[ChrisNI]

Random question but is this alot of miles for a 335i?

Ive heard horror stories about turbo failure etc going on these and costing quite a bit to put right.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Full BMW service history of course.

Thanks,

Chris

[davyk31]

Hard to answer, there are a few well publicised issues with the 335i engine, depends on what warranty work or repairs this car has already had as many things may have been sorted.

I would always aim for lower miles but there will be plenty of people reporting no issues with much higher mileage cars I'm sure.

[Arch Stanton]

bought mine at about 60k, had a few issues that the warranty sorted, now on 92k and it is running just fine. I'll maybe change the bushes soon but mechanically its ran pretty sweet for the last 2-3 years. Get it bought, get a warranty

[nicktyler]

If you have a good warranty and don't want to modify it you should be just fine.

[matlough]

Owned mine from new (2007) currently 82,000 miles with FBMWSH. Still drives perfectly. Had a few warranty things done over the years but nothing major.

Also had an Evolve remap for the last 3 years :-) and no problems with that either!

Tempted by an M135i though ;-)

[Birds BMW]

matlough, be very careful. If you test drive an M135i you will end up buying one!

Nicktyler, regarding warranty, have you ever seen or heard of anyone who has had repairs under warranty refused due to modification? I believe that would be unlawful, since BMW warranty covers manufacturing defects only, and they can't be caused by anything the owner chooses to do with his car.

Warranty invalidation is a fear tactic, like an MOT station telling you the brakes are dangerous, but they can fix it cheaply.....this kind of thing is happening a lot, and not just the car business!

[ChrisNI]

Originally Posted by Birds BMW

matlough, be very careful. If you test drive an M135i you will end up buying one!

Nicktyler, regarding warranty, have you ever seen or heard of anyone who has had repairs under warranty refused due to modification? I believe that would be unlawful, since BMW warranty covers manufacturing defects only, and they can't be caused by anything the owner chooses to do with his car.

Warranty invalidation is a fear tactic, like an MOT station telling you the brakes are dangerous, but they can fix it cheaply.....this kind of thing is happening a lot, and not just the car business!

So BIRDS if I was to buy lets say a 335i with expried warranty can I get extended warrenty through BMW for it? If so how much?

[matlough]

Originally Posted by Birds BMW

matlough, be very careful. If you test drive an M135i you will end up buying one!

I know! :-)

And imagine what it will be like with a remap


Slightly but BirdsBMW, remap wise would I be better with an auto or man?

Current remap is on a manual but not sure how much power the new autos can handle?

[Birds BMW]

370hp on the Auto won't be a problem, and I have to say the efficiency and effectiveness of the new 8 speed would incline me to buy an Auto. Way better than the DCT I've tried in the Z4. Maybe I'm getting old. I've always preferred manuals, because you are mechanically involved in the driving process. Resale considerations say it has to be an Auto too. See if you can borrow one from your dealer for 24 hours. (no dealer has a manual demo!)

You can buy a BMW warranty from here.
http://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/Pages/CarDetails.aspx

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by ChrisNI

.........Full BMW service history of course........

So you mean it's been barely serviced to the minimum possible standard, mainly by young trainee 'techs' (read ex kwik fit) who don't know much about the cars?

The previous owner will have had some nice coffee and danish though while they read the free papers and waited, shame the car woudn't have had such a nice time.

[ALF_E90]

Originally Posted by Birds BMW

matlough, be very careful. If you test drive an M135i you will end up buying one!

Nicktyler, regarding warranty, have you ever seen or heard of anyone who has had repairs under warranty refused due to modification? I believe that would be unlawful, since BMW warranty covers manufacturing defects only, and they can't be caused by anything the owner chooses to do with his car.

Warranty invalidation is a fear tactic, like an MOT station telling you the brakes are dangerous, but they can fix it cheaply.....this kind of thing is happening a lot, and not just the car business!

My understanding is that the extended insurance warranty that BMW offer is not tied to the same legal requirements as the original 3 year manufacturer's warranty. It is an insurance warranty and if they want to specify that the car must be serviced/repaired only at BMW and not be modified to be covered, they are within their rights to do so.

On the original 3 year manufacturer's warranty they can refuse a repair if they feel that a modification contributed to or caused the failure.

How often either is applied is anyone's guess but ISTR plenty of tales of the former.

ChrisNI - you can buy the BMW extended warranty as long as it has FBMWSH and is at less than 100k miles for the comprehensive (previously called "gold") cover, but they still cover most major components at over 100k on a "named component" policy.

What happens if you were the owner of the car before it gets to 100k and just keep renewing the fully comp warranty, I don't know, but in a year or so I'll get to that stage with mine (fully comp warranty paid monthly).

See:

http://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

Just for the record I have a friend with a 335i Touring auto with a lot of mods from Birds (including Quaiffe diff, different bushes and shocks all round, and allegedly 400 odd bhp) and he has had no issues, The car drives beautifully - the diff in particular is a real bonus.

[Birds BMW]

BMW "warranty" is unbelievably complicated.
I think there are 4 different policies.
1) BMW Manufacturers Warranty. Lasts for 24 months and is backed by BMW in Munich. Is subject to regulation by European and English law, so they are not able to dictate unfair terms, such as dictate where the car is serviced. Cannot be invalidated, but they can allege that owner contributed to a fault, which is reasonable. Last time I saw a Warranty Manual, it was 3 inches thick. I bet it hasn't got thinner, and I don't believe they publish it anymore.
2) BMW (UK) Ltd 3rd year warranty. This is an extension granted by BMW in the UK, and seems to have similar (unwritten) terms to 1 above. (try as I might, I cannot find any written terms, apart from the cursory guidance in owners documents)
3) Extended warranty. This is as a result of a letter every owner will get when their warranty expires. I think it is an Insurance product. Not sure of the terms or who the Insurer is, but assume similar to 4 below. Has to run concurrently from the end of the BMW (UK) Warranty.
4) BMW Insured Warranty, available to all irrespective of service history provided less then 100,000 miles. Is "invalid" if the car is serviced outside of the network or modified from BMW specifications or used on track days.

