Accident/insurance malady

[sapphireblack]

I don't post much these days but i hope to solicit some serious opinons.

My much beloved 2001 V8 which i've owned for five years had a coming together with a very large stag deer on Tuesday. To cut a long story short, the car which is in really good condition is valued at £5 maybe £5.5K?

It has all main dealer history, BT and digital TV upgrades to name just two biggies. OE 20" wheel upgrades etc, etc. Only 67K on the clock but the repair bill for the deer damage is circa £4K (Including VAT) though to look at it you'd initially never believe that, so posting pictures is pointless. Were talking, bumper a Xenon lamp, foglamp, re shaping the bonnet and lots of trim, mostly behind the visibly obvious. £1700 for parts £900+ for labour and £500+ for paint and bits and bobs very quickly adds up.

So, depending what my insurers actually say in due course, would you haggle a deal and buy it back as a write off and then repair it? (numbers accepted and TBA) Accept a very likely lo-ball offer for it and just buy something else or fight to have the insurers repair it and maybe end up contributing to the repair bill to keep it?

A very unhappy scenario looms from my point of view as if it goes, i doubt i'll buy another X of any kind.

[X5Sport]

Are you OK?  The deer won't be, but holy @@@@

At that bill the insurer is probably going to write it off and as you suspect, make a crap offer.  It's been a long while since summat like that happened to me, but much over 50% of the value and that's that.

If you are mechanically capable, can get the parts etc and DIY the fix then go for it.  Someone on here just bought a scrap car (in the same colour/year etc) as the donor car and transferred the whole front end across.  Can't remember who now, but it was a very nice job once finished.

EDIT:  try here...http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/https://xdr ... ic.php?t=7

Richard

[sapphireblack]

I'm fine thanks but the experience was pretty ghastly, just one step away from hitting a human i think

The poor creature slid along the road for maybe twenty feet or so, got up and bounded off but i suspect will have died since (in the Ashdown Forest, Sussex) a thought that seriously upsets me.

As to the car, i suppose much will depend on what actual write off value is offered. I recall the link you posted but i have neither skills nor facilities for that level of work myself even if i source used parts and painting it is still a pretty big deal in the repair schedule to restore the car to how i would require it.

To say this has been upsetting and likely will continue to be for a while would be an understatement.

[graemeX5]

Hi if you like the car and want to keep it, then talk to your local have a friendly body shop. It may be worth asking them what it would cost to do if you supply parts poss second hand ones.

Then you can work out if worth doing or not. Again if written off it will show on register.

Also re payout gather evidence of prices of similar condition cars form web sites etc to prove the value of your car so you can negotiate the settlement and avoid accepting their 1st lo ball offer

If near Hertfordshire I have a good mate who runs a bodyshop if you want details.

[Sanj]

Glad you're ok SB. Very sorry to hear about the car and The animal you hit. Would play on my mind too...

Advice here is already made:

1. Get the for sale cars of similar spec printed off, this date and time is important.
2. Expect the low offer, may not annoy you so much when you hear it - you know you have to play this game out.
3. Have an idea of what you want to do, keep it or take a reasonable offer.
4. Regardless of 3. refuse their first offer

Rest is then based on keeping it or taking the offer. Will show up on the database, so even less value in the future but expect that to be irrelevant to you. I know a good guy near Windsor too if you go down that road. If that parts quote is for new second hand will no doubt bring that price down (only for body panels, etc)...

Best of luck either way mate, very sorry to hear your news.

I know I'm teaching you to suck egg, sure you just need to bounce ideas...

[pvr]

Very annoying and upsetting indeed.

You obviously know insurance companies well enough that they are not interested in service history, mods, condition (to an extend) and will just class it as a 12 year old car using some Glasses type guide to value it.

As others have said, the true value can only be received when collecting the "proof" by getting prices of other similar cars.

If you buy the car back, it will be registered as a cat D I would imagine which will reduce the resale value so keep that in mind when starting to spend money on the car.

[sapphireblack]

Thanks for your input, it’s appreciated. The second necessary quote for repairs was initiated this morning.

