Sorry to hear it.

It looks very fixable.

I'd take the time to read your policy very carefully - they owe you a repair and they don't get to decide where the repair is done. They can incentivize you to use a particular place (such as offering a guaranty, but any good shop will guaranty their work), but that's about as far is it should go.

On the other hand, what you want is a body shop that does very good work, whether they work on BMWs regularly really doesn't matter.

Good luck.

 

If it were my car, I would spend time researching the best shop (whether it was an insurance preferred shop or not). In the past I've had 2 or 3 cars get repaired by body shops of my choosing that were not preferred by insurance and the work was always top notch and included a guarantee by the shop itself.

 

First, sorry about your car =-/

Second, the reason they're saying you're not liable is cuz you didn't do anything to cause the accident; the deer hit YOU. Had you swerved to avoid hitting it, and hit a tree, landed in a ditch, etc, at THAT point, you'd be liable (they still cover you, but it's an at-fault accident, for failure to control your vehicle). Retarded, I know. But that's why you should always just hit the darn thing. And preferably head-on. Ppl typically don't die (or suffer significant injury) from hitting animals head-on. Most serious accidents occur when they attempt to swerve around it, and force a side/corner impact with either the animal (which isn't the best spot, vs hitting it head-on) or with another object (embankment, tree, ditch, etc).

Third, nothing against insurance companies, but they're in the business of making money. Period. So lemme translate what a "guaranteed body shop" translates to. They have a shop that guarantees THEM fast turnaround time and discounted prices. I'm NOT saying every guaranteed body shop is a crappy shop, but they TEND to be shops that use recycled and/or aftermarket parts (to keep costs down), won't blend as is necessary (ie will repaint just the fender and hood, vs in your case, you probably need the hood, BOTH fenders, and possibly BOTH doors repainted to blend the paint in perfectly), use bondo (vs metal glaze that will adhere to & cure to the metal, as if it was metal, vs causing an uneven poor surface), etc etc.

Your best bet is to take it to one of the high end body shops in your area, and here's the most important part. DO NOT LET the insurance company do an estimate UNTIL the car is at the shop, and IN THE PRESENCE of the body shop worker/repair guy. Why? Cuz on their own, the insurance company is gonna lowball and underestimate like CRAZY, causing you a headache and a longer turnaround time for them to go back & forth with the shop on the actual repair costs. With the body shop guy there, they'll duke it out there (no, I can't paint and blend just the fender; I need to do the door as well. No, I can't reuse that trim; I need new trim. Etc). Experienced high end body shops will know ALL about that.

AND, if the body shop is cool with you, make the check out to YOU, NOT the body shop (insurance company may not like that, but it's your RIGHT). Then you can shop around and get the parts at a discount (on the forum, from Bav Auto, etc), so you save some $$, and either pocket it, or put it toward some mods!

Just my $0.02

PS: If you're wondering where to find out about the high end shops in your area, check some of the car forums who's owners are fanatics... RX7Club, Supraforums, NSXPrime, 6speedonline, etc.

 

I'd take it to the dealer for the quote, they will get you the highest quote and thus biggest insurance check, then take it to anywhere you deem reputable enough to fix it.

Its not very hard to fix these cars, theres nothing special about these bodies in panels, in fact, they are easier to fix body damage than a lot of domestic cars. I wouldn't overthink it. Just get a comitment from whatever bodyshop you take it to that they will fix it to pre-accident appearance

 

Totally fixable, assuming OEM parts, you're looking at 3-4k parts + same for labor.

hood - $800
fender - $500
bumper - $500
headlight - $1000
tow hook cover - $32 (ok, just made that up, but sounds like what BMW would want for it. hiha)
misc - $500

labor - $2000
paint - $2000

Btw, how fast were you going?

 

Totally fixable, assuming OEM parts, you're looking at 3-4k parts + same for labor.

tow hook cover - $32 (ok, just made that up, but sounds like what BMW would want for it. hiha)

The damage looks very fixable. As others have said, I would take it to a well known shop.

Believe it or not, BMW includes the tow hook cover on new bumpers! I was surprised when i recently bought a new one.

Since OEM was on your car, fight for OEM all day.

