[wanwan]

I'm finally picking up my MSport Pro tomorrow and the sales folks at the dealer are trying to sell me an array of options including:
- Service Plan (£400 for 4 years)
- Gap Insurance
- Smart insurance (for dents and scratches)
- Wheel and tyre damage insurance

I'm curious what others are doing around these options.

I suppose the gap, smart and wheel ones are down to you and your luck.. but Is anyone finding the service plan to be good value - or have thoughts on the others?

[JAV64]

Gap insurance is worth having I would say but the others, well that is up to you. Regarding the servicing plan I don't think its worth it esepecially if you are just looking to keep the car for 4 years. There is not much to service unlike a ICE model. Mine is fully maintained and that includes the servicing and also and the tyres. It covers any failure in parts. That cost me £432 per annum. one tyre damage could pay for nearly half that cost. It's more than what you have quoted but it's covered so one can be a little relaxed.

[King of Ping]

I would get the Gap here, be half the price, used them about five times.

https://www.ala.co.uk/index?sv_tax1=...4aAnokEALw_wcB

Wouldn’t bother with the rest

[SneakySimon13]

On my previous car, I took out everything but the Smart Insurance had so many rules - length of scratch, depth of scratch, numbef of panels etc - out of maybe 6 or 7 scratches at the end of my 4 year agreement, onky about 2 scratches were covered!!

Gap insurance 100% get this.

[GDEvans]

Remember that the dealer is probably making as much selling these as they are selling the car.

I agree with the gap insurance. That will cover any shortfall on what is owed on the PCP in the event of a write-off. But shop around, as you can probably get the same cover cheaper.

I had the alloy wheel cover through the dealer on a previous car, but that was a sports car with particularly low profile tyres. When I sold the car it had 4 beautifully ground wheels thanks to the insurance policy, and looked fantastic. However, the iX3 has chunkier tyres, so probably (hopefully) less likely to kerb the wheels. It was cheaper than paying to have 2 wheels refurbed.

[keninuk]

Originally Posted by wanwan

I'm finally picking up my MSport Pro tomorrow and the sales folks at the dealer are trying to sell me an array of options including:
- Service Plan (£400 for 4 years)
- Gap Insurance
- Smart insurance (for dents and scratches)
- Wheel and tyre damage insurance

I'm curious what others are doing around these options.

I suppose the gap, smart and wheel ones are down to you and your luck.. but Is anyone finding the service plan to be good value - or have thoughts on the others?

Looks like they are giving you the time they have to give you from telling you about GAP insurance to you buying the GAP insurance. This changed back in 2015 to stop dealers pouncing on customers at the time of purchase!

Feel free to read - Might help if you can't sleep with the heat at the moment.
Full details here: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/policy/ps15-13.pdf
Summary: https://www.specialistautomotivefina...urance-1.html/

I would agree with having gap insurance and definitely not from the dealer. I went with the replacement vehicle (4yr) from ALA rather than just the return to invoice. It is a slightly higher price but the vehicle is already just over £3,000 more expensive than what is on my iX3 invoice due to the two price rises since last October.

I have not had to claim through ALA but they seem to be well recommended and were very good when I changed address and issued a new policy document with no admin fee.

I agree on the luck part with the gap/wheels/dents and tend to insure myself for any wheel/dent or scratch damage and pay as I go for any repairs. My view is that over the longer time with average luck I should be better off and particularly with bodywork you are limited to what they can fix using their smart repair technique. The terms and conditions tend to put me off on a lot of these things and there is often a maximum amount they will pay and unlike the amount I could lose with gap insurance these limits are sometimes not that high and you can basically work out what odds you need to beat based on the premium vs claim limit.

Not taking out a service plan as it should only need one service after two years if I change at 3.

[ThreeXi]

Hello,

I would echo what other thread contributors have said, especially highlighting that not all GAP insurance products are the same.

I had some recent experience of this when I went along to our nearest BMW dealership with my wife, to help sort our paperwork before collecting her BMW. The sales person did the usual trying to sell extras as you describe, including GAP insurance. The sales person described the product as if it "helps protect you from losing out financially if your BMW is written off". Well, that's only really a half truth in my opinion now because you are still losing out. My wife, who works on contracts day in day out for a living, pointed out to me after why she rejected the product offered by BMW, that the product is invoice protection, not asset protection because it only covers back to invoice price in the event of a total loss.

So for example, if you haggled a good deal and paid/financed £58,000 for an iX3 during the 3.9% APR promotion campaign a while back, then god forbid the car got written off resulting in a GAP insurance payout, it'll cover the shortfall within the £58,000, but it won't be enough to get you back in the same car you purchased, as an iX3 is now £62,000 on a 5.9% APR deal. So you'll have to find at least another £4,000 to get you into the same car now.

I probably haven't explained that well, but I hope it shows that it is really worth shopping around and looking through the weasel words in the terms to see if its worth it for your personal circumstances.

Many thanks,

[wanwan]

Thanks all - really appreciate the thoughts and tips!

[Mobeam]

I'm finally picking up my MSport Pro tomorrow and the sales folks at the dealer are trying to sell me an array of options including:
- Service Plan (£400 for 4 years)
- Gap Insurance
- Smart insurance (for dents and scratches)
- Wheel and tyre damage insurance

Had my IX3 since April 2022. Took out a Tyre and Alloy cover via Gap website at the time of purchase.
Last month manged to kerb New side front wheel whilst reversing.
Guy came within 5 days and after a fair amount of sanding, rubbing, masking and painting can't see any damage and good as new. I am covered for 4 wheels per annum both Tyre and Alloys. Due to the weight of the car my thoughts were to include Tyres should they be damaged or blow out etc...and one tyre claim only would balance out the cost of cover.