[sn3rd]

Please bear with me; I haven't read and posted in a while. Hopefully this hasn't been answered already, and if it has please feel free to link me to the relevant thread.

tl;dr : My car is nearing the end of motor plan; should I extend the motor plan or not. If I don't extend the motor plan I need to find someone trustworthy to repair and service the car; anyone know of a good place in Gauteng, South Africa? Finally, what are the most expensive items to repair/replace on the car when they fail?

I'm now +/- 65 000 km into the motor plan for my car, and I have only had a single service! Although the service indicator sent me to a dealership a few times, they inspected and told me that the indicator seemed to have gotten it wrong and sent me away without a service. Eventually a service was done at about 60 000 km.

Based on the above experience, it stands to reason that unless I really thrash the car I might not get another service out of BMW before the 100 000 km motor plan expires, and I had a thought that perhaps I should extend it. I'm pretty sure I'll reach the mileage limit before the time limit, which complicates things because the cost to extend mileage is far higher than extending time. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I've also been thinking that, because I enjoy the car so much, I don't envisage the need to upgrade any time soon and I'd ideally like to keep the car after 100 000 km (extended motor plan or not). What is the general feel for doing this; does anyone on the forum actually do this or do you usually trade in for another model that is still within the motor plan?

Of course, keeping the car out of motor plan means that I would likely need to gain a few contacts in the after-market service and repair area, and friends have suggested that I get involved in some local forums (www.bmwfanatics.co.za for example) to get introduced. What are your experiences from non-BMW services and repairs?

Is the vehicle reasonably easy for non-BMW technicians to service and repair most things?

Finally, assuming failures will eventually occur, what are the most expensive items that can fail on this car, and how much do they typically cost to have repaired?

Thanks for reading; looking forward to hearing your thoughts.