Even get into the argument that cheap M5 bumper knock offs have possible issues and replica lights are out of the question, etc. (I'm generalizing here, some are good)
More or less that pricing. A bit more if it's a dealer quote for new.

I would probably jump for used lights since 1 new one will look awkward with the aged driver one. (OC_e39r) has a refinished set for sale. Unless you can work the insurance co for 2 new ones.

 

Thanks for all the advice! I was going 60-65mph.

At this point, it looks like I have two options:

1. take it to a certified bmw collision center in Jacksonville. This would be a three hour drive. I have a truck and trailer I can borrow. They guarantee to use all oem parts.

2. I forgot my wife's cousin has a body shop 1.5 hours from here. I could work with them and they supposedly do good work. They've been around for 40 years. My father-in-law hit a deer in his truck 10 years ago and he said he couldn't tell where their work began and ended and his truck was fairly trashed. If I get the check, it might be better to work with her cousin and source the parts myself.

I need to get the hood open the see whats going on with the shock tower and the dinan cai. The headlights were aftermarket as well. Not sure the brand as they were there when I bought it. I just happened to add a $2000 supplemental aftermarket parts addendum to the policy last week. I wanted to cover the cai/evolve tune/headlights/etc. that blue book - cash value if total loss coverage wouldn't cover.

 

Choice of shop is always yours, a good shop will warranty their work for as long as you own the car. Aftermarket parts are probably allowed since it is in your policy which you signed, but if you ask nicely the adjuster will work with you on the parts. DO NOT bring your own parts to the shop since you are taking away 20% markup from the shop, this will only sour the relationship. Kind of like bringing your own food to a restaurant. Labor rates are tightly regulated by the insurance companies and there is not much profit in the left in this business. Find a shop which you think will do the best possible job with a warranty and the shop will do whats in your best interest dealing with the insurance company.

 

Got the hood open...what do you guys think? Dinan cai is trashed and there is a crease in the wheel well.

 

So much for carbon fiber :Thumbdown:

 

I think I see a crease, but hard to tell with the dirt on the metal. New CAI setup is going to jump the bill up for sure! Has a shop or insurance estimator looked at the car yet?

 

Any shop that you take it to will have some sort of warranty on the work performed. Take it to a shop known for workmanship and insist on OEM parts.

 

I ended up going on BMW's website and saw they have certified collision centers. There is one 3 hours from me that has good reviews. They only use oem parts. I talked with the insurance company and apparently they use a points system to determine a total write off. To total a car is must have 50, or more, points. With out even looking at mine it's at 45. nice...

 

Hmm. That doesn't sound too promising. If it looks like they are going to total it and you don't want to buy it back to fix yourself, definitely give Adam (Clemster) a call. Actually you might want to talk to him soon as he can help you with interacting with the insurance company in regards to buying the car back and then selling it to him for part out.

I hope it doesn't get that far though! Good luck!

 

Sorry to hear about this man, hopefully all works well in your favor!

A few things that have worked for me in the past, they may or may not be your preference.

I ask the shop what paint they use, how many layers, how many layers of clear, how long to cure and at what temp. (I'm one of those engineer-nerds if you can't already guess.
I also ask, on the spot after the estimate, to get a tour through their shop. It gives me a good and quick idea of how their work is done. If there are parts and tools lying around here and there, I unfortunately assume that they are less meticulous than say the shop with everything in line. I guess I am anal about my cars and how I get work done on them. After all, if an artist doesn't take care of his brushes, how he is going to paint a masterpiece?

Best of luck.

 

Some of the numbers being thrown around in here are quite high. I could get that car fixed minus paint for maybe $1800 in parts... that would include reusing what parts I can (ballasts off headlights for instance and repairing bumper)

However, the crease in the wheel well may be a problem. More detailed pictures will help give a better analysis

 

For clarity, I believe most numbers thrown around are prices he might get from the insurance company as a payout and has nothing to do with the actual cost to repair his car. Also, the prices quoted for the headlight do not include a ballast, so he would have to swap that either way, unless of course it was damaged, in which case insurance co will have to pay for that as well.

As for the crease, it would be better to get a measurement from each side of the car to see how much it moved. My inner fender was pushed in about 1/4 - 3/16". I was able to straighten it myself with little more than a floor jack, rubber mallet, hammer, and a block of wood. It took about 1/2 hour to make it perfect, so if the crease isn't too bad and didn't bend too much else, a body shop should be able to straighten it for 1.0 labor.

