To warranty or not to warranty? That is the question.

[mattjw916]

Originally Posted by Anorak

I used to work at a BMW dealer. The aftermarket warranties paid for themselves. This was before the 1200's were out of warranty so it was 1150 issues like leaking rear main seals, stripped input shafts and final drives with various other problems like burned exhaust valves and ABS hydro units.

Every single extended warranty sold paid out in favor of the customer? I call bullshit...

Instead of buying a warranty, take the same amount of money and buy tax free muni bonds (or whatever other financial instrument gets you hot) instead... Not only will you have money on-hand to off-set repair costs in the case they happen out of the blue, but your money will be earning money (possibly even tax free) in the meantime.

[Dan-M]

Originally Posted by mattjw916

Every single extended warranty sold paid out in favor of the customer? I call bullshit...

Instead of buying a warranty, take the same amount of money and buy tax free muni bonds (or whatever other financial instrument gets you hot) instead... Not only will you have money on-hand to off-set repair costs in the case they happen out of the blue, but your money will be earning money (possibly even tax free) in the meantime.

If you are one to buy extended warranties every time they are pitched to you on cars, bikes, electronics, televisions, appliances, etc. Take Matt's advice above and you may just retire a little earlier.

[Deuce]

I would never buy a BMW without a warranty. All my previous ones (1100 & two 1200's) have needed expensive repairs. Once the warranty goes the bike is sold.

[bobobob]

Originally Posted by Dan-M

+100
The warranty company is playing the odds and making a lot of money

edit: well put nano

This will probably come as a shock to you, but the warranty company is in business to make money.
That's how they are able to provide the service they do.

Look, this isn't rocket surgery.
I wouldn't recommend the purchase of an extended warranty if the op was buying a new V-Strom.
And I'm sure as hell not going to waste my time listing all the shit that has been documented in
these forums that wrack up huge out of warranty bills on Beemers. And where are all these wiseguys
going to be when the shit hits the fan? No where to be seen or heard from, I'll wager.

Read the last ten pages of this forum and remember it's a freaking $1.50 a day
not to have to go throught all the crap that so many others have had to go through.

[mattjw916]

I don't think anyone is going to claim you won't ever incur a big maintenance item on a bike eventually, but having owned many bikes well out of warranty range, there is no guarantee that you will have any or all of those issues. So why pay for repairs in advance if you don't need them? It's not like FD failure is a guarantee by mile X or that the motor is going to lunch itself suddenly if maintained properly. All bikes with servo ABS don't assplode randomly... mine didn't even after 8ish years on the road.

One thing I do know is that if I bought extended warranties for my entire growing fleet of cars and bikes, that would be a significant money pit, and would greatly exceed the typical maintenance costs.

If you can't afford to maintain it properly, you can't afford to own it... That's among the reasons I don't have a Testarossa in my garage...

['05Train]

Originally Posted by mattjw916

If you can't afford to maintain it properly, you can't afford to own it... That's among the reasons I don't have a Testarossa in my garage...

This is a non sequitur, as warranties don't cover maintenance, and maintenance doesn't necessarily prevent breakdowns. BMW's warranty is 36,000 miles, or roughly 18 months. I plan on keeping my bike much longer than that. Additionally, Murphy's Law's pretty clear about catastrophic failure only occurring when you're far, far away from your toolbox.

It doesn't take much research to see what the GS's repair history looks like. If you ride serious miles and tend to go outside of your local area, you're tempting fate by not having a warranty. It will literally take one covered issue for the policy (5 years, unlimited miles) to pay for itself.

[Anorak]

Originally Posted by mattjw916

Every single extended warranty sold paid out in favor of the customer? I call bullshit...

Instead of buying a warranty, take the same amount of money and buy tax free muni bonds (or whatever other financial instrument gets you hot) instead... Not only will you have money on-hand to off-set repair costs in the case they happen out of the blue, but your money will be earning money (possibly even tax free) in the meantime.

Not all the customers used their warranties. I saw more extended warranty repairs at the BMW dealer than when I worked at the Ducati, M.V. Agusta, Triumph, Husqvarna, Moto-Guzzi and sort of Benelli dealer.

If you can get access to the dealer cost of the warranty, you can get an idea of longer term reliability of the brand. The more reliable, the lower the price of the warranty.

Also, the price of the warranty is negotiable.

[bigbadandugly]

Originally Posted by David13

$990 will buy a lot of parts, and if you do your own labor...

Originally Posted by SkiFly01

I do my own maintenance and with the price of nearly a grand, you can get a lot of parts for that. If a final drive goes you can get a used one for around half of the cost of your warranty, then just pop it on yourself.

