[m@rk]

So the letter from BMW arrived this morning informing me that my warranty expires in 30 days.

Had a good play with the numbers and established the following

Emergency cover adds £80 - The policy without this will recover you to a BMW garage if needed but only in the UK. I travel to France a couple of times each year and European recovery costs more than £80 to buy.

Adding in a £100 excess does not knock £100 off the annual cost of the warranty. All I need is a single claim and I am out of pocket. More than a single claim and things start adding up

There is a noticeable price jump once the car goes past 60k miles.

If I pay monthly, I am paying a 10% premium and there is no guarantee that the monthly cost won't increase after 12 months anyway.

I can have comprehensive cover on the car all the way up to 100k miles. Beyond that I can still have a warranty but drive train only.

So at 58k miles, comprehensive cover and emergency assist, £520!

Compared to other options out there, this is a competitive price and works out at £43 (or just over half a tank of fuel) per month.

It also means one other thing.

I won't be changing the car this year and I may even run it into year 5 unless the new 3 comes out in the meantime. Considering I normally only keep my car for 18 months before getting bored, this thing must be doing something right.