 

If repairs go south at a non recommended shop, Insurance will blame the shop and say "You chose it, we can't do anything about it".
If repairs go south at a recommended shop, you can blame them.

They won't cover the aftermarket parts, and will (likely) replace them with ONLY OEM (or non OEM, but cheaper). That said new Dinan CAI is SoL.
That crease in wheel well is calling for a write-off. The labor for proper fix for that appears massive.

If the crease does not technically impair safety/handling/etc, then:
Find a most reputable shop around, recommended or not, or even semi-far away, as long as they do quality work.

I've had M5Board recommended shop do a total hack job on my car in terms of paint and mechanical and same happened at a insurance recommended shop.
Doesn't look like you got a lot of mechanical issues, just body work, that said find the best local body shop that does quality body repairs.

If you had more mechanical issues from accident, I'd advise to search far and hard, these standard body shops have no clue how these cars are put together and even if they use RealOEM or some other parts software, they have no idea what they are doing, and if you need the car properly assembled, chances are you know it better than they do. In my case, everything was a hack job at 3x different body shops. I lost a good deal of faith in humanity with body shops.

On another note, unless you LOVE you car as much as you need air, I'd have them write it off and take the cash. When write-off happens, make sure they pay you fairly by showing them what your car costs at market value, because they're "paying for replacement of vehicle" *, not "how much they'd like to pay you on planet Fairytale".

*After market parts not included in replacement unless extra clause to insure those was previously added on insurance

 

It looks like anthracite cars are in trouble lately, my car was hit in very similar manner - $8,500 dollars later she is back on the road.

Unfortunately it is a very close call for you because of the "crease", also I can't see on the pictures if gap between fender and door has been affected...

In your case Insurance will make a decision basis on the mileage and overall condition before the accident.

Good luck, you will need it!

 

I'm hauling it to a shop tomorrow. It's bmw certified and a progressive authorized shop. I do have a $2k additional equipment clause I just happened to add a week before this happened. Should cover cai, headlights, etc.

The passenger door won't open properly due to fender push in.

I'll update as soon as I hear something. Thanks again.

 

Insurance Valuation for Vehicles

Check my post, #74, on vehicle valuation.

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e3...5-e52-z8-discussion/173019-crashed-2000-m5-what-do-you-think-8.html#post2036669

 

I wanted to give an update as it looks like I'll be leaving the M5 community for awhile. Progressive totaled the car and the buy back was $6k. This I felt was too much. Especially, since the car had a previous accident. They did give me 16k for the car which had 135k. I only paid 17k for it. I did have to dispute some of their initial grading regarding various aspects of the car's quality and find better comps as they seemed to just grab whatever was for sale within 300 miles. All in all I'm very sad to see the car go but am glad I received fair compensation.

Thank you to everyone, for everything, over the years. Take care!

 

Called it! Insurance companies are scam artists. Glad you got fair value after a fight. Still, I'm surprised the car was totaled. Repairs were more than 8k?

 

Post your VIN so folks may find this in a google search.

One comment-no need to use "BMW Collision centers"...IMO they dont necessarily do exceptional work- indeed, most new BMW buyers are idiots when it comes to paint quality. Just use a good shop and control the work. Tell them you want OE parts. Just because the shop says "we only use OE(M) parts" does not mean progressive (or any insurer) will pay it. The shop will says "cost is $12K", the insurer will say "your policy will pay $7k", and YOU wind up paying 5k.

Finally Progressive is the bottom of the barrel. Horrible. In fact my local BMW dealer will NOT give you a BMW loaner if Progressive is your insurnance. You get a hertz local edition. Why? "The are impossible to deal with" per my Service Manager

And do tell me you waited for them to give you a number based on all their comps and THEN hit them for the Dinan parts/upgrades....

 

Talking to the Clemster in his driveway he allowed that he really likes buying wrecked cars from the owner, and not from auction. Seems like a win for the owner, and a win for your (future former BMW community!

Some of the wrecks in his shop are amazing. These are incredibly well designed cars that absorb a lot of damage to protect the owner.