. . . or really free maintenance. However it's called, whether it's the BMW plan, Audi's plan or the old MB plan, the cost of maintenance was built in to the purchase preice of the car. You either pay up front, or pay over time. No one is giving anything away in the car business.

Of course, dealerships prefer not having the plans, because walk-in rates are far higher than manufacturer rates.

While it's nice to have the plan (I'll admit it) I can say with absolute confidence that if I absolutely went crazy for an MB (without the plan)or the 5 series (I really wanted to like it- I loved my E39), I would without hesitation go that route. I decided on an A6 because I liked the A6 best, compared to the MB E class, and 5 Series. I bought the car, not the pre-paid oil changes.

Maybe the C6 doesn't eat them, but the C5 has a definite warpage issue--that was nice because you'd get new rotors when the crap OEMs warped.

Not fun driving people around in then a 40k+ car and your passengers can feel your car shimmy when braking.

I had a 4 year lease on my 2002 A6 2.7T. During the course of the lease (43,000 miles) I went through 2 sets of brake pads (all four) and one set of front rotors. The total expense to me would have been close to 2,000 if I had not had the FULL maintenance program on the 2002s.
I don't look forward to having to pay for brakes on my new 2006 A6, when the time comes. The oil changes and small maitenance stuf is "nice" on the 2006 maintenance program -- but the real maintenance expense (besides tires) is the brakes. And of course that was eliminated from the program in 2003 I think.

When the plan is included, there's a culture created in the service department that no customer in warranty ever dishes out a penny. So there's a bias to providing you with more service not less.

If you prepay for the plan, you are prepaying the DEALER, not AOA, so they are incented to not cover you with the hopes that you WILL pay out of pocket for some things. And since there are many customers without a prepaid plan, there is a culture of extracting revenue from customers in place.

they make more money doing so compared to the stingy reimburstment from the factory for complimentary services.