I purchased a used 2010 Mini Cooper S about 2 years ago and it came with the extended warranty (Easy Care) and it's about to expire in July. It only has about 44,000 miles and I only drive it from spring to the end of summer as my weekend fun car. When it starts getting cold out I will park it in the garage during the winter months

I have used the extended warranty to replace the water pump which has a $100.00 deductible last year and that's the only time I have used the extended warranty. Easy Care has called me wondering if I wanted to renew the extended warranty for $3,640.00 (3 years/another 36,000) with a $250.00 deductible.

Is it worth it....$3,640.00 is a lot of money. Also, this warranty would cover air conditioner, engine, transmission, brakes and fuel system. Yes, I do know how to work on cars but really haven't done anything on my Mini except for driving it.

Right now, I'm kind of leaning heavily on the no it's not worth it side.

 

Good question and hopefully another member with a Gen2 car that has an aftermarket warranty can answer. Has the timing chain been replaced in your car? Would the warranty cover this item if it failed?

 

No, the timing chain has not been replaced. I did have my oil changed and front end alignment done at Detroit Tune recently and asked them about the timing chain...they indicated nothing to worry about.

I just got a call back from Easy Care with a new quote. $2894 / $500 deductible and $3290 / $250 deductible...these quotes will be good until Memorial day.

Also, yes the timing chain would be covered under this extended warranty plus the deductible.

 

Here's my .02. It's German and packed to the gills with electronics. There are known issues with timer chain, water pump, high pressure fuel pump, some of the electronics, etc. depend on your year/model. Drive train work can ramp up to several to many thousands of dollars very quickly.

I had to have an engine replaced in a BMW. That was almost $12,000 by itself. A buddy of mine had some top end work done on his engine recently, which BMW/Mini wanted $8,000 for.

So, for me it's a peace of mind thing. USAA, no deductable, with rental/loaner coverage, sub $3000. Yes, please.

 

Also, if you're thinking you can do the work yourself, I'd suggest really taking a look at what is involved in seaminly simple things like water pumps and thermostat housings. The thermostat housing on my BMW was so hard to get to that I gave up and ended up trading it in, along with it having an oil leak in several places.

 

It is so clearly not worth it. Especially with the low miles you put on that car. Sure you are going to get a few folks like poster above who get saved by a warranty but the majority of people never use them at all. Why do they sell them, because they are so profitable.

Send me the $2894, I'll cover you, except of course if you drive the car when the sky is blue or it is raining or you drive within 100 miles of power lines, etc.

 

I stopped buying "repair insurance" a long time ago. Never got my $ out of one when I did buy 'em. Worst case I had one and my problem "not covered". That tipped the scale for me, fortunately I was able to cancel that one for a pro-rated refund and I've never looked back.

If a 'significant' repair won't break your bank account I find them a bad idea .... better to keep the $3k in the bank and earn interest. But this requires you DO keep it in the bank. Folks with no savings need more insurance, if they can afford it.

 

This is just my experience. I have a few cars on my garage and I only bought an extended warranty on the cars that I really drive everyday. On my MB C300 which I drive close to 20k a year I paid close to $2600 for the 3 years bumper to bumper warranty from MB and the total cost of repairs done after the new car warranty expired totalled to a staggering +$19k. That car however did have some issues while it still had the new car warranty so that made me decide to buy an extended insurance. So the warranty paid for itself 6x. My ML350 on the other hand has been trouble free and it racks up around 15k a year and I did not buy any warranty for that car same with my GLK350 been trouble free and not a single problem so no extended warranty either. My B200 turbo had a extended warranty but never used it as the car was trouble free. My other cars are being driven minimally so I did not bother with extended warranties with those after what I experienced with the B200.

So I think it all boils down to what was the history of the car and how much you drive it. If I know that there is a ticking time bomb on the car and I use it everyday I will get the warranty (case point for my C300) but if I will be driving the car a few months a year and will not drive it hard I wont bother with the extended warranty and just pocket the money for some rainy day.

 

I have managed to get my moneys worth out of the Mini warranty on mine. I had an engine catastrophically overheat with 2 weeks left on the bumper to bumper warranty. I also have the extended maintenance plan from Mini, when that runs out I am strongly considering selling it. I do enjoy the free services that come with it like free oil changes and wiper blades, but driving 1.25 hours to get to the nearest Mini dealer will get old real fast once I have to start paying for service.

I will probably switch back to an old BMW M car which I can get serviced at the local dealer and be perfectly happy paying for it like the e39 M5 I had before the Mini. That and it will be much easier to wrench on at home.

Aftermarket warranties are a gamble, like any insurance policy, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

 

I do enjoy the free services that come with it like free oil changes and wiper blades,


???? covered under the 'pre-paid maintenance' that comes with any new MINI .....

I believe that you, like MANY, are confusing warranty and 'pre-paid maintenance'

and dealers sell both extensions to pre-paid maintenance AND warranty ... but they are NOT the same ....

 

Gosh darn it, now I am going to have to call the dealer again and let them explain to me what it covers. I was under the assumption the extended maintenance plan covered all drive train items. However I never considered the fact that the word, "maintenance," could just mean free services.

 

I'd say it depends on if you love your MINI and know how to work on one. My JCW I've replaced myself the timing chain and tensioner, done a clutch job, every misc maintenance task since the warranty ran out, and currently cleaning up after a turbo failure and installing upgrades. If I couldn't work on her, she would be history. The cost of shop repairs for MINIs is pretty high at the dealerships. All the expensive repairs came after the warranty period. It was only parts cost for me, but it still adds up. So it depends on you and your plans for your MINI.
Ps. It pays to have a second car. Mine is a 20 year old T-bird.

 

We bought our one-owner, manual '10 MCS Hardtop not quite 3 years ago with 32k, and it now has 53k on it. It had a ton of work done to it under warranty before we got it, and it also had the remainder of the extended maintenance. Unexpected benefits of that was that it covered a brake fluid change and windshield wipers.

The only non-maintenance cost we have had was the thermostat housing this past year. Two things that are issues right now are a rattle in the driver side door when the window is down like the window is not being held tightly in its 'track', and the common hatch button won't work from the outside problem. But when I went to add oil the last time, I think it looks like the valve cover gasket is leaking now, too. Walnut blasting has not been done at this point.

That warranty under $3000 with the $250 deductible would be very tempting for me based on some of the things I read on here.

I think you may have been eligible to get your $100 deductible for the water pump repair back via one of the class action suits, but I could be wrong.