[denaliman]

Read the warranty language first carefully. I can tell you from personal experience here in Canada that these warranty companies will do anything not to pay for repairs. Be prepared for disputes and make sure you have a local dealer on your side that you can work with, this is probably the most important and critical since it will be the Dealership going to bat for you most of the time. These are not really warranties but insurance policies. Read the language on repair or replacement you will see phrases such as "Replacement parts may be new, rebuilt or of like kind and quality" which really means used or rebuilt. No matter what the sales guy tells you get everything in writing. Unless the warranty explicitly says OE parts you can expect most will not be original BMW parts. Also OE parts and OEM parts are two different things. Ask if re-programming is included in the repair. The sales pitch is always that these warranties cover exactly what the Factory warranty will, in fact they don't. Most of the discretion for the repair is in the underwriters favor, new, rebuilt off brand, used (LKO). Also, a lot of these warranties state that before any work can be approved a detailed inspection/troubleshoot needs to be forwarded to the underwriter for approval. If the underwriter does not approve you are stuck with the bill. There are some good warranties out there and lots of bad ones...the trick is to figure out which is which. i can advise you in Canada stay away from SAL Warranty or anything underwritten by IA Pacific (Formerly NorthWest). $4,800 is not bad here in Canada for an extended warranty for BMW, they are negotiable and there are big profit dollars for the selling party. One other point, sometimes the "policy administrator" is different than the Underwriter so find out who you will be dealing with in the event of claim. it is common for the Underwriter to "sell off" the policy amongst several different insurance companies and Underwriters to spread/limit their liability exposure to any one policy.