Extended Warranty

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

smaster553

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2021
Messages
15
We love the car, have 28K miles on it, 9 mos of factory warranty, and then one more year of CPO warranty.

Question is should I get extended warranty, and if yes, BMW or After market. I tend to stay with the manufacturer.

My idea is to drive this car till I can - we use it for all our single driver trips around town and within 50 miles each way. We have another EV (shhh bought the Mustang Mach-E just last week), which we can use for longer trips.

Any suggestions or help will be appreciated. I did a search and could not find anything hence posted a new topic.

Thanks in advance.
 
Most aftermarket warranties aren't set up for EVs and don't cover the major expensive bits. Many also have small-print loopholes that let them weasel out of major repairs. For the i3, only 'good' warranties are the one from Carmax (they basically cover everything, and just have BMW do the repairs), and the BMW extended warranties. Be aware that the BMW warranty is expensive to the max, (the Platinum ESC Plan from BMW that brings your coverage to 84 months/75,000 miles has an MSRP from BMW of $5199). and is a little misleading, in that if you, for example, buy that 7 year warranty extension, it is actually only a three year extension, as it counts in the original factory 4 year warranty. And don't confuse it with the much less expensive maintenance plan extension - which basically is just pre-paying your scheduled dealer service visits. Oh, and the extended warranty will only cover repairs up to the wholesale value of the car at the time (as do all of them). Note also, that you have to buy the BMW extension while the car is still under the BMW factory warranty - if your factory warranty is up, the car is no longer eligible for the BMW extension.

I looked at it seriously, and decided paying almost $5 grand for a few extra years of coverage on a 5 plus year old car didn't make much economic sense. So I mentally 'banked' that money, for any repairs, and if by chance I get that unicorne failure that is so expensive it basically totales the car, I plan on selling it as salvage, which by then will pretty much equal wholesale value anyway, and using that money, and my extra $5 grand, to buy another i3. So far my repair bills have been exactly $ zero. So, If i'd bought the warranty, I'd have been $5 grand poorer, and to date received no benefit from it, other than a couple of years peace-of-mind. All depends on how risk tolerant you are, I guess.
 
One thing that I would add to MHK's post is to consider BEV vs. REx (the original message doesn't say which).

Having owned i3 BEVs since 2014, I've found them (knock on wood) to be very reliable. A friend's experience with his two RExs over the same period hasn't been as trouble-free (multiple drivetrain errors and flatbed trips back to the dealer)

Were I in your position and the car is a BEV I'd skip the extended warranty – there's just a lot less hardware to break. Were it a REx, though? I'd consider a warranty.

EDIT:
Ah, I missed that this was in the REx-specific forum... so knowing that, I'd definitely have a good think about getting an extended warranty.
 
Does the REx add some complexity to the i3? Sure. But problems with the REx engine are rare. The engine is the one BMW uses in the BMW 650 Scooter/Motorbike, which has a solid rep in Europe where it is used extensively as a commuter bike. The engine is manufactured for BMW by Kymco in Taiwan. They manufacture some 570,000 high quality motorbikes and scooters a year, and started out decades ago manufacturing all of Honda's scooter engines.

Are there REx owners who have had issues? Sure. Bev owners too. The i3 is a very complex 'computer on wheels'. But for the most part BOTH the REx and Bev models of the i3 are pretty trouble free. J D Power, which uses actual consumer data to rank vehicle reliability, rates the i3 in the top tier for reliability - 82 out of 100, which puts it in the top 10% of all vehicles rated, and higher than all but one BMW model - the 4 series came in at 84.

I know several other REx i3 owners, and none of us have had any repair issues related to our REx engines. In fact none of us have had any out-of-pocket repairs at all. The four year factory warranty is there to catch those cars that have a defect, and 99.9999% of the time they do. Just maintain the REx, do that yearly oil change, with BMW filter and oil, don't 'cheap-out' on either the oil, filter, or the change frequency, and motor on!
 
It’s been my experience that 2017+ model years have been far more reliable (and useful), as BMW has worked out most of the early production kinks. Both my i3s were CPOs, and considered an extended warranty also, but could not justify the cost. Hendrick has a pretty appealing 84-mo in house warranty, but it was still a lot of money as I recall.

Just make sure you’ve got a 12V battery sitting around after the 48th month mark and replace it out of abundance of caution.
 
Just make sure you’ve got a 12V battery sitting around after the 48th month mark and replace it out of abundance of caution.


Excellent advice!

The only thing I'd add to that – make sure the 12V battery is charged when you install it! :D
 
Thanks all for the feedback. I will also now open a separate account and put $5K in it and use it for repairs if needed.

- Yes it is 2018 - BMW i3 REX

- I will note a calendar reminder for the 12V battery. I am good at doing stuff like that myself, so will source the 12V AGM battery, make sure it is charged and replace it. I already saw a video on how to do it.

- Will keep the oil service on Rex. Question is - can I do it myself.

- Last for the Brakes - If I can change rotors and pads on an ICE SUV ( have done it last 10 years), is doing them on the BMW i3 more difficult.

