Extended Warranty?

When I took delivery of my '11 RT in August, I was quoted $1500 for a 7yr warranty NSD and that I had one year to make the purchase.

Just tried and www.contegodirect.com is not working. Wonder if they're out of business.

kltk165 said:

Just tried and www.contegodirect.com is not working. Wonder if they're out of business.

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I could not find info on them either. I can just see ContegoÔÇÖs team at the round table 5 years ago discussing failure probabilities to determine what they should charge for coverage...

Q. How about final drives?
A. I thinking a failure rate of MAYBE 1 in a 100,000. After all, right angle gear sets have been made for centuries. Not much can go wrong in there.

Q. OK, but what about those new fuel strips?
A. Are you kidding me? There arenÔÇÖt any moving parts! What could possibly go wrong? The chances of it failing are between little and none. Even if one did fail, a single replacement will last the life of the bike.

The failure of these two items is so remote I donÔÇÖt even know why we are wasting taking about them. We donÔÇÖt need to make allowances for this! Now lets talk about some real possibilities...

Contego warranty holders

Hi,
Can any of you that have/had the Contego warranty confirm that they are still in business?

If not, were you refunded the balance or were you out the investment?

Something to consider with 3rd party warranty...

dstuckmann said:

Hi,
Can any of you that have/had the Contego warranty confirm that they are still in business?

If not, were you refunded the balance or were you out the investment?

Something to consider with 3rd party warranty...

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Contego was a sales organization. The warranty they sold was underwritten by NAC, http://www.nacsolutions.com/

I'd direct any questions about coverage to NAC.

I did and I did

osbornk said:

An extended warranty is not a warranty. It is mechanical breakdown insurance. Some of us are willing to assume the risk of a mechanical breakdown but others want the security of having coverage. Much like the size of your deductible, the amount you can/want to lose at one time and your tolerance for risk should determine whether it is right for you.

I look back over the last 35 years and 15 motorcycles. I would not have used the policy a single time. I do not buy the insurance and have a high deductible on my house and vehicle. Others have been burned and feel the need for the insurance and a low deductible

Ken.

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A factor to consider in choosing insurance is the history of problems and size ($$$) of problems for your bike model. Dealer offered me 3 yrs for $1,000. Knowing the frequency of final drive failures for K1200LTs (I know, BMW says there is no problem) and the repair cost, it took it. Bang! At 44,000+ miles, I had to get a new final drive, drive shaft and 2 U-joints. Over $4,000 retail. Conclusion: good choice for my bike.

GSinNC said:

Good points. It is just like any other "insurance" .... you buy it ...hope you never use it .... but want the best coverage when you need it... if you never use it the min. coverage works great. Much like liability coverage .... I have never used it but have the max. coverage. It all comes down to your personal "risk management" and what each of us requires to sleep at night. I figure if a 4 year policy costs me $1000 that is $250 a year to cover any mechanical breakdown that may happen.

However, the other invisible benefit of an extended warranty is in resale. Now ... if you keep a bike for 10 years this is not an issue. However, except for my GS which I have owned since 2002 the extended warranty has helped me sell my '97 R1100RT and my '05 K1200LT. Both buyers told me it was the extended warranty that made my bike stand out from others. Did I get more at resale .... maybe a small amount ... but did it make my bike more appealing .... you betcha!

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I reiterate my original response

TwoWheels2Go said:

A factor to consider in choosing insurance is the history of problems and size ($$$) of problems for your bike model. Dealer offered me 3 yrs for $1,000. Knowing the frequency of final drive failures for K1200LTs (I know, BMW says there is no problem) and the repair cost, it took it. Bang! At 44,000+ miles, I had to get a new final drive, drive shaft and 2 U-joints. Over $4,000 retail. Conclusion: good choice for my bike.

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Good choice for any shaft-driven BMW starting with model year 2005!

I was recently shopping for an extended warranty fro my wife's F650GS Twin (so many stupid little issues...) and was having a hard time getting a quote from the dealer so started calling around. I finally ended up calling Western Service Contracts directly to ask some questions.

