BMW Extended Warranty Overview

Motor1 Reviews Team Take:

• A BMW Platinum extended warranty costs $3,246 on average, which is about the same as Audi plans but a bit less than Mercedes warranties.
• RepairPal ranks BMW 30th out of 32 car brands for overall reliability.
• BMW owners in our 2023 survey said coverage was the most important factor when choosing a plan. 
• Endurance is the best third-party option for BMW vehicle service contracts because it covers luxury models.

BMW models are known for having high repair costs, which makes it worthwhile for many drivers to consider the BMW extended warranty. Those who purchase coverage can extend protection on their vehicles for up to 7 years or 100,000 miles—whichever comes first.

In this article, we’ll look at the coverage BMW offers and compare it to our pick for the best extended warranty company.

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BMW Extended Warranty

The BMW extended warranty program is known as BMW Ultimate Protection. Depending on which level of coverage you choose, protection can range from a basic powertrain warranty up to a comprehensive bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Consider whether you want protection for just the basics of your BMW—like its engine, transmission, and drive axle—or if you’re more comfortable knowing that your electrical, fuel, steering, and navigation systems are safe from a mechanical breakdown as well.

BMW Extended Warranty Plans

Below, you can compare BMW’s two main plans head-to-head.

Plan Name	Maximum Term	Systems Covered
Platinum	7 years/100,000 miles	This is BMW’s most comprehensive level of extended warranty coverage, providing protection for almost all major car components. Parts covered include the electrical, cooling, steering, brakes, infotainment system and more.
Powertrain	7 years/100,000 miles	As the most basic level of the BMW extended warranty, the Powertrain plan offers limited coverage for crucial parts including the engine, transmission, drive axles, cooling system, and fuel system.

For certified pre-owned (CPO) BMWs, the Platinum plan is the only option.

What Parts Does the BMW Extended Warranty Cover?

The table below shows which parts are covered by the BMW Platinum and Powertrain plans: 

BMW Extended Warranty Length

You can choose between 75,000- or 100,000-mile terms that extend your factory warranty by one, two, or three years. This translates to either five, six, or seven years of total coverage.

As with extended warranties from other automakers, the total coverage terms described above include the length of the BMW factory warranty. For example, if you purchase a 7-year/100,000-mile warranty, you’re only adding 3 years/50,000 miles of coverage. If you get a warranty for 5 years/75,000 miles, you’ll get an extra 1 year/25,000 miles of coverage.

What’s Not Covered by the BMW Extended Warranty?

Even though a BMW extended vehicle protection plan covers most major components, contract holders aren’t entirely off the hook for repair costs. Most BMW extended warranties, both from the manufacturer and from third-party providers, exclude the following items:

• Regular wear and tear items like wiper blades and brake pads
• Damage from owner abuse or neglect
• Damage from improper repairs
• Repairs to vehicles modified with aftermarket components
• Damages covered by an insurance provider like collisions, theft and acts of nature
• Regular maintenance services

If you’d prefer to have routine maintenance costs covered, it may be worth opting for the BMW Ultimate Care program.

BMW Roadside Assistance

In addition to covered repairs, customers who purchase extended coverage get access to 24-hour BMW emergency roadside assistance. This includes services like battery jump-starts, lockout services, towing, and tire changes. Most manufacturers include roadside assistance with their extended warranties.

BMW Extended Warranty Terms and Conditions

Below are a few more things to be aware of if you’re looking at a BMW extended warranty:

• Eligibility: You can get a BMW extended warranty within the factory warranty period of 4 years/50,000 miles or the CPO warranty, which adds one more year to factory coverage. BMW dealers may also sell extended warranties on used vehicles at the time of purchase after the factory warranty has expired.
• Finance: BMW dealers allow you to finance an extended warranty into an auto loan.
• Repairs: The BMW extended warranty covers repairs at branded dealerships with factory-trained technicians and original equipment parts.
• Benefits: Plans come with roadside assistance but not trip interruption or rental car coverage, which many other warranties offer.
• Deductible: You may have a choice of deductibles from the dealership.
• Transfers: BMW doesn’t provide official details but the industry standard is to allow transfers if you sell the car to a private buyer.
• Cancellation: BMW doesn’t provide details but you can usually get a full refund minus a fee shortly after purchasing the plan or a prorated refund after the window has passed.

BMW Extended Warranty Maintenance Plans

One way to ensure your BMW doesn’t break down is to give it proper maintenance upkeep. BMW offers a collection of maintenance plans that often take care of the things your extended warranty won’t, such as replacing wear-and-tear items like spark plus, wiper blades, and whatnot. You can also get additional roadside assistance, oil changes, and more.

