repair car or keep $$ and sell for salvage?

[outtamojo]

Help! Need car advice! My 2003 E39 got rear ended and the insurance company is giving me about $11K (yes this amount is shocking) to repair the rear end. This repair will involve cutting and welding in a new rear quarter panel. I am leery of any cutting of the body- anyone else had this done to a car before? Will it be creaky afterward? This leeeriness and the fact that it will have an accident history makes me think to keep the $$ and sell for salvage if the insurance co. will let me…

[spdrun]

If the body is straight at all four wheels and no damage to alignment, I’d fix it in a heartbeat. If they let you, take the settlement, and use a bodyshop of your choice, not the goons which they recommend, unless their goons come with particularly good reviews.

Is this vehicle a total loss/settlement for book value, or are they paying you for repairs?

[Coronita]

Is this an E39 M5?

If not, I’m surprised the insurance company won’t just total the car… You could get another one for $11k I think…

I’d probably ditch the car for $11k.

If you do take it to get it repaired, take it to either Phil Thearles Autowerk or West Coast Specialties..

Will it creek?… It will be fine if you take it to a reputable shop….I had frame subframe damage on one of my audis about 9-10 years ago. Long story short, I ran off course was some debris which I ended up running over that ended up crushing driver side subframe and pushing up my floor pan abour 3 inches. Car was in the shop for about 4 months, they had to pull the engine out, and the bill ended up being $8k… That was back in NorCal…. If you go to a reputable repair shop, should be fine….

BTW: on the newer bimmers. The rear quarter panels don’t even use welding anymore. They use bonding material…

Check it out..

[outtamojo]

It’s a plain 530I without any of the packages. Only thing going for it was it had only 45K miles on it and nary a ding. The insurance adjuster first gave it a $7K repair estimate at which point I thought for sure it was going to be totaled. I had it towed to repair shop and they found additional things that would put the repair bill at about $11K and Allstate ok’d it! With $11K cash seems like it’d be perfect time to get a new car and avoid the inevitable money pit that all old bimmers become.

[spdrun]

The 1990s-designed Bimmers have a certain charm that modern, overly-gimmicky, rolling HAL-9000s on wheels don’t have. Can you even find a 5-series with a real (i.e. 3-pedal) transmission any more in the US?

If you’r going to get rid of it, at least sell it to someone who’ll fix it up, not to the crusher to be made into scrap metal to send to China.

[paramount]

[quote=outtamojo]With $11K cash seems like it’d be perfect time to get a new car and avoid the inevitable money pit that all old bimmers become.[/quote]

I was so happy to recently get rid of my BMW, by the time I traded it in I couldn’t even keep the engine light off with my OBD tool.

I kept getting OBD codes related to the cooling system. I barely got it through the emissions check; I was literally afraid to drive it fearing yet another costly issue.

I’m embarrassed to admit this: I lost money on my BMW.

It was fun to drive in the beginning, but once the never ending problems starting showing up I was glad to see it go – even at a loss.

Oh well, lesson learned.

[outtamojo]

My 530 has actually been very reliable in the time I owned it- likely because 2003 was the last production year for that particular body style and most of the kinks had been worked out. Going forward I am not confident I won’t be getting some
expensive mechanical issues though.

[spdrun]

Assuming a real transmission, the I-6 engines in those cars are pretty bulletproof. I looked at an e39 with almost 200k miles on the clock a while back, and it actually drove great.

[paramount]

I had an I-6, I do know the cyl head had been replaced.

I didn’t have any tranny issues thankfully, still even correctly replacing a battery is a $400-500 deal on a modern BMW.

[spdrun]

A 1996-2003 BMW isn’t “modern” by that standard — I think that the battery registration thing came later. And BTW, is NOT required unless you’re replacing a battery with a different type (wet lead acid to AGM for example).

Sure, a dealer will screw you for $400-500. Solution: don’t go to a dealer and replace the batt. yourself. Easy enough if you have basic electrical knowledge.

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]The 1990s-designed Bimmers have a certain charm that modern, overly-gimmicky, rolling HAL-9000s on wheels don’t have. Can you even find a 5-series with a real (i.e. 3-pedal) transmission any more in the US?
[/quote]

Yes…

Though for most people dual clutch ends up being faster on auto-x/track.. That’s why the Porsche GT3 only comes with a dual clutch now..

[Coronita]

[quote=paramount][quote=outtamojo]With $11K cash seems like it’d be perfect time to get a new car and avoid the inevitable money pit that all old bimmers become.[/quote]

I was so happy to recently get rid of my BMW, by the time I traded it in I couldn’t even keep the engine light off with my OBD tool.

I kept getting OBD codes related to the cooling system. I barely got it through the emissions check; I was literally afraid to drive it fearing yet another costly issue.

I’m embarrassed to admit this: I lost money on my BMW.

It was fun to drive in the beginning, but once the never ending problems starting showing up I was glad to see it go – even at a loss.

Oh well, lesson learned.[/quote]

Inquiring minds want to know what you got instead…

[Coronita]

[quote=outtamojo]My 530 has actually been very reliable in the time I owned it- likely because 2003 was the last production year for that particular body style and most of the kinks had been worked out. Going forward I am not confident I won’t be getting some
expensive mechanical issues though.[/quote]

If it was a 3 series, I would be interested in it …running as auto-x/track car..Unfortunately, 5 series are a bit too big for my tastes for non-commute cars…
—

Get another car, but keep this one…And run it at the BMW auto-x as a “LeMon’s” car
—

Speaking of cars. Just spent the entire day replace all my suspension bushings on my miata, new sway bars in front…

The nice thing about the miata.. It’s cheap to fix and upgrade, and if I hit a few cones on the auto-x, I don’t care about effing the paint…

[joec]

That’s what I’d do if I won lotto. With the cost of maintaining and running a track/race car, I’d just get something cheap like a miata and join in those scca races and have fun. No need to buy an expensive porsche or other 100k+ car to learn/practice.

[livinincali]

[quote=outtamojo]It’s a plain 530I without any of the packages. Only thing going for it was it had only 45K miles on it and nary a ding. The insurance adjuster first gave it a $7K repair estimate at which point I thought for sure it was going to be totaled. I had it towed to repair shop and they found additional things that would put the repair bill at about $11K and Allstate ok’d it! With $11K cash seems like it’d be perfect time to get a new car and avoid the inevitable money pit that all old bimmers become.[/quote]

I’d take the money and salvage. You can probably get at least a grand because of the low mile engine and tranny.

[Author]

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