Insurance low balling me on my 135i! Help!

[bmanfactor916]

Hey guys,

I own a 2008 135i with 110k miles.

Car has M Sport package and red interior.

Car has 10k in aftermarket parts. FBO, e85 tune, exterior parts, etc..

About 2 months ago I rear ended another car going around 20 mph. My steering wheel airbag and passenger side skirt airbag went off. Insurance says my car is totaled, and for the past 2 months ive been going back and forth with them trying to figure out a settlement number.

They're offering me $11,200.

I feel like the car is worth a little more. I will include a couple of pictures of my car before the accident and after the accident.

Basically, asking for help, to see if anyone has sold their 135i recently that i can use as a comparable vehicle. Or anything that could help me out. I can make a complete aftermarket parts list if needed.

Thanks



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[low135]

Couple things, first being that the price is probably very accurate sans the mods. I just bought my 08 135i with 31k miles for $14k. Second, what does your policy say about mods to the car? Are they covered? And if so, did you have to claim them before? This will vary greatly between companies and even regions with the same company.

[bmanfactor916]

Originally Posted by low135

Couple things, first being that the price is probably very accurate sans the mods. I just bought my 08 135i with 31k miles for $14k. Second, what does your policy say about mods to the car? Are they covered? And if so, did you have to claim them before? This will vary greatly between companies and even regions with the same company.

My policy unfortunately does not cover mods. However, i sent them all my receipts of my parts and they're giving me $1,200 for ~10k of parts.

[low135]

Originally Posted by bmanfactor916

My policy unfortunately does not cover mods. However, i sent them all my receipts of my parts and they're giving me $1,200 for ~10k of parts.

Well, they didn't even have to do that, honestly. Some are better than others. Geico has coveted a TON of mods on my other car including full air ride and replacement 3 piece forged wheels. All depends on your policy.

Having said that, sounds like that's about where you're gonna land.

[Esteban]

Beautiful car, OP. Too bad about the accident.

[chris_flies]

Honestly, you could probably just fix the damage if it isn't too extensive. Airbags aren't too too expensive, and it looks like you just need a bumper, hood, grilles, and headlight brackets...

That'd be ~$3000, though probably more, as I suspect there's other damage...

Sad about the car, it's a beauty...

[adobeee]

Sorry to hear about this. But depending on your policy, most insurance companies do not care about the value of mods. They care about what the base value of the car is to do their math.

[rowsdower]

There is truth to the statement - "You don't get back your mods."

You don't get back what you put into the car when you resell it, and you don't get it back if the car is totaled (assuming you have a policy that does not cover mods, like yours). You have to consider mods to basically be expenses that are gone as soon as you place the order.

Can you buy back the car and part out your mods or remove them to install on a different 135i, then sell the salvage car? Or just fix up the salvage car and drive the wheels off it?

[smrtypants44]

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...odelCode1=135I

Im not sure which packages your car has but this one has a bit less miles, but no nav or premium package for $15k. Might be able to use that to get them up a couple grand.

[xQx]

Yeah. Insurance companies are cunts. I didn't have agreed value on my E43 4.8is and it resulted in me getting paid about $10k less than what it was worth.

It was a specific problem with the 4.8is - loads of 4.4i sales get booked up as 4.8is, so their sales guide said it was worth far less than you could actually buy one for. Mine was mint condition with extremely low km's on the clock (35k miles on a 10 year old car) when I wrote it off, and I got paid $5k less than the cheapest beat-up one was being advertised for nationwide.

Then, to top it off, they take out the full year's policy price (because I was about 2 months into what I though was a month-to-month policy), and they cash in your rego ($500 in Australia) and keep that for themselves. Add that on to the excess ($250 - $500) So right off the bat you're at least $2,500 down.

Cunts.

The moral of the story: Agree value policies only.

Market value works if you've got a stock standard Mazda 3 with heaps of miles on the clock. ... basically only for cars that you shouldn't have full comp insurance on to begin with.