Below is a list of BMW’s maintenance plans, with coverage details and term lengths.

Maintenance Plan Option	Term Length	Coverage Details
BMW Ultimate Care Scheduled	Up to 5 years/75,000 miles	Covers engine oil and filter changes, brake fluid, spark plugs, key fob batteries, inspections and roadside assistance
BMW Ultimate Care+	Up to 7 years/125,000 miles	Covers all of the above plus brake pads, wiper blades, and clutch replacement
BMW Ultimate Care Oil Services	3 years/unlimited miles (available after 5 years/60,000 miles)	Unlimited oil changes for 3 years

More BMW Protection Products

Include H4s for any additional protection products like guaranteed asset protection, lease-end protection, tire and wheel protection, windshield protection, paintless dent repair, etc.

BMW offers additional plans that can help protect your vehicle and finances in different ways.

Lease-End Protection

This option can cover some or all of the excess wear costs when you turn in a leased BMW. It can pay the bill if your car has some scrapes or interior damage.

Guaranteed Auto Protection (GAP)

This option covers the remaining balance of your auto loan if you owe more than the car is worth in the event of a total loss.

Tire and Wheel Protection

If your wheels or tires are structurally damaged after running over a hazard in the road, this plan will help to repair or replace them. You can also upgrade the plan to cover cosmetic damage on your wheels.

Windshield Protection

This repairs your windshield if it gets chipped or cracked by rocks and other debris on the road.

Paintless Dent Repair

This option covers repairs of small dents and dings without modifying the car’s finish. It only applies if mechanics can use paintless repair techniques.

Key Protection

This plan can replace your keys if you lose them. It also covers lockout costs up to a limit if you lock your keys in your car.

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BMW Extended Warranty vs. Factory Warranty

One main difference between BMW’s extended and factory warranty is the extended warranty is an additional purchase while all cars come with the factory warranty. 

BMW New Car Warranty

Every new car sold by BMW comes with a comprehensive bumper-to-bumper warranty that covers almost the entire vehicle for 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first. They also come with a few more warranties. Here are the details:

• Bumper-to-bumper coverage (includes powertrain coverage): 4 years/50,000 miles
• Corrosion and rust coverage: 12 years/unlimited miles
• Roadside assistance: 4 years/unlimited miles
• Federal emissions warranty: Up to 8 years/80,000 miles

Unlike warranties from luxury brands like Genesis, Infiniti, Cadillac, and Acura, BMW doesn’t provide additional powertrain coverage beyond its basic new vehicle warranty of 4 years/50,000 miles. For this reason, many owners seek additional coverage through a BMW extended warranty.

BMW Certified Pre-Owned Warranty

All BMW CPO vehicles come with 1 extra year and unlimited miles of coverage. If the CPO vehicle has any remaining factory warranty coverage, the extra year is added after that expires. If not, you simply get one year of factory coverage. 

This coverage almost matches BMW’s bumper-to-bumper warranty on new vehicles. However, it excludes some additional items like certain suspension components. 

How To Tell if Your BMW Is Still under Warranty

Whether you purchase a BMW extended warranty after one year or three years, coverage won’t start until the factory warranty expires. You can usually get a better price if you buy a plan early in the car’s life. But you’ll need to purchase a plan before the warranty expires.

That’s not the same with third-party vehicle service contracts, which start when you purchase them. In this case, it’s important to know when your factory warranty expires.

Look at the Odometer and Date

You can get a basic sense by looking at the odometer and knowing the purchase date from the original bill of sale. If it has been longer than four years or you have more than 50,000 miles, the warranty has expired.

VIN Lookup

You can also enter your car’s vehicle identification number (VIN) into the owner’s section of BMW’s website which is called My BMW. This will tell you if the warranty is still valid.

Ask a Dealer

A dealership salesperson can tell you when your warranty expires, as well. They can look up your information with the VIN or in their sales records.

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BMW Extended Warranty Cost

BMW’s Platinum plan costs about $3,246 on average. This is based on 45 quotes our team got for a variety of mileage and time options. Other European automakers offer similar average costs for their plans. Audi’s average is $3,241 while the Mercedes average is $4,411. We found Porsche to have a higher average of $6,061 for quotes we received.

Our Experience Getting Extended Warranty Prices

Our team got quotes online for BMW sedans, coupes, convertibles, and SAVs, which are BMW’s sporty SUVs. Quotes were quick to receive after providing details about the vehicles.

