BMW Car Advice

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munchies

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I hope someone can assist. I have had a spite bad runs with buying cars. I'm probably mostly to blame, but still need to come up with a solution.

Currently I have a 2011 BMW 320i. I bought the car 2 years ago. When I purchased the car it had around 26 months left on the motor plan. At time of sale I was worried about the motor plan expiring, however I was put at ease by the sales man saying that when the time comes I can just call BMW and they will increase the motor plan limits and add the payment for it to my finance. I was given the impression that it would probably only be an extra R200-R300 per month.

2 years later and I got the quote from BMW...... its R21 000. And thats just for 1 more year and 10 000km! So this will only suffice for 1 year! So it would cost around R800 more a month, but once again this is only for 1 year! Needless to say I am not happy.

The way I see it, I have 4 options.

1) Risk it, put R2000 into my bond extra every month for 18 months and then using this saving to buy a new one, hoping I am not hit with a massive maintenance bill during this time

2) Trade it in and buy another car increasing my installments by more than R3000, but getting out of this mess.

3) Take the motor plan and see where I am in a year.

4) Take out a month to month maintenance plan with a hippo provider for R850pm.

Side note, I have investigated option 2 already. Been to BMW, been approved for a demo vehicle. Told the dealer I think it was too much money. He then told me that should I let my maintenance plan, my resale value will drop dramatically. Is this true?

Any advise?

Thanks!
 
BMW with motorplan = ok
BMW without motorplan = alfa reliability and resale
Good luck
 
munchies said:
94 000kms
Click to expand...

Just drive it and sell it after a year. The only thing you need to watch out for is the valve stem seals on those cars (very common problem on those 2.0L motors - symptoms: using oil and smoking). Mine had to be done at 115k and some cars need it at 200k. Cost me around R10 000 to fix.

Those motors are quite old so almost anyone can service them for you and being petrol it's not expensive either. I service mine out of my pocket (even took it to the agents once or twice) and you'd still lose money paying that R800+ premium per month.
 
$m@Rt@$$ said:
Just drive it and sell it after a year. The only thing you need to watch out for is the valve stem seals on those cars (very common problem on those 2.0L motors - symptoms: using oil and smoking). Mine had to be done at 115k and some cars need it at 200k. Cost me around R10 000 to fix.

Those motors are quite old so almost anyone can service them for you and being petrol it's not expensive either. I service mine out of my pocket (even took it to the agents once or twice) and you'd still lose money paying that R800+ premium per month.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Appreciate the advise. While its under motorplan do you rekon its worth while taking it in and saying: "I think my valve stem seals are a little buggered, can you replace them?" :whistle:
 
munchies said:
Thanks. Appreciate the advise. While its under motorplan do you rekon its worth while taking it in and saying: "I think my valve stem seals are a little buggered, can you replace them?" :whistle:
Click to expand...

Haha, that I wouldn't be able to tell you. Perhaps walk in a talk to a service advisor and tell them you think you might have seen small puffs accelerating from a stop light ;) unfortunately it's kind of only possible to diagnose when the engine is opened up.
 
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munchies said:
Thanks. Appreciate the advise. While its under motorplan do you rekon its worth while taking it in and saying: "I think my valve stem seals are a little buggered, can you replace them?" :whistle:
Click to expand...

Hollard Motor Xtender.
 
after my last bmw i vowed never again and upgraded to another brand, and am still motoring along happily. not everyone will have the same experience, and i never said german cars are bad.

hopefully you have no balloon payments, then your break even would be around two years, which would mean you can move on to something else without too much pain.

if you have a balloon payment then you cant afford it and shouldn't have bought it to start off with. do a bit of research next time, like phoning a dealer with a car out of motorplan and getting quotes for services, check the tyre requirements (run flats) and phoning around for costs to replace etc. you know basic forward thinking kind of can i afford to maintain this and not only rely on a motorplan, which is essentially the costs of the services bolted on to the purchase price in any case.
 
$m@Rt@$$ said:
Haha, that I wouldn't be able to tell you. Perhaps walk in a talk to a service advisor and tell them you think you might have seen small puffs accelerating from a stop light ;) unfortunately it's kind of only possible to diagnose when the engine is opened up.
Click to expand...

Can only but try! Thanks.

Sinbad said:
Hollard Motor Xtender.
Click to expand...

Will get a quote! Thanks.
 
as an extra 10k kms and or R20k for an extra year of maintenance plans really translates to the risk. The risk of how much they forecast your repairs could amount to (with one service included) if anything breaks.

IOW, they'll take your R20k gambling that nothing untoward will happen to your car in the next year or 10k kms. Not a bad gamble from a dealer point of view, how much for the year after that?
 
groenspookasem said:
after my last bmw i vowed never again and upgraded to another brand, and am still motoring along happily. not everyone will have the same experience, and i never said german cars are bad.

hopefully you have no balloon payments, then your break even would be around two years, which would mean you can move on to something else without too much pain.

if you have a balloon payment then you cant afford it and shouldn't have bought it to start off with. do a bit of research next time, like phoning a dealer with a car out of motorplan and getting quotes for services, check the tyre requirements (run flats) and phoning around for costs to replace etc. you know basic forward thinking kind of can i afford to maintain this and not only rely on a motorplan, which is essentially the costs of the services bolted on to the purchase price in any case.
Click to expand...

No balloon payment. But I do still have a shortfall at the moment. Not really advise you gave, more of a lecture. But thanks.
 
groenspookasem said:
as an extra 10k kms and or R20k for an extra year of maintenance plans really translates to the risk. The risk of how much they forecast your repairs could amount to (with one service included) if anything breaks.

IOW, they'll take your R20k gambling that nothing untoward will happen to your car in the next year or 10k kms. Not a bad gamble from a dealer point of view, how much for the year after that?
Click to expand...

Haven't actually got a quote. But will ask. I did ask them if there has been an increase in price for their motorplans and the F&I guy at BMW said their has been a significant increase in the last year.
 
Have you been having problems with the car the last 2 years? If no, why are you paranoid about high maintenance costs within the next year or 10k km?
 
SA Warranties Bumper to bumper with gap cover. Includes wear and tear.

R425 a month
 
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