Now, none of this 'woe is me, I feel your pain brother' story helps you, so here's something that might:

Sorry; but in all likelihood you're fucked. I'd be asking them two options:
1) What they will write it off for and sell you the wreck for so you can part it out yourself.
2) Ask if you can cancel the claim, keep the excess and have this written from the car's record, and you'll fix it at your own expense.

The problem is now it's probably marked nationwide as a write-off, which makes that vehicle worth about 50% less than it was worth if you'd taken it straight to a panel repair place.

[zx10guy]

They totaled your car over that? Granted I don't know how much air bags are to replace and how insurance views a situation where they've been deployed.

I just had my car repaired by State Farm from a front end collision involving Bambi. The total repair bill was $6500. The price was inflated because my body shop was able to get factory OE parts for everything except the condensor coil which I was ok with. The major parts that were obtained new/factory OE were the front bumper with grills (all grills on the bumper and the kidney grills), radiator core support, and both LCI adaptive xenon headlights.

I'll dig up the picture I took of my front end damage which isn't that far off from yours. The body shop did have to repair the engine hood as there were a couple of dents/folds along the front edge from Bambi.

[xQx]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

They totaled your car over that? Granted I don't know how much air bags are to replace and how insurance views a situation where they've been deployed.

I can only speak for Australian insurance companies, but I can explain why they've totaled it.

First, in Australia at least, Airbags going off almost always immediately means write-off. It's an easy test for them about the energy in the impact and even though airbags aren't expensive to replace, if they've gone off, there's the potential for undetected structural damage. I means insurance company repairers will add a lot of extra margin to account for damage they find while doing the repair.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but this is the 'rule of thumb'.

Second, is economic. They calculate market value of your car (or just look at the agreed value on the policy). They take heaps of photos of the car, and have a mechanic it's been landed at assess a repair and quote a repair job that includes lifetime warranty of the repair on the repairer (so the risk is totally on the repairer to do the job right the first time.). They get their quote and send it around town to see if anyone else wants to flatbed your car to their shop and do it cheaper. This gives them the repair cost.

Now, they get the photos of your car and send it around to their entire network of wreckers and auctioneers. They get a price that someone's willing to pay for your wreck.

The insured value minus the price someone will pay for your wreck is called the write-off cost.

Put simply, if the write-off cost is less than the repair cost, it's called a "repairable write off" or "economic write off".

Which means, the car might still be safe and can be repaired to be driven again, but it's going to cost the insurance company less to write it off than it is for them to repair it.

So, given the car is in otherwise mint condition and has a load of mods which could be parted out and sold individually, I'll bet they've got a good wholesale offer from someone to buy your wreck.

[Matticus91]

This is an easy call man, take the $11k and fix it yourself. I can tell from that damage there's nothing seriously wrong with it. Had a similar collision myself about a year ago and they paid over 9k to fix it. 100% that much because of the cost of new OEM parts and BMW labor.

Do the work yourself and use used/aftermarket parts and you'll be able to pocket a huge chunk of that cash.

Here's a thread I made detailing my crash http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1364501

[xQx]

Originally Posted by Matticus91

This is an easy call man, take the $11k and fix it yourself.

If you take the $11k, the insurance company owns the wreck.

But I couldn't agree more Matticus91 ... that car is just BEGGING to get a 1m front end and a Sebion hood.

[F13.KENN]

Originally Posted by chris_flies

Honestly, you could probably just fix the damage if it isn't too extensive. Airbags aren't too too expensive, and it looks like you just need a bumper, hood, grilles, and headlight brackets...

That'd be ~$3000, though probably more, as I suspect there's other damage...

Sad about the car, it's a beauty...

Agreed with this. $3k would be very generous though. I bought my 1er salvaged with more damage in the front than yours & the same airbags deployed as yours and id say it took about $2.7k to get mine back on the road WITH preventative maintenance costs but we did just took the airbags off of an e90 parts car we had and other little stuff to save money


Also looks like your impact was above the impact bar like how mine was so thats a plus!

