BMWphiles - F31 Purchase Heeelp

[Jake]

I learned a bit about aftermarket warranties with my E46 M3, which came with one from Route 66. On the surface, it sounded great - hey, rod bearings are covered! In talking with my one mechanic (who is old and angry and has many years' experience with all these companies) he gave me more insight.

Let's say I get a Blackstone oil analysis and they reveal that the rod bearings are on the way out. Route 66 won't accept that claim to pay out. The engine has to be actively knocking. Even once it starts knocking, Route 66 wants the shop to disassemble the engine enough to take photos of the bad bearing(s) so they can decide to cover it or not - but they won't pay for that labor. Oh, and you must have records of the oil being changed every 3k miles, even though BMW and every other new car all go off of the oil life monitor that recommends no less than what, 5k OCI's?

...and Gary said Route 66 was the easiest one to deal with. They did pay out for a new fuel pump when mine died, so yay I saved $800 (this is a "savings" because I never paid for the warranty up front)

He had another BMW in the shop a while back - a 3.0i Z4, I think? It had dropped a valve or something similarly expensive. It was cheaper to just source a good used M54 and drop it in versus pay the warranty company (not Route 66, some other group) to inspect, decide, blah blah.

I'd probably YOLO it and forego any aftermarket warranty as they all sound like various degrees of suck to me, unless you get one direct from the OEM.