Insurance company low balling 535 touring.

[uberkarldrei]

the very week I took out the M88/3 from the 93 touring and put in a M30/B35, a new Honda Accord decided to total herself with the back of my car. I am now a month into debating with Farmers insurance as to the value of my car.
on the m88, it's starting to show oil in the combustion chamber and time for a rebuild. so it came out and the m30 went in.
Farmers has decided that my car is worth 2k and thier circle of friends repair shop quoted $5700 for repairs. Independant apraiser is coming out on the 30th of this month and I have a bucket of receipts. anyone been through trying to quantify their labor?

not much wrong except a ding in the hatch, needs a bumper cover, sparetire well deformed, gas tank creased, exhaust pretzeled and some insulation.



http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/BMW%20Touring/th_CIMG4371aa.jpg (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/BMW%20Touring/?action=view&current=CIMG4371aa.jpg)
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/BMW%20Touring/th_CIMG4333aa.jpg (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/BMW%20Touring/?action=view&current=CIMG4333aa.jpg)

[kipwinger]

Argue argue argue, then talk to your lawyer. My 89 535i was totaled and they tried to give me a figure just over 3k but, with persistance that figure almost doubled.

[HE53]

Keep fighting. I used to deal with insurance companies every day when I was a body shop estimator.

Call them 3 or 4 times a day and bug the living crap out of them until you get what you want. It will work if you keep at it.

[attack eagle]

your crumple zone is crumpled... not bad idea to total it at an acceptable price, buy back, start over with an unhit touring and just transfer everything over.

[upallnight]

your crumple zone is crumpled... not bad idea to total it at an acceptable price, buy back, start over with an unhit touring and just transfer everything over.

If the insurance total the car and you buy it back, wouldn't you have a salvage or rebuilt title to contend with? When it's time to sell a car with a salvage or rebuilt title you normally lose 10% to 20% of the value of the car and not everyone wants to buy a salvage title vehicle.

[Mutinus]

buy back, start over with an unhit touring and just transfer everything over.(to new project)


Read again.

[uberkarldrei]

NEW PROJECT?????????
I didn't have any intention of selling this car in the future so the title salvage is kind of a moot point. this car was smacked pretty good in the front when I got it. the bad part is the comparible vehicles don't exist on CCC, Autotrader or vehix and mine is compared to the 525 autotoads for price. when I mentioned there are listings on the internet with tourings that have m30 5speeds, the reply was that those are only enthusiast sites. DUH!!!!! who the heck else would do this.
in case some of you don't remember this is what it looked like when I picked it up in West Sacramento.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/th_kfHEClmUmSikHW03LJ8hWMrt9Dm9.jpg (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/?action=view&current=kfHEClmUmSikHW03LJ8hWMrt9Dm9.jpg)
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/th_CIMG0643.jpg (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/?action=view&current=CIMG0643.jpg)
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/th_CIMG0646.jpg (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/?action=view&current=CIMG0646.jpg)
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/th_aaCIMG1564.jpg (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z314/uberkarldrei/?action=view&current=aaCIMG1564.jpg)

[NateB26]

when my 7 series got t boned they tried to give me 2500. i sent in abut 5 different ads from autotrader of cars that were either the same year or a year newer with about the same amount of miles that were priced anywhere from 4-6k. they ended up giving me $4200 instead of $2500.

[uberkarldrei]

Yesterday the independant apraiser spent about a half hour looking at the car showing him printouts of similar vehicles and receipts I got a call back from Farmers today.
5700k and a 300 buy back.
the insurance company used 1 525 sedan in seattle and 5 sedans over 800 miles away.
Mr. Project and Attack Eagle's build posts were very helpfull in quantifying my car.

[PorscheH6]

:redspot

[SchnellerE34]

I was given $7000 for my 95 530i 5/speed (so they thought) with 125k on it. I spent $1000 to buy it back, but was well worth it since I had my ACS kit, ACS wheels, New tires, etc.

[Mutinus]

Well done. The insurance companys seem to always low ball hoping you'll just shrug your shoulders and move on. Congrats on getting a fairer price.

[attack eagle]

Yesterday the independant apraiser spent about a half hour looking at the car showing him printouts of similar vehicles and receipts I got a call back from Farmers today.
5700k and a 300 buy back.
the insurance company used 1 525 sedan in seattle and 5 sedans over 800 miles away.
Mr. Project and Attack Eagle's build posts were very helpfull in quantifying my car.

glad to have been of service!!!

