle" font, which I will read and report on in another post.
There are actually four extended WARRANTY plans available, and all farmed out by BMW to a company called Zurich American Insurance Co., which is selected by BMW and therefor hopefully chosen for some sort of reliability so as not to offend BMW's customers (and probably kicking back some premium revenue to BMW).
Prices today, which I wouldn't buy today since I'm apparently covered by the Certified Pre-Owned Protection Plan to Jan. 2017 as a CPO, are:
Powertrain: $2,590
Standard: $3,115
Preferred: $3,399
Comprehensive: $3,800
I picked up a four and a half page matrix comparing what each of these four plans covers. This is too hard to summarize in a Forum post like this, but a glance shows that the big differences between, for instance, the Powertrain and Standard versions are that the latter covers (things that the Powertrain version doesn't) front/rear suspension, steering, brakes, heating/AC, alternator, elec. fuel pump, power door lock actuator, and some electrical stuff, like the starter motor and drive. Under the Standard plan, though, there are some little bits in each category not covered.
My present leaning is to not buy the maintenance program upgrade, which would extend my maintenance coverage from Jan. '15 to Jan. '17, although I guess I have until Dec. 2014 to change my mind.
I will probably buy the extended warranty, but will wait until Dec. 2016 for that, and will probably buy either the Powertrain or Standard version. By waiting, though, the prices and/or coverages could change. The current price delta between the Powertrain and Standard extended warranties seems worth it. I see the Powertrain coverage as analogous to catastrophic health insurance coverage which is one way to justify it.
(Note on one nitpicking detail: on the extended warranty matrix, the cylinder head is covered under all four plans but it bears a footnote "When damaged as a result of the failure of a covered internally lubricated part." Huh?)
Comments, thoughts, and reactions are strongly welcomed!