[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by Polo08816

Again, this is true if the root cause was a Genuine BMW part that failed and caused a cascading set of expensive failures afterwards. BMW may inquire about your maintenance and documentation.

If your non-Genuine BMW part was the root cause of the failure and caused a cascading set of expensive failures afterwards, BMW is not financially liable for any of that. That's the risk you're taking with non-Genuine BMW parts and it's up to you to decide whether the savings is worth it.

BMW is not certifying each and every product that some supplier claims as "BMW compatible".

As for warranty and maintenance, I purchased the extended BMW Platinum 5 year / 100k mile warranty. Maintenance only lasted for the new car warranty period. Other than that, the extended warranty was well worth it's price. I've had some big jobs done under that extended warranty such as a transmission replacement, oil pan gasket replacement (need to lower front subframe), etc.

I would only use a OEM part if it was reasonable to believe that if the part were defective, resulting damage would be limited and easy to diagnose and the savings were worth it.

I don't think that's the case with a Genuine BMW oil filter versus a BMW compatible oil filter. It's a $2-3 savings per oil filter. If your car lasts 200,000 miles and you're doing an oil filter change every 5,000 miles, you're only saving $120 through the entire life of the car by going with an OEM non BMW branded oil filter. The savings is not worth my time for that particular part.

Originally Posted by kern417

Man, you can go on believing that. I told you I worked for an OEM and a supplier. No matter how much you think it doesn't work like that, it does. There is no point to buying OEM. The only reason people do is because they are stuck in a mindset like yours or they just don't know that there are other options. BMW is REQUIRED BY LAW to support other options so that it is more fair to the consumer. All you really need is appropriate paperwork and receipts to show that you followed the recommended maintenance. There are virtually 0 parts that only have 1 option for use. Everything from tires to fluids to suspension to powertrain.

Look at it another way. What really wouldn't make sense is BMW allowing other companies to make parts to their design and with their tooling to undercut their sales on OEM parts. If they weren't required by law, they would be suing and shutting down all of the companies selling parts with their part numbers.

If you still don't believe me, that's up to you. But I'm presenting facts man. They got one thing right on this one, so I would hope more people would want to be aware. But ultimately our free maintenance seems to coincide with the warranty period more or less, so there is little to no reason to pay for either option under warranty.

BMW doesn't warranty the performance of non-OEM parts nor any associated damage from the use thereof. I think you two are talking about different things.