However, so far we only had a single instance of BMW resisting a warranty claim on a modified car. They came to their senses once we provided them with information (that they already had) that it was a manufacturing defect.

I'd still love to hear from anyone who has had a clear warranty fault disclaimed.

[phil200tdi]

I had a warranty claim refused on my Water pump due to the fitment of Downpipes.

The plastic casing on the top of the waterpump had cracked and was apparently un repairable. They claimed that it cracked as a result of the engine not having been supported when the downpipes were fitted. I explained that the Subframe wasnt removed during the fitting, but they were plain arseholes (Specialist Cars, Tring).

I bought a replacement from BMMiniparts and went to a local independent in the end.

[Birds BMW]

So in this case, they are saying that it was damaged by other persons, and hadn't failed due to a manufacturing defect. Seems a bit harsh, as it would've been no skin of their nose to just do it. They don't seem to have encouraged you to be retained as a customer.

Maybe they were worried that if they sent the pump back to BMW (which I doubt they would have to) they might end up having the claim rejected if it was obvious external damage, and have to approach you retrospectively for payment.

Don't forget, it's the nasty people in Munich that make these decisions, and although I don't have any sympathy at all for Dealers, they are just the messengers in these matters.

[dandog]

As the discussion has turned towards bmw warranty, i was wondering if i could get your opinions on whether or not there's any point to get the bmw warranty on a 335i with 60k on the clock? The comprehensive looks good, but is that really needed?

[zltm089]

Originally Posted by dandog

As the discussion has turned towards bmw warranty, i was wondering if i could get your opinions on whether or not there's any point to get the bmw warranty on a 335i with 60k on the clock? The comprehensive looks good, but is that really needed?

I would say yes. Others would say no.

At the end of the day, it's how lucky you feel!

Have a read on the US section of this forum, about the n54.

Have a read on n54tech.com

and Google n54!

after that....if you feeling brave, then it's all good buddy!

[dandog]

hhaha your answer seems to be swinging to the yes side. i think its worth it to.

this brings me to my next question, right now my car is not moded in anyway, however a remap seems to be on the horizon, im assuming this will doubtingly void the warranty if i get it? or will they even notice???

[Birds BMW]

Originally Posted by dandog

hhaha your answer seems to be swinging to the yes side. i think its worth it to.

this brings me to my next question, right now my car is not moded in anyway, however a remap seems to be on the horizon, im assuming this will doubtingly void the warranty if i get it? or will they even notice???

The golden rule when deciding on whether to insure or not is "can you afford the downside risk?". BMW Warranty is there to make a profit, so you can imagine that overall, for every £1000 they pay out in claims, they could receive premiums of £2000. The insured person who suffers a failed engine (rare) would feel very happy that he insured. The person who had zero claims might think he wasted his money, but at least would never worry about MOST faults.

My guess is that the most likely event that would be covered by warranty would be coil, injector or fuel pump failure. Note that contaminated inlet valves can look like coil and injector problems, so we see lots of these being changed by dealers, only to find the problem hasn't gone. Valve contamination isn't covered by warranty, so you'd end up out of pocket for that.

I have some absolute figures regarding premiums versus claims. Our Sales Department paid premiums of £8,695 over 30 cars, and the 3 claims against that were £2,491. Bear in mind that all of those cars were fully inspected before warranty cover was in place, and any fault was diagnosed properly to find the most financially viable solution (Dealers aren't interested in keeping warranty claims costs to a minimum)

So to me, it doesn't look worth it. But I would confirm that BMW Warranty is absolutely the best product out there. All of the aftermarket ones are complete rubbish.

[Mike in Hampshire]

Originally Posted by dandog

right now my car is not moded in anyway, however a remap seems to be on the horizon, im assuming this will doubtingly void the warranty if i get it? or will they even notice???

Dandog, I'd have thought you'd want a warranty for (1) peace of mind and (2) financial cover should repairs be needed.
If you modify the car, and drive around thinking "will my claim be rejected?" then you don't have peace of mind, do you?
Obviously it all depends how risk averse you are, as with any insurance.
Personally, I prefer to enjoy the mods (Evolve stage 1 strongly recommended by the way) but I do think you need a bit of cash put aside for repair bills (zero for me in nearly 4 years, but that's risk for you).

In my opinion it's modify + take the risk, OR stock + warranty.
Mike.

[dandog]

so if i modify I shouldn't get a warranty? but if something cosmetic goes which is covered by the warranty, regardless of mods it should be covered by the warranty if the mod had no effect on the item in question, no?

[Mike in Hampshire]

Originally Posted by dandog

so if i modify I shouldn't get a warranty? but if something cosmetic goes which is covered by the warranty, regardless of mods it should be covered by the warranty if the mod had no effect on the item in question, no?

Yes, agreed, it "should". All I'm saying is you would be unsure. For me, I'd want clarity rather than uncertainty. I suppose I just don't trust warranty providers.
Mike.

[dandog]

i agree, i guess i want my cake and eat it to. Warranty for peace of mind, remap for better mpg and throttle response. Considering however the engineers at bmw designed the car to be 380bhp and thanks to the swiz, its on the market for 306. A remap shouldn't really void a warranty as its brings the engine back to its original spec, therefore making it more reliable. i guess i'm just clutching at straws here.