[zx10guy]

Here's a pic of my front end damage from the deer strike:

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by xQx

I can only speak for Australian insurance companies, but I can explain why they've totaled it.

First, in Australia at least, Airbags going off almost always immediately means write-off. It's an easy test for them about the energy in the impact and even though airbags aren't expensive to replace, if they've gone off, there's the potential for undetected structural damage. I means insurance company repairers will add a lot of extra margin to account for damage they find while doing the repair.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but this is the 'rule of thumb'.

Second, is economic. They calculate market value of your car (or just look at the agreed value on the policy). They take heaps of photos of the car, and have a mechanic it's been landed at assess a repair and quote a repair job that includes lifetime warranty of the repair on the repairer (so the risk is totally on the repairer to do the job right the first time.). They get their quote and send it around town to see if anyone else wants to flatbed your car to their shop and do it cheaper. This gives them the repair cost.

Now, they get the photos of your car and send it around to their entire network of wreckers and auctioneers. They get a price that someone's willing to pay for your wreck.

The insured value minus the price someone will pay for your wreck is called the write-off cost.

Put simply, if the write-off cost is less than the repair cost, it's called a "repairable write off" or "economic write off".

Which means, the car might still be safe and can be repaired to be driven again, but it's going to cost the insurance company less to write it off than it is for them to repair it.

So, given the car is in otherwise mint condition and has a load of mods which could be parted out and sold individually, I'll bet they've got a good wholesale offer from someone to buy your wreck.

I understand the possible reason with an automatic write off with air bags deployed. But using that as a blanket measure of impact energy is fool hardy in my opinion.

I've had two other front end collisions with the same car which had no air bag deployment. It was in my 2006 Focus ZX3. Not a large car by any measure. One incident was a head on collision with some fool who was paying more attention to her cell phone than driving. We hit at about 30 MPH; her speed and mine. None of my air bags deployed with that impact. The collision was bad enough were not only was the front end in need of replacement, but so was the driver's side wheel, strut assembly and the lower control arm.

Same car a while later. Hit a deer doing about 30 to 40. Hit it hard enough where I launched that deer clear over the hood of my car and off to the left side. This collision was the final straw in getting that car totaled. But again no air bags deployed. And I suspect had my car had much less miles on it, there might be a chance it would have been repaired. The car at that time had about 170,000 miles.

Also, my experience at least with State Farm is they will only total the car if repairs exceed about 70 to 75% of the market value of the car. This is without the discussion of any air bag deployments.

[bmanfactor916]

Originally Posted by xQx

If you take the $11k, the insurance company owns the wreck.

But I couldn't agree more Matticus91 ... that car is just BEGGING to get a 1m front end and a Sebion hood.

I already have a brand new Seibon carbon hood that was waiting to be put on lol. Along with the n55 taillights.

[bmanfactor916]

Thanks for all the input guys. Much appreciated. I think i will take the cash and fix her up.

[Matticus91]

Originally Posted by bmanfactor916

Thanks for all the input guys. Much appreciated. I think i will take the cash and fix her up.

Just be ready to pay a premium on the buy-back, always prep for the worst on this.

If you think the buy-back amount isn't reasonable, go shopping on copart!

[bmanfactor916]

Originally Posted by Matticus91

Just be ready to pay a premium on the buy-back, always prep for the worst on this.

If you think the buy-back amount isn't reasonable, go shopping on copart!

I briefly spoke with insurance. It sounds like buy back will be around $1,600.

[Matticus91]

Originally Posted by bmanfactor916

I briefly spoke with insurance. It sounds like buy back will be around $1,600.

That's a steal man, take that $11k and go for it. Just check your state law on salvage titles and make sure it won't be a nightmare to get it titled for the road again. But even still, if you couldn't street title it I'd probably buy it back and make it a track car and buy a DD with whatever is left lol.