[Binjammin]

Well done, good to see one stay in the fleet!

[flipwils11]

Yesterday the independant apraiser spent about a half hour looking at the car showing him printouts of similar vehicles and receipts I got a call back from Farmers today.
5700k and a 300 buy back.
the insurance company used 1 525 sedan in seattle and 5 sedans over 800 miles away.
Mr. Project and Attack Eagle's build posts were very helpfull in quantifying my car.

Guess you never saw any of my posts about what I have into my m30 touring? :confused

[XR000mb]

if you haggle with insurance over a totalled cars value wont the usual drop you by renewal? im young. my cars insured. i pay out the ass. thats about all i know about insurance and insuring my car.

[uberkarldrei]

Adam, sorry I didn't mention it, but your web pages were also in the stack of similar cars that I presented to the apraiser. you gotta rember that mine is a work car. I haul fire wood, engines, transmissions, tool boxes, loose top soil, trips to the dump and steel tubing, angle and plate with it. I only had the M30 in it that week and thank goodness I wasn't trying to go through this with the M88/3 engine and 280 getrag in it.

XROOmb, my insurance company was not involved. this was the driver's of the car that ran into me. If it were mine, I would have probably just tucked my chin and took the first settlement since my rates are not too bad with myself, my wife AND a teenager on my policy and two more to shortley follow. If you have a fair amount of money in yours, call up your insurnace company and have it apraised by them, your rates might go up a little but your provider won't be suprised when it comes to the true value of your car.

[flipwils11]

Adam, sorry I didn't mention it, but your web pages were also in the stack of similar cars that I presented to the apraiser. you gotta rember that mine is a work car. I haul fire wood, engines, transmissions, tool boxes, loose top soil, trips to the dump and steel tubing, angle and plate with it. I only had the M30 in it that week and thank goodness I wasn't trying to go through this with the M88/3 engine and 280 getrag in it.


Cool, was worried you missed out on an easy comparable and maybe could have squeezed them for closer to $8k.

[DaveCN]

Mine was wrecked last week - I already started pulling ads in anticipation they will try to give me peanuts.

[BavarianFanatic]

A modified car is a very tough nut with an insurance company, and for good reason. Your car might be "the shit" to those of us on the "enthusiast" boards, but to the general populace the $ you put into building it might mean squat. Add to that there's no way for them to do a solid comparison like they can with auction data which is precisely what they use to value the cars. To get anything beyond what the stock equivalent is going for is an absolute crap shoot.

Regarding buyback yielding a salvage title, that's generally not true unless the insurance company makes you hand over the title and they issue a salvage certificate in return. Usually they simply send you a check for the settlement minus the salvage value and indicate that they will not re-insure it unless it's fully inspected. I've been through this a couple of times over the years unfortunately.

[uberkarldrei]

if you have receipts for things like a head gasket set or brake caliper rebuild kit, you will only get credited for the bare minimum if anything. At X many miles, normal maintenance would require those things and are not taken into account on the value.
whereas you have photo's of polishing intake ports and torquing ARP studs, or 850 4 piston calipers installed on a 525 after replacing the seals, those seemed to make the difference.
the big thing is the apraiser. if they work for the insurance company directly, your screwed. words like "Homemade makeshift tin plate in center console"come into play on the value of what you have done.
where as an independant apraiser may use the words "custom brush polished shifter console".

on mine, I did not trust the body shop of the insurance company to be able to remove the rear trim without destroying it. as many times as I have driven by, I have never seen a bmw there. when the insurance apraiser got to the shop, all she saw was a stripped back half of the car. the bozo's even managed to break something anyways. when I took my car back and put it in my garage I put everything back together and made it somewhat presentable.

tires and rims. if they are a factory size, they account for nothing. Should they be +1 size for that model and after market rims (and you have receipts) that may make some offset.
BIG THING!!!!
CLEAN YOUR GARAGE. make it look like you have somewhat of an idea of WTF you are doing to your car. if you have several. you might want to clean them up a little. they are going to look at you place as part of the apraisal to the value of your vehicle. The insurance company looks at the DIY'r as a liability, since they are not professional ASE certified mechanics. There are some out there

This is my second time going through this. the first was my daughters 82 Saab 90 turbo automatic. rebuilding the tranny netted me $4200 for the total.