I got some great info and when he asked what model I would be insuring he said "oh, that's good, we have been paying out a lot for the shaft drive repairs". This is from the folks that cover these bikes when they go out of warranty.

I never used the extended warranty on my R1200GS but that was because my dealer worked BMW to pay for the whacked instrument cluster when it was out of warranty.

I hate to say it but BMW is no longer the reliability king. I was in the BMW/Triumph shop a couple of years back when the news came out that Triumph had passed up BMW in a reliability rating. Triumph side was pretty happy about that BMW side not so.

I kept my recent bike intentionally simple. I get to talk with the folks at the dealer a lot and their eyes roll when we talk about all of the computer systems now on the bikes. I get the distinct feeling that they would rather that BMW keep it simple since BMW makes all issues go through the dealer so... pick a good dealer.

My question is where can you get the best deal on an extended warranty?

Chumley said:

I was recently shopping for an extended warranty fro my wife's F650GS Twin (so many stupid little issues...) and was having a hard time getting a quote from the dealer so started calling around. I finally ended up calling Western Service Contracts directly to ask some questions.

I got some great info and when he asked what model I would be insuring he said "oh, that's good, we have been paying out a lot for the shaft drive repairs". This is from the folks that cover these bikes when they go out of warranty.

I never used the extended warranty on my R1200GS but that was because my dealer worked BMW to pay for the whacked instrument cluster when it was out of warranty.

I hate to say it but BMW is no longer the reliability king. I was in the BMW/Triumph shop a couple of years back when the news came out that Triumph had passed up BMW in a reliability rating. Triumph side was pretty happy about that BMW side not so.

I kept my recent bike intentionally simple. I get to talk with the folks at the dealer a lot and their eyes roll when we talk about all of the computer systems now on the bikes. I get the distinct feeling that they would rather that BMW keep it simple since BMW makes all issues go through the dealer so... pick a good dealer.

My question is where can you get the best deal on an extended warranty?

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Wish I could steer you to a "best deal," but fewer and fewer companies taking the risk of insuring BMW's, I suspect. And Western's comment about ".....we have been paying out a lot for the shaft drive repairs." does not surprise many of us who have suffered this 'non-problem' event and continue to decline the corporate kool-aid.

It's too bad that in a rush to be in the forefront of bikes that are more 'Radio Shacks with wheels' than motorcycles, BMW seems to be trading off their once legendary reputation for reliability in exchange for offering the latest electronic gizmo's that can be integrated into the electrical matrix. In fairness, they are not alone (seen a Goldwing lately?!), but their 'emphasis' has certainly shifted.

Good luck on your search (I still have a Contego contract thru Spring of 2014, thank goodness!), but without a BMW shaft FD sysem, I wonder if you need the extra protection.

Your decision - ride safe.

I kept my most recent ride simple, it's a R1200R with nothing except the computer as an extra.

I keep hearing from a multimake dealer that BMW is the one that pays the most attention to issues that might pop up. He also says that they have a system for repairs that does not appear beneficial to the owner but in reality is very control based and is better. One piece of advice is to ask the service writer to tell you what TSBs or other possible issues might be open and then ask them to check those items specifically. BMW will not voluntarily check a bike for all possible open issues, onlt recalls get that service but you can ask for that extra level inspection - you deserve it.

For those of you who may remember it I also heard from a reliable source that one shop had a Bosch Master Tech review the early boxer 1150 fuel injection surging issue back in the early '00s. He diagnosed it and it was a real problem that could not be solved with the fuel injection system installed in all of those bikes at that time (it did not get the proper signal when there was no load on the engine or something like that). Anyone who was sensitive and was not always heavy on the gas and noticed the problem either got a Fuel Nanny or lived with it (or sold it like me and got the twin spark which was an interim fix until the 1200 boxer came out). BMW knows what the problems are, they just can't admit it since the fix would damage the motorcycle division of BMW so much.

I think most long time BMW riders know the issues with the Corporate offices but these bikes are just so darn nice to ride when they are running right (a lot like their cars...).

I just wish BMW would extend their basic warranty.