E30 Zone

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It's not a write-off, but that door's had it. A shame, because Calypso is a great colour.

That sucks, looks like a lovely car.
Wing and door shouldn't be a problem to source, alloys maybe an issue if they are not declared to your insurance company.

The damage is not bad and would all repair if it had to, the problem you may have is that if the insurance company insist on genuine parts etc etc it may write the vehicle off.

My uncle owns a bodyshop and has been dealing with insurance companies for years work for years and you can never completely guess which way they will go. If they do write it off you can buy it back from the insurance company.

What part of the country are you in, i'm sure old my uncle would be happy to glance an eye over it and tell you excatly how much the damage will cost to put right, so you know if the insurance company are playing fair.

As you'd be claiming directly against his insurers any mods, declared or not won't make any difference.

Get on the blower to his insurers and see what they have to say about it all. If they have any sense they will take you under their wing and sort out repairs or a write off settlement. It's much cheaper for them to look after you rather than have you going to a claims management company.

Get a repair estimate done for it from a garage you want to use.

E30beemerlad is our 'Man in the Know' about insurance

i think it might get writen off, my mate had a bump and was only the wing it was not bad at all they still write it off.

think it has somthing to with the age of the car and the price to fix and sadly in there eye its not worth it.

i think you can buy the car back and then you can fix it your self .

well my mate got to buy his car back when they write it off, he told me he only payed £80 and got the cash from his claim as well.

Looking at the damage if you can source the trim pieces off here (adit) The door and rear could be repaired. Wheel looks to be fooked but some wheel suppliers can get single wheels so youd be looking at about £100 for the wheel + tyre.

My mum just had a similar bump going in her drive. Got a local bodyshop to do the repair cash and it came to £170. Her's is a 09 Jazz so easier to match the paint as less fading. Going on her excess being £150 and the local honda bodyshop quoting £2600 for the repair if through insurance it was a no brainer. Too many bodyshops will only fit new parts instead of repairing these days that explains why folks insurance is so expensive.

Your too far away to get the body shopshe used but getting a few quotes from small independants that dont do much insurance work should get you a good price.

personally i think thatll be a write off .possibly buy it back and repair yourself .

E30BeemerLad wrote:As you'd be claiming directly against his insurers any mods, declared or not won't make any difference.

Get on the blower to his insurers and see what they have to say about it all. If they have any sense they will take you under their wing and sort out repairs or a write off settlement. It's much cheaper for them to look after you rather than have you going to a claims management company.

Get a repair estimate done for it from a garage you want to use.

This is Lee's (E30beemerlad) day job. Listen to his advice and you'll not go wrong.

Agree with what fuzzy's saying..almost identical to what happened to my bro's car. They wrote it off...having said that, it can differ, insurance company to insurance company..

Defo get some quotes tho..

Good luck..

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I had this with the transit just before Xmas, it was hit by a Royal Mail van, and the insurers contacted me directly to sort it out.
It was quick, under a week and all is new again.
Keep an eye out for all the "Ambulance Chasers" looking to get some action.

doesnt look too bad, for what its worth it would be a new wing rather than repair, and door if you can get one,although your door ideally needs to be kept as it will be red/original color underneath and inside etc, but then that will mean pulling it out, lots of filler etc, so youd want to use someone good, or jackpot would be to find another calypso door to use, and then re paint the whole side of the car will be needed, maybe you could argue the whole car could need re painting to make it all look how it was and not odd

youd ideally want to prevent the car from being "written off" even if you do get that and keep it, it will then be on the cars data as CAT C write off or whatever it is... so like above if you can just get cash from his insurers and/or it fixed quickly, then do it

Sadly i am going to say its a write off and will probably be a cat d write off.
The insurance company will normally repair a car if it costs less than a certain percentage of their book value.

In this case it needs a new door or door skin,whichever is cheaper,possibily a new wing,a new alloy,new side skirt and rubber strips down the side.Add to that a full side respray and possible blend into bonnet or boot lid and it gets really expensive.

polsta wrote:it would be a new wing rather than repair, and door if you can get one,although your door ideally needs to be kept as it will be red/original color underneath and inside etc, but then that will mean pulling it out, lots of filler etc, so youd want to use someone good, or jackpot would be to find another calypso door to use, and then re paint the whole side of the car will be needed, maybe you could argue the whole car could need re painting to make it all look how it was and not odd

You do know they will paint the whole door if its new?
So there is no reason to keep an old damaged door.

There is also no way an insurance company would agree to respray a whole car at a cost of £2000 when a £1000 side paint will do lol.

The insurance will write it off for sure, imo if you going the insurance way swap back to standard wheels asap, you saved £500 on your insurance by not declaring, bite the bullet and fork out for a new wheel, you'll still be in the profit!

In my opinion even though the accident was not your fault i would avoid insurance, especially if you know someone in the trade that will do a good job, parts are cheap, Used door and pattern wing + paint your looking at about £300 for average jo, thats before you blag any discount/find a cheaper door and wing.

Try blag some cash out the other guy, as he clearly does not want to claim as his insurance will rocket too.

No Pattern wings for a cabby I belive as they are deeper than the other models and they are NLA from the steelers, so would either be a repair or replacement second hand.

Dezzy wrote:This is Lee's (E30beemerlad) day job. Listen to his advice and you'll not go wrong.

An ordinary saloon wing can be converted to a cab. wing, using the lower piece from the damaged wing.
There is a spot welded join in a cab. wing, which is hidden by the extra piece of rubbing strip.

E30BeemerLad wrote:As you'd be claiming directly against his insurers any mods, declared or not won't make any difference.

Get on the blower to his insurers and see what they have to say about it all. If they have any sense they will take you under their wing and sort out repairs or a write off settlement. It's much cheaper for them to look after you rather than have you going to a claims management company.

Get a repair estimate done for it from a garage you want to use.

This^^^^^^^^^^

On a positive note, I have an excellent door and I am local !

That’s going to be a write off matey, I’ve seen far newer more valuable cars get written off for less damage.

Brianmoooore wrote:

Dezzy wrote:This is Lee's (E30beemerlad) day job. Listen to his advice and you'll not go wrong.

An ordinary saloon wing can be converted to a cab. wing, using the lower piece from the damaged wing.
There is a spot welded join in a cab. wing, which is hidden by the extra piece of rubbing strip.

I did this!

welded it bihind the side trim so you would never know

Cabby wings are £150 from the dealers? or they were 2 years ago.

I brought a decent one off b7 last year but still running on the welded one as thers nothing wrong with it!

i had a very similar crash 2 yrs ago similar damage as well and mine got wrote off but cat c'd and when they paid out i got to keep the car and i got a nice lump sum to basically rebuild me car as well .......

Anyway here are some pics that I just took off my phone, of the car literally two weeks ago when I had the new wheels put on:

Nice car, could do with rolling the arches if your fitting tyres that are that wide. However, sorry to hear about your incident. The damage doesn't look too bad - it'll t-cut and polish out!....... Just thought I'd try to cheer you up, matey!

CRIKEY! I have not heard so much rubbish from people who have no idea for a long time.

This happened to me, a woman at work reversed into the drivers door of my e30. It is a TOTALLY different ball game from claiming off your own insurer. The ball is in your park so to say as they have to rectify the damage done by THEIR insured driver.

I simply told them that my car was a classic that I had restored and there was no way it was being written off, I wanted it repaired fully. No problem they say, we'll sort it.

As a door skin was not available from BMW, they paid for a complete door from BMW and for it to be sprayed to match. I think from memory they told me the bare door was £500ish, or somewhere there abouts and the paint job by a top paint shop was exemplary. I had a courtesy car while it was happening and it took about 4 days for me to get my car back in A1 condition.

As already stated by beemerlad, the claim is not against your insurance at all, so it makes no difference what is declared or not, although you should declare everything to them as they will always get you in the end otherwise.

Difficult, but I think you should probably declare the incident to your insurers, as they will hang you up to dry if they get wind that you haven't! pita!

Oh, and if they try any balls about putting your premium up until they get proof that it is not your fault, don't let them get away with it, that is complete rubbish. You pay a premium for a year, the premium does not change until renewal, and this would be sorted by then so no issue!

My insurer tried that with me, and I told them to get stuffed, when they wouldn't listen I requested it be taken to the insurance ombudsman and they immediately admitted they shouldn't have tried to charge me more, it was an 'error' apparently!

I had similar happen to me with my first E30 a few years ago; a van driver pulled out of an alleyway into the driver's side, stoving in the driver's door and lightly scraping the front wing like yours.

I got several estimates from repair shops, and eventually agreed on a value - my insurance co. gave me the cheque, and I sourced a replacement door, fitted and resprayed it myself for a couple of hundred quid. Made quite a nice profit in the end!

The front wing damage, and even the door looks relatively easily repairable on yours - it's amazing what some bodyshops can do with dent pullers, Portapower hydraulic rams, etc.

mattycoops43 wrote:CRIKEY! I have not heard so much rubbish from people who have no idea for a long time.

This happened to me, a woman at work reversed into the drivers door of my e30. It is a TOTALLY different ball game from claiming off your own insurer. The ball is in your park so to say as they have to rectify the damage done by THEIR insured driver.

I simply told them that my car was a classic that I had restored and there was no way it was being written off, I wanted it repaired fully. No problem they say, we'll sort it.

As a door skin was not available from BMW, they paid for a complete door from BMW and for it to be sprayed to match. I think from memory they told me the bare door was £500ish, or somewhere there abouts and the paint job by a top paint shop was exemplary. I had a courtesy car while it was happening and it took about 4 days for me to get my car back in A1 condition.

As already stated by beemerlad, the claim is not against your insurance at all, so it makes no difference what is declared or not, although you should declare everything to them as they will always get you in the end otherwise.

Difficult, but I think you should probably declare the incident to your insurers, as they will hang you up to dry if they get wind that you haven't! pita!

I had a call today from the other party's insurers and they told me that their client was at fault. Therefore I shouldn't have any issues with my premiums going up due to this accident.

I had already told my insurers about the incident by the time I spoke to the other party's insurance company, so shouldn't have a problem there.

I am now going to take my car to a couple of body shops and get some estimates for the work that needs to be carried out.

I shall update on here once I have more information.

Just make sure it's a good job, and done in a decent place that offers warranty. If it goes rusty under the paint within a few months because it's done by idiots, or doesn't match, you want to be able to take it back. Normally the other insurer will specify one of their repairers though, which should be ok, as it tends to be not a back street shonky shop!

whats the guide book price for these?

fuzzy wrote:whats the guide book price for these?

Between £10 & £50 as far as insurance company's are concerned

i remember the book price on a good condition 320 touring i had was only £500 ish. that was 7 years ago as well.