A friend of the family owns a garage and said he would do the work for me and the car was quite welcome to stay in the garage until it was repaired. I decided that since the E30 M3 is a classic vehicle I would take out classic insurance with AON as I would not be driving the vehicle and I could get the vehicle covered full comp for under Ԛ£340.00 as no one else that I tried would insure the vehicle due to it being left hand drive which I found strange as I know I am not the only person in the UK with a E30 M3. I decided to get the ICE sorted straight away as the car was still drivable which consisted of three Screens, DVD player, Pioneer head unit, Playstation 1, Pioneer changer, Kenwoood EQ, x 2 15 inch Kicker square subs, Directed 1100d amp, x 2 Rockford Fosgate Amps and a Clifford alarm (see picture below), so that when all the engine work was done the car would be complete and ready for the road.
I informed the insurance company of the garage my car would be parked in to meet with the terms and conditions of the policy and they gave me a 3000 miles limit for the year. A year and a half went by the parts arrived, 8 months for the gearbox and loads of excuses, and the clutch and oil cooler we ended up getting locally. The first gear in the gearbox was gone so you could still drive the car but had to give loads of acceleration to pull off (probably why the clutch used to stick) but this was all solved.
I kept the car in the mechanics garage for another four months until I found a garage close to home to park the vehicle in. when I found a garage I moved the car straight away and informed the insurance.
1 year later and I have a new neighbour to share the garage with who also drives a BMW but an E36 model. He puts up a kind of plastic curtain across the mesh fence that separates our garages on the inside so I can not see his car and he can not see my car, fair enough I thought. July 24th 2005 I go to my garage to get my vehicle and notice my neighbours garage door is quarter of the way open, I put the key in my garage door lock only to find out its open, then I turn my garage door handle and hear a bang on metal, when I fully open my garage door I see a hand disappear into the garage next door from the top of the fence which has a 2ft gap followed by what sounded like a fall, I looked at my vehicle to notice its been scratched all around, the two screens have been ripped out the headrest and the one at front missing, the battery disconnected, the glove box ripped off, all my windows down, my stereo wedged in the centre console, EQ missing, DVD player gone, foot pump gone, think I was just in time to prevent him from doing the rest, the neighbour runs out the garage and asks me what is wrong, (like he donԚ't know) I said well it looks like someone broke in my garage and had a fun time vandalising my car, and he replies Ԛ“is itԚâ€a.
If it was not for the CCTV system I think I would probably be having some soup right about now in some cosy cubicle. I called the police and told him to wait until they arrived only to see him jump into his vehicle that was parked right up against the fence, so he had to get in on the passenger side, (strange, suppose it made it easier for him to climb over) and take off faster than the speed of light. The police said it was not an emergency at the time as they were dealing with the bombings, and someone would come out to me as soon as possible which was the next day, so I had to arrange a tow truck to come and tow my vehicle away as even when I connected the battery terminals it still would not start, as the immobiliser was permanently on (maybe from all the wires he was cutting) and I was not leaving it in the same garage again, so back it went to the mechanics garage.
Police done there job to a level and asked me about court and I agreed and I am still waiting as there seems to be a little problem with the CCTV (as usual). Now my real problems start, the insurance sends out an engineer who reckons that the car can be re-sprayed for a grand and the head rest repaired for Ԛ£100 and then values my vehicle at Ԛ£10,000. he then tells me to get quotes and inform the insurance company, which is something you normally do first, but being the car was in a garage who could give him an estimate on the spot this is what he was told, a re-spray Ԛ£2500 upwards, my headrest Ԛ£120.00 plus an extra Ԛ£40 each to cut them back out again to put the screens in, so thatÔš's Ԛ£200.00 and being that they can not match the colour of my seats and the thief broke the back of one of the chairs I might have to replace the front drivers seat which is another Ԛ£300.00 now totalling Ԛ£500.00, but he would do the front and back chairs for Ԛ£800.00 and then I will just have to match up the door cards, centre console which in total will cost Ԛ£2100, so all new interior basically so we are now talking altogether Ԛ£5000, this is not including a new boot lid, as the one on the car has a dent where the thief jumped on and off the boot to get over the fence, a new glove box, centre console for the stereo and the Ԛ£150 I had to spend to get the alarm ripped out and rewired.
Amazingly the engineer agreed and reported back to the insurance who then voided my insurance as they said that the 3000 miles that they had given me to do each year over three years, totalling 9000miles was over I explained to them that in the first year and a half I had my vehicle parked in the mechanics garage getting work done, that in agreeing with the terms of the policy and making sure the vehicle was parked in a garage over night, that one of the mechanics use to take the vehicle home and park the vehicle in his garage if they had a lot of work in to free up space, this would be the extra mileage and they were told, when the vehicle was back with me in my own garage, they could see from my MOTÔš's that I have kept well within the 3000 miles limit, as I rarely drive the car, but they said this is not there problem, luckily for me I have trade insurance which allows me to drive any vehicle, so I can still drive my car and be insured.
So I now have no insurance and the police have informed me that the CCTV system did not get the footage (bet if I punched him it would have) and the thief has a history of drug abuse so I would probably not get anything back for the damage.
So I have to do all the work myself and need help with the following?
1) a good and fairly priced re-sprayer
2) a good and fairly priced re-trimmer
3) an insurance company for E30 M3Ôš's without the limitations on mileage, if anyone could give me a price they have paid that would be brilliant.
I will attend the meet at the ACE café on 31st October 2005 not to put my car on show, but hopefully if anyone who reads this will be attending then you will see what is wrong with the car in person and will probably be able to give me some numbers and advice.
