Dragged Out of the Salvage Yard - Bringing a Coupe Back to Life

[Venom13132]

It's very rewarding to be involved in this rebuild. I had every expectation that the car would end up with something other than a normal title. Within that context, I still find it incredulous that there's no process to make a case that a car did not actually suffer the damage it was estimated to have--and therefore whether the law regarding branding a title actually applies.

Agreed. It's just one of those things where there would be too many cases. Too many shady people trying to get clean titles on junk to resell. It's definitely a good thing to have in place but in some cases like yours it negatively affects a non-shady person. I understand what your saying on this because I could rear end someone in my jeep and it only be $1000 to fix (sadly that's 66% the value of the car) and that damage and that won't change my title. The vehicle value system really doesn't take into account collector cars. I've really enjoyed following this rebuild!

[LannVouivre]

Lann... Do stand your ground to get what you want with the car regarding salvage or not. I've had three cars totaled. I bought each back because they were readily repaired at much lower costs than were estimated. If yours gets totaled, consider buying it back.

Ralph and Graham's posts do a good job of covering the economics. The economics do matter. These are great cars, but most can be replaced--so don't overspend. But if the money is close, then you can think about saving the car because it is what it is--and nobody's going to make another just like it.

That's the plan. They said the reason it's taking so long (likely will end up taking a month) is because it's old and rare-ish. I went over the first estimate and found they wanted to repaint the entire doors because the hood scraped the leading edge where you can't even see the damage.

[Outrider]

Bureaucracy Tamed, Getting the salvage title was a multi-step process. But the M is now on the road again. David took it to yesterday’s BMWCCA NCC DIY and changed the brake lines and installed his H&R sway bars.

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[cleanerPA]

Congrats on getting the car back on the road!