Below are the sample quotes we received from BMW for its Platinum bumper-to-bumper extended warranty options: 

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Should You Buy a BMW Extended Warranty?

Considering BMW is a European luxury brand and its average repairs are generally more expensive than repairs for other brands, an extended warranty is likely to be worth it.

Reliability of BMW Vehicles

J.D. Power and RepairPal are two good resources for vehicle reliability. J.D. Power runs numerous automotive studies each year including ones focused on vehicle repairs. RepairPal is an organization that publishes average cost data for various repairs and helps consumers find reliable repair shops.

J.D. Power Reliability Ratings

The J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study℠ surveyed over 30,000 consumers and ranked auto brands on the number of problems after three years of ownership. The average number of problems was 190 per 100 vehicles. This was also how BMW scored, which ranked the manufacturer in ninth place overall. However, not all brands that perform well after three years perform well after ten. BMWs are likely to need more work as they age.

RepairPal Reliability Ratings

RepairPal publishes annual ownership costs for brands and models, which take into account regular maintenance like oil changes and unexpected repairs. RepairPal also looks at how often owners have to visit a repair shop and what percentage of repairs are severe. Below are RepairPal’s ratings for BMW and the industry average.

Category	BMW Ranking	Industry Average
Cost of ownership	$968	$652
Repair frequency	0.9 times per year	0.4 times per year
Repair severity	15%	12%
Overall reliability ranking	2.5 out of 5.0 (30st among 32 car brands)	3.4 out of 5.0

Cost of BMW Repairs

Below you can see a few average repair costs for different models.

BMW Model	Vehicle Component	Average Repair Cost
BMW X5	Windshield washer pump	$260 – $324
BMW X5	Clutch master cylinder	$360 – $470
BMW 328i	HVAC electronic control module	$455 – $473
BMW 328i	Oil pan gasket	$669 – $803
BMW M4	Fuel pump replacement cost	$1,541 – $1,563
BMW M4	Radiator fan assembly	$1,807 – $1,913

What Our Survey Respondents Say About BMW Warranties

In 2023, our team surveyed 1,000 people who had purchased a warranty from their car’s manufacturer. Out of the total, 88 respondents had purchased a BMW warranty. Here are a few findings from the survey.

How much did you pay for the warranty?

Answers:

• 7% paid under $1,000
• 19% paid between $1,000 to $2,000
• 22% paid between $2,000 to $3,000
• 15% paid between $3,000 to $4,000
• 20% paid between $4,000 to $5,000
• 16% paid over $5,000

What type of coverage did you get?

Answers:

• Comprehensive/bumper-to-bumper: 51%
• Mid-level: 40%
• Powertrain: 9%

Quotes from Our Survey

Here are a few quotes from our survey respondents about their experience when filing a claim with BMW’s extended warranty: 

• “I submitted a claim and the experience was smooth.”
• “I had filed a claim when my car was acting up and they helped me fix my car.”

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BMW Extended Warranty vs. Third-Party Warranty

While BMW offers good coverage with its extended warranty, it doesn’t last as long as other options on the market. Third-party providers can cover luxury vehicles like BMWs for longer periods, and they often include more benefits.

Our Experience Buying Third-Party Warranties

In 2023, we purchased warranties from five providers: Autopom!, Carchex, Endurance, Olive^®, and CarShield. We purchased all plans over the phone except Olive’s, which we bought online. Below, you can see our experiences with each plan.

Third-Party Company	Plan	Price	Coverage Terms	Buying Experience	Cancellation
autopom!	Exclusionary (comprehensive)	$135 for 15 months	5 years/unlimited miles	The salesperson was helpful and patient, though it took a few calls to reach a live person	Cancellation by phone was easy and we received email confirmation
Carchex	Titanium (comprehensive)	$140 per month	Month-to-month	The agent was helpful and not pushy about buying right away	Smooth cancellation process
Endurance	Secure Plus (mid-level)	$150 for 30 months	4 years/48,000 miles	Easy experience overall, though salesperson pushed Supreme plan at first	Cancellation within 30 days was quick with the policy number
Olive	Powertrain	$35 for 36 months	3 years/185,000 maximum miles	100% online purchase was easy to do in under an hour	Canceled via email easily, though contracts say mailing cancellation is required
CarShield**	Silver (powertrain)	$159 per month	Month-to-month	Rep was helpful though they pushed the Diamond plan instead	Cancellation was easy within 30 days

*The Carchex plan applies to a 2019 Jeep Wrangler with 49,313 miles. All others apply to a 2021 BMW X5 with 26,000 miles.

