I recently purchased a pre-owned '02 X5, and was offered a prepaid maintenance/service plan, that would cover all scheduled maintenance up to 100k miles. The vehicle currently has 34k miles, so this would provide me with "free" service for the next 66k miles. The price quoted for this was $1,450.

Can anyone give me an opinion as to whether this is a good deal. What would be the expected cost of scheduled maintenance during this time period. Thanks for your help.

As a general rule, used car warranty is a good thing. A warranty that also includes maintenance is a real good thing. We have a consumer advocate talk radio show here in Atlanta with a guy named Clark Howard. He's the cheapest person I know of (he is my hero) and he says NEVER buy an extended warranty on anything EXCEPT a car.

As a reference point, my 93 325i had 100k on it when I got it, and now it has 130k. In the last 3 years, I have spent $1700 on maintenance and repairs, including Koni Shocks and 17" tires. I also do my own labor, so you could easily double my number. I would assume your newer vehicle would need about the same money from a maintenance standpoint and less money from a repair standpoint, so factor that in as well.

Also, look at what it covers. Make sure they aren't leaving out anything that could get really expensive. If you could post a little bit more info regarding what it covers, that could help. From what you say so far however, it sounds like a decent deal.

Yeah, but this isn't a warranty that includes maintenance, is it? I think it's JUST a maintenance plan...

BMW's have "Inspection I" and "Inspection II" every 15 and 30 thousand miles... so figure you'll go thru 2 rounds of each... find out what they charge for those individually, add it up, if it's more, good deal, if not, bad deal... I'm assuming this is not covering consumables like tires/shocks/brakes?