Insurance Claim Or Not

[Jwild44]

Hello everyone,

I am in need of some help. A couple of weeks ago I crashed my e30 325i, caving in the front of the vehicle. Luckily no one was hurt and no other cars/police were involved. I managed to recover the car back to my drive. This has been my pride and joy for many years and I can’t describe how devastated I am. It has also come at a terrible time, as I am currently unemployed and struggling to find work.

I have 5 years no claims bonus and the car has an estimated value of £9000 on the insurance. I am insured through a broker. The cheapest insurance I could find through an online comparison site. They do not have particularly good reviews and I am concerned they are going to be difficult to deal with.

I sent some pictures of the damage to a repair shop and they estimated around £4000 to repair it (this could be more after inspection). I don’t have anywhere near this amount available to me at the moment.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

1. Should I make a claim? I spoke to a friend that said it could make the car a category D write-off that would drop its value completely. Is this true? How would this work?

2. Does it matter that I did not claim as soon as the accident occurred? Is there a limit to how many days you can claim after an accident?

Since the accident I am finding the whole process totally overwhelming. I can't even look at the car. I am unsure whether to make a claim and would be really grateful for some help.

Thank you,

[martauto]

Sorry to hear about all of this , but welcome to the zone anyway
I normally ask for pictures just to have a look at the cars but in this case it may help to see what actual damage has taken place looked at by the guys who really know.

Cheers Mart.

[flybynite]

Yep bad luck indeed, but no-one hurt and metal can always be sorted.

I always say don't involve the insurance unless necessary, the moment you inform them your premium will go up even if you do not make a claim, however this may be one of those occasions when you need to make use of the insurance.

First I would get a realistic idea of the cost of repair. That quote, was it using new parts? was it someone used to dealing with E30s?

Do you rely on this car? does it need to go back on the road urgently? Things can be done cheaper if there is no rush.

There is always a risk of the car being written off and it gets messy if you want to keep it. Being a write off does live with the car and will affect its value but keep photographs of the damage because people tend to think the worst. Many people however will go on the condition not as much as the history on an E30 but not everyone.

As Mart said put a couple of photos up and I'm sure you will get some opinion.

[Jwild44]

Thank you both for your replies,

The quote I got was a rough estimate from a garage that does a lot of classic car body work. They are good at what they do and have dealt with e30s before.

I can use my wife's car for the meantime so there isn't such a rush although it is outside and exposed to the weather so the sooner the better in a way.

Hopefully a picture attached below.

Thanks again,

BMW Crash.jpg

[M3kuksport]

Is it a Sport? That's a Tech 1 front bumper?

[tha881]

You may get lucky with that, I mean it's bad luck what happened, but once you remove the bonnet, wing and bumper, it may not be too bad. It depends if it has bent the chassis leg or bulkhead area.

[Cloggy Saint]

/\ This! Very hard to tell from one picture but that doesn't look too bad at all. It is however more than enough for it to be written off by the insurers so I would be tempted to keep them out of it.

[flybynite]

As above you may be lucky, the crumple zone has crumpled and hopefully saved the impact going further up.

I would want to look a bit higher up around the scuttle and the door shuts to see how far it went.

A bad ding to what looks like a really nice E30 but nothing in that photo says to me it is a write-off in real terms.

Not quite as bad as yours but have a read through this one, will give you an idea what is involved

viewtopic.php?t=279665

[Jwild44]

Thanks for all the advice.

At the moment I am edging towards not contacting the insurance company to avoid it being written off. Would you guys do the same?

[Cloggy Saint]

From what I can see you're looking at:

Bonnet
Wing
Bumper (valance looks salvageable)
Light unit
Grill
Slam panel/radiator?

There's probably other bits and pieces that I can't see but that list shouldn't cost too much and it's all DIY stuff. But as said above, if the chassis leg has taken a beating then it's a different story. I'd give it a good going over and get a second opinion before getting the insurance company involved.

[Bonymaenjack]

I recently had the misfortune of one of my cars catching fire at the fuse box ,I caught it in time and therefore not imo serious enough but I did contact my insurers who arranged to take her away to a site near Bristol be assessed , I was told by ,my broker that due to the age that it wouldn't even be looked at ( a few pictures taken ) and would more than likely written off. After much thought I decided to cancel my claim and kept the car rewired her and although no longer with me , it will return to her former glory .

[Brianmoooore]

It looks like you have been quite lucky with this, in that the impact hasn't gone into the bumper area, or the corner of the bonnet.
If the bumper had been hit, the chassis rail energy absorbing section would have been damaged, an the whole front end would have 'lozenged' a little.
Similarly, if the corner of the bonnet had been hit, damage would have been caused on the RH side of the car as well.
If you're happy to accept repairs that don't quite restore the car to how it was under the skin, then I doubt if much needs to be added to Cloggy Saint's list above.
The inner wing and it's crash absorbing reinforcement will be bent, but if steel can be bent one way, then it can be bent back again.