**Editor’s Note: On July 31, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that CarShield will pay $10 million to settle FTC charges that its advertisements and telemarketing for vehicle service contracts are deceptive and misleading, and that many purchasers found that repairs were not covered.  In response, the Motor1 Reviews team reevaluated CarShield’s rating to better reflect its industry standing and transparency with consumers.

What Our Survey Data Says about Buying Third-Party Warranties

Our team surveyed 1,000 different customers in the second quarter of 2024. These respondents had purchased an extended warranty. Below are a few takeaways from the survey.

Why did you buy an extended warranty?

Answers:

• 23% said, “My existing warranty coverage expired.”
• 10% said, “I anticipated my car’s repair needs.”
• 10% said, “I saw an ad for extended car warranty coverage.”
• 29% said, “The dealership recommended a warranty for my car.”
• 15% said, “I want to maintain my car’s resale value.”
• 3% said, “I recently paid for a major repair.”

How much did you pay for the warranty?

Answers:

• 11% paid less than $1,000
• 19% paid between $1,000 and $1,500
• 13% paid between $1,500 and $2,000
• 12% paid between $2,000 and $2,500
• 14% paid between $2,500 and $3,000
• 13% paid between $3,000 and $3,500
• 8% paid between $3,500 and $4,000
• 7% paid between $4,000 and $4,500
• 5% paid over $4,500

Quotes from Our Survey

Here are a few quotes from our survey respondents about their experience with a third-party warranty: 

• “My claim was processed and approved very quickly. The customer service is very knowledgeable and approachable.”
• “I like how fast and easy the process is.”
• “I loved that everything I needed to be taken care of was taken care of quickly.”

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Best Extended Warranty for BMW

While the BMW warranty has its perks, we recommend looking to Endurance for coverage for your BMW. Endurance won our team’s Best Coverage award in our industry-wide review of warranty companies. See the tables below to learn more about the company and to see how the BMW warranty stacks up next to Endurance. 

Endurance: Our Ratings

Our review team conducted a study of 41 third-party warranty providers across the industry and ranked each provider on its reputation, coverage, cost, transparency and customer service. Endurance won the top spot of all our providers, and it also scored higher than the industry average in each of our ranking categories. 

See how it ranked in each category below: 

Category	Endurance’s Score	Average Study Score
Industry standing	4.6	4.0
Coverage	4.9	4.2
Cost	4.6	4.0
Transparency	4.9	4.0
Customer service	3.9	3.6
Overall score	4.6	4.0

*Scores are out of five points each.

Endurance vs. BMW Extended Warranty

See how Endurance compares to BMW warranty side by side: 

	Endurance	BMW
Plan Options	6	2
Maximum Mileage	Unlimited	100,000
Maximum Age	20 years	7 years
When To Buy	Anytime	Until 4 years/ 50,000 miles
Choice of Repair Shop	Any mechanic certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE®)	Any BMW dealership
Maintenance Coverage	Advantage™ plan covers oil changes, brake pads, cooling system maintenance and more	Not included
Benefits	Roadside assistance, trip interruption, rental car reimbursement plus Elite Benefits like key fob replacement and tire repair for one year	Roadside assistance

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BMW Extended Warranty: Bottom Line

Overall, the BMW extended warranty offers good coverage and is cheaper than warranties from some competitors like Mercedes and Porsche. However, you can get more options and longer coverage with third-party companies. We recommend comparing BMW’s plan with third parties to see which is the best option.

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BMW Extended Warranty: FAQ

Below are commonly asked questions about the BMW extended warranty:

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Methodology

In an effort to provide accurate and unbiased information to consumers, our expert review team collects data from dozens of extended auto warranty companies to formulate rankings of the best providers. Companies receive a score in each of the following categories, as well as an overall weighted score out of 5.0 stars.

• Industry Standing: Warranty providers with a history of strong business practices and endorsements from experts receive the highest scores in this category.
• Coverage: This rating is based on types of extended warranty plans available, coverage terms, and added benefits like roadside assistance.
• Cost: Our research team reviews sample quotes for a variety of plans and vehicles. Companies with lower prices per year of coverage receive the best scores.
• Transparency: This score takes into account contract transparency and the availability of a money-back guarantee.
• Customer Service: We comb through customer reviews and perform our own shopper analysis to get a sense of the responsiveness and helpfulness of each warranty company.

*Data accurate at time of publication.

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