Yeah, you can get a lot of parts for $990, but that $990 also gets you the labor...and piece of mind. You guys are valuing your time as worthless. This may be a fair assumption if you're unemployed or retired, but if you're mid-career working 45-50 hours a week, commuting two hours a day, and have teenage kids with soccer practice and what have you, leisure time is a scarce commodity and shouldn't bee valued at $0. Not to mention the possible need for specialty tools, running around for parts, spending time on the forums learning how to...

Originally Posted by David13

Otherwise you are out $990 for ... well ...

Piece of mind. For many the $990 is well worth it, particularly for a motorcycle that is three years old with 66k miles on it. You can't value that at $0 as well.

Originally Posted by David13

I never get it. Only once did I ever get the extended warranty, and then ... it did pay off.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by ragtoplvr

You need to find out what the warranty covers.

Wisest advice in this thread. If the warranty has a huge exclusion list (including electrical) and high deductibles/low coverage limits, the run, don't walk.

Personally, I think extended warranties for electronics and automobiles are unwise purchases, but am not convinced this is the case with motorcycles. That being said, if you're the kind of person that puts 2k local miles a year on the bike, perhaps you should roll the dice.

[David13]

"Exactly."
Charley.
If I woulda got the warranty the other 40 or 50 times, I would have lost money every time. Except once.
How many thousands behind would I be.
You do have a point if you have no leisure time.
I enjoy working on a bike or car, or truck, or boat, or airplane. I value the time I do that as worth $1,000 per hour. In terms of happiness about doing it.
dc

They don't sell those warranties to lose money. They are making money. You lose.

[WeazyBuddha]

FWIW, I did the search here on Gspot, did a lot of hand wringing and ultimately bought the after-market warranty after my BMW warranty expired.

Get informed, these things only cover what is specifically mentioned and nothing else.

BTW, I think this is the first extended warranty I've ever bought. I'm not a believer in 'em but in the case of my GS I ultimately decided to get it.

[dirtybikefrank]

Just the facts..

Purchased my 08 GSA from a friend a year ago in March w 32000 miles on it. No issues besides the fuel strip prior to my ownership of the bike. These were all covered under warranty. I wondered the same thing about purchasing the extended warranty since i usually politely decline such offers. My plan with this bike was to ride the piss out of it and with only 6K left on the factory warranty opted for the the full deal Interstate warranty though my dealer. Ran me about $1100.


Cut to:

Three weeks ago. Final drive seal began weeping at 42000K. BMW of Atlanta replaced the whole final drive without even a second thought. This wouldnt have happened without taking the gamble on the warranty a year ago. Saved me a ton of money and most of all TIME. I was back on the bike in two days.

This experience completely changed my thinking of extended warranties. To me theyre worth their weight in gold...

[David13]

For every one of you that wins, there are ten, or 100 that get nothing on it. That's how they stay in business.
But I think BMW did drop out of the warranty business on motorcycles in the usa a few years ago. Maybe they did go broke paying out claims. Now you can only get an 'aftermarket' warranty.
dc

[bobobob]

Originally Posted by David13

For every one of you that wins, there are ten, or 100 that get nothing on it.

Look, if you're going to blow smoke and make up numbers, try to make it
seem slightly plausable by not tossing out a random 10 or maybe 100.
It screams "I have no fucking idea" so I made these up.

[trc.rhubarb]

It works like this...
If you buy the warranty, you are all but guaranteeing no failures
If you don't buy it, you will have failures and buy it from now on, but the bike won't break until you finally stop buying them

Mine that came with the bike from the 2nd owner doesnt cover clutch or shocks. Read carefully...

[bigbadandugly]

Originally Posted by David13

They don't sell those warranties to lose money. They are making money. You lose.

In a pure economic sense, it may be true that some extended warranty purchasers don't recover their investment. But the "piece of mind" value could easily exceed the cost of the extended warranty, even if they don't use it at all. I'm sure you are a consumer of life insurance for the "piece of mind" value because there is absolutely no other reason to have it (other than lender obligations on loans).

Further, you comment reflects your ignorance of how insurance companies work. I agree that insurance companies are in business to make money, but most insurance companies lose money or break even on the underwriting side of the business and rely on the investment side of the business to generate the profit for the business based on investment returns on the premiums.

Ever wonder why BMW Financial Services does not sell extended warranties for its motorcycle division? It, of all entities, has the best information to determine post-warranty failure rates and the associated costs. It sells extended vehicle protection plans in its car divisions, so why not for its motorcycles? Clearly because it is not profitable for them (manufacturers don't invest the premiums like pure-play insurance companies do).

I as well do not typically purchase extended warranties. I will, however, buy an extended warranty on my 2012 GS if I can find one because:

1) In general bikes face harsher conditions than automobiles, and in my case I ride it as if I rented it, not like it's some Goldwing
2) Read the forums - the number of tales I read of GS failures given the # of GSs sold is astounding relative to the Honda Pilot failures I read in the Pilot forums (although this is probably due to #1 above)
3) BMW Financial Services doesn't sell extended warranties - what does that tell you?