[thientien]

Hi Folks,

My car got hit by a driver, who's insurance admitted liability. I brought my car to a body shop, they estimated cost to repair is 18k and change. My insurance sent an appraiser out to look at the estimate, the appraiser came back with their own estimate, 16k. Is it normal for the estimates to be different like that? I do want to fight to get the whole 18k estimate by the body shop, but afraid they might declare the total loss on my car, which I don't want. I drive the 2008 E92 335i with sport package, about 60k miles on it, CPO warranty until June 2014.

My question is can insurance turn around and declare total loss on a car they said it's not before? Should I fight with them to get my money?

Thanks,

[DC_Oldboy]

Yes it's going to be different. The body shop will work with the insurance company on what the final bill is going to be. I don't think $18K worth of damage will be considered totaled since your car is worth more.

[DC_Oldboy]

I just checked retail on your car and it's worth between $20-$26K. How is that not totaled? The damage must've been barely under what would be considered a loss lol. I thought your car would be worth mid to upper $20K.

[///Mposter]

You could take the money and buy it back . Then find a body shop to do it for half the cost especially if it really isn't that bad. Post pics please. Was it front , rear, or sides?

[asdflkijd]

most time if they declare a total loss they will give you about 2k above kbb value, maybe more if you wait it out. But its typical for the shop to quote more than the insurance adjuster.

[thientien]

my car got hit by an F150 truck head on on the driver side. My car slided backward and hit my wife's car parked behind, about 4-5 ft. The exhaust end up on top of my wife's corolla bumper. The damage is pretty severe, buckled the frame, radiator mount crack. the car run fine, but I feel a little instability with it, sometime it wobbled on the freeway. I don't have any picture of the tear down.

@DC Oldboy, where did you find 26k for the value?

Thanks guys.

[jaguar36]

Why wouldn't you want it to be declared a total loss? If it is you can get a nice accident free car, instead of having to worry about it being fixed properly. Plus your resale value won't take a hit.

Usually if the cost of the repair is over ~50% of the value they'll total it.

[mikolk]

I'd take the total loss and use the money on a new ride.

[.Lindsay.]

Originally Posted by jaguar36

Usually if the cost of the repair is over ~50% of the value they'll total it.

^What this guy said. At $18k in damages on an '08 335i, I'll be shocked if they don't total it.

Originally Posted by thientien

The damage is pretty severe, buckled the frame...

Not to mention if the frame buckled, this is almost guaranteed to be totaled. (Anytime there is frame or structural damage it's usually considered totalled).

If they do total it, you have two options:
Take the check they give you and go buy a new car and be done. Or you can buy it back from the insