[Warp Ten]

In my early retirement years I sold BMWs and MINIs. We used to get small commissions on every item we encouraged the customer to buy from the F&I guy. Every item was very profitable to the dealership and the F&I guy and of marginal use to the customer. I would say don't buy any of them. A straight tire and wheel warranty from BMW should be much less than that crazy combined package that sells dent protection, interior cleaning etc. Complete waste of money. We used to sell tire and wheel packages for about $800-1,000 as I recall, although that was several years ago. The markup at retail is about 100%, so as noted there should be some negotiating room but many F&I guys won't negotiate. No one who worked at the dealership would buy any of those things, with the possible exception of a straight tire & wheel package. If you can get your F&I guy to provide that at reasonable cost without all the other junk, consider it if (1) you can't afford to pay for a damaged wheel and tire, (2) you generally like insurance type products and (3) you are likely to need the product (like you live in a pothole area and have busted tires and wheels before). I put tire and wheel on my wife's 2008 335xi and she went through two tires and one wheel. It paid for itself at a cost of about $800 back then. I put it on my 2010 535xi and never made a claim so it was a bad investment for me. I have never bought it since. On things like Xzilon or Xpel, I would not use the dealer for that. If you think you might want it, research it thoroughly ahead of time them select a detailer/installer who does it for a living and really knows the product and installation procedure and will stand behind it. A car dealer only does that stuff on the side infrequently. The maintenance upgrades they sell now cover lots of things that, up until a couple of years ago, used to be included in the 4 year maintenance coverage. The key thing is brakes. If you believe you'll go through them during the coverage period, consider it. On my 2010 535xi I had brakes covered for 4 years, then bought an extension for another two. But by the time I sold my car nine years and 46,000 miles later, the original front and rear pads still had 15,000 miles on them. Not such a good investment. When I picked up my car in November the F&I guy didn't even bother to try to sell me anything because he knew I worked there before. --Bob