We drive the Mustang Mach-E as the second car, and use the BMW i3 Rex as a commuter car, usually driving 40 miles roundtrip 4x times a week.

Last month - used 500 kW elec in the home for both cars.
 
- Will keep the oil service on Rex. Question is - can I do it myself.

- Last for the Brakes - If I can change rotors and pads on an ICE SUV ( have done it last 10 years), is doing them on the BMW i3 more difficult.

The oil change is pretty easy - I do my own. Picked up a set of car ramps, transmission funnel (oil fill hole is TINY) and hex-bit socket set (for drain plug) at Harbor Freight, and back the car up on the ramps to give some room. I ordered the oil, filter (and a good oil filter wrench), and crush washer for the drain plug from ECS Tuning. Filter is a bear to get off if the previous tech put it on tight. Without a filter wrench, impossible as it is set in and not much room. Even with the wrench, mine was cranked on so tight, I had to use a two foot long piece of gas pipe from Home Depot for leverage on the ratchet wrench handle using the filter wrench to break it free. Be aware that the engine cover is held down with bolts that screw into neoprene nuts. They will tear/split if you look at them funny, so have a few extra on hand if you over tighten a bolt or two and ruin a couple. ECS part # 07147335808. In all likelihood you already have one or two that are split from previous oil changes.

Haven't tried the brakes - doubt they even need looking at before 100K miles, though they do need flushing every two years.
 
smaster553 said:
Thanks all for the feedback. I will also now open a separate account and put $5K in it and use it for repairs if needed.

- Yes it is 2018 - BMW i3 REX

We drive the Mustang Mach-E as the second car, and use the BMW i3 Rex as a commuter car, usually driving 40 miles roundtrip 4x times a week.

Last month - used 500 kW elec in the home for both cars.

You have one of the few BMW i3s capable of 200+ miles of total range. Yes, I know you have the Mach-E for longer trips, but this car in the used market is a game changer when you consider for 2.5x the used price, the ID.4 and Volvo ReCharge will equal that range as 2021 models.
 
MKH said:
Most aftermarket warranties aren't set up for EVs and don't cover the major expensive bits. Many also have small-print loopholes that let them weasel out of major repairs. For the i3, only 'good' warranties are the one from Carmax (they basically cover everything, and just have BMW do the repairs), and the BMW extended warranties. Be aware that the BMW warranty is expensive to the max, (the Platinum ESC Plan from BMW that brings your coverage to 84 months/75,000 miles has an MSRP from BMW of $5199). and is a little misleading, in that if you, for example, buy that 7 year warranty extension, it is actually only a three year extension, as it counts in the original factory 4 year warranty. And don't confuse it with the much less expensive maintenance plan extension - which basically is just pre-paying your scheduled dealer service visits. Oh, and the extended warranty will only cover repairs up to the wholesale value of the car at the time (as do all of them). Note also, that you have to buy the BMW extension while the car is still under the BMW factory warranty - if your factory warranty is up, the car is no longer eligible for the BMW extension.

I looked at it seriously, and decided paying almost $5 grand for a few extra years of coverage on a 5 plus year old car didn't make much economic sense. So I mentally 'banked' that money, for any repairs, and if by chance I get that unicorne failure that is so expensive it basically totales the car, I plan on selling it as salvage, which by then will pretty much equal wholesale value anyway, and using that money, and my extra $5 grand, to buy another i3. So far my repair bills have been exactly $ zero. So, If i'd bought the warranty, I'd have been $5 grand poorer, and to date received no benefit from it, other than a couple of years peace-of-mind. All depends on how risk tolerant you are, I guess.

A very sensible option. it's a great option to 'mentally' allow a healthy 5k in case something goes wrong over a period of time.
A better peace of mind 'self warranty'
however, for the low mileage user the chance of spending all ( or any significant amount ) of the 5k is slimmer.
But for the very high mileage user, it may be beneficial to shop around and consider some kind of warranty .
 
We love the car, have 28K miles on it, 9 mos of factory warranty, and then one more year of CPO warranty.

Question is should I get extended warranty, and if yes, BMW or After market. I tend to stay with the manufacturer.

My idea is to drive this car till I can - we use it for all our single driver trips around town and within 50 miles each way. We have another EV (shhh bought the Mustang Mach-E just last week), which we can use for longer trips.

Any suggestions or help will be appreciated. I did a search and could not find anything hence posted a new topic.

Thanks in advance.
I purchased EXTENDED WARRANTY on my BMW i3 Rex and I’m utterly delighted with it. I bought it new from BMW and I’ve done 66,000 miles and I got the EXTENDED WARRANTY from BMW for about £900. I think.
I’ve had two claims on it in the last three years. Both of them would’ve cost me £1400 or thereabouts And ended up only costing me £100 excess each time. So I’m well pleased with mine. I’m very glad I did the exact opposite of what I normally do which is not touch those sort of things with a barge pole. Electric car repairs are so expensive and I think getting it through BMW is the sensible thing to do because I’m sure that they help one another. They don’t want the customers to be too displeased. I’m sure.
 
Back
Top