As the possible write off scenario is a new one to me i'm not sure how best to proceed anyway, obviously much will depend on what numbers are mentioned if indeed a write off stage is reached which i'm sadly confident will be the insurers approach.

Showing my ignorance of how this aspect works, i wondered if deals can be negotiated where i perhaps volunteer to accept some of the repair costs to keep it and save the car from any unwelcome 'Cat' status in the future. I'm loath to take a possible £5K??? from insurance and have to pay-out say double again (£15K) just to get another decent but rapidly depreciating 'asset'. My days of spending mucho spondulicks on items that simply lose money faster than a numerally dyslexic gambler are long over. The car is important to me and worth so much more than it's street value. It had new tyres/wheels and brakes all round only a short while ago.

I know for sure if it was scrapped it would be repaired by someone. That someone  may as well be me is how i see it currently.

[X5Sport]

You're thinking is in exactly the right place...and probably pretty much the same as many of us.  Unless I become a Lottery winner, I doubt I'll be buying another brand new Xn.  Retirement and other budget restraints are too high a priority now - even if still some years off!

If the offer is reasonable - after the usual 'you must be joking' response to the initial one - and the car is repairable then as you say it might as well be you...

Richard

[AW8]

Fwiw & in event you negotiate buying is back as recorded.......I have it on very good authority that salvage companies secure write off's for as low 20% of value, (not known if trade value or forecourt). Not suggesting you would bag it for a grand but this may give you a start point when doing the maths.

[shadrack]

buy it back and spend a couple of weeks on ebay, you might even be able to bag the neccessary panels in the right colour!!

[sapphireblack]

Once again input is appreciated and there have been some interesting and good developments now which are heartening.

The second quote obtained from a prestige but non BMW repairer is a cool £1K less at £3021 Vs £4015 (incl VAT)

What this repairer also kindly told me were the cars real world values according to Glasses guide. Interestingly they are £4K trade and £8K retail, given spec, condition and mileage.

So it should easily be an economic repair after all and i get to keep it. The bonus being, for a while anyway, it will have a completely stone chip free front! Important too of course is no CAT registration either 

My personal compromise is no courtesy car for possibly two weeks! Good i'm semi retired and work at home as required then! I like to run regularly and walk when i can to keep fit, this will be an enforced opportunity to get a little fitter along the way.

Hopefully i can talk to my insurers engineers on Monday, and get the car on the road to repairs.

[jaynana]

that's great, well done on the repair savings .. hope it goes well with the insurance guys on monday!

[shadrack]

glad to hear your going to mend it, sometimes a car is of more worth to the owner than the glasses/parkers guide states, if yours is a perfect x5 why settle for a low offer to then be faced with having to find one at that money which could be a dog or as you menchion put loads of money towards which you know your only going to loose, glad to hear another fine machine is going to be kept on the road!

[535dboy]

Bugger

Sorry to read (just picked up from your other thread)

Deer are a major problem on the forest and they seem to have spread more and more and have more recently been killed on the Maresfield by pass which I had not seen before and which of course is a fast road

I hit a Bambie in a Vines courtesy car about 4 years ago. It was horrible, more because I thought it was a dog. It just marked the paint and popped out a parking sensor so I just parked the car up against the wall when I returned it!

What is the latest?

[sapphireblack]

Now repaired very nicely and collected just last Friday  the front has never looked as good since it was new. Utterly blemish free, for a while anyway.

There'so point again in  putting up pictures as it looks like it always had, until meeting the deer! The impact was pretty gentle and with a pliable creature, so the damage behind the bumper was surprisingly extensive.

I understand frontal collapse is designed in to minimise damage to humans, but i'd hate to hit anything non yielding!

I dare say my insurance premium will be interesting next year  too :noexpression:

One aside to this was the thought that i'm pleased i never messed with the OE Xenons and removed the orange indicator piece. A situation like this only highlights how mods are great until only one of two is compromised! The repairers would simply have only bolted in a complete new headlamp which quite possibly it would be impossible to separate and mod like the older versions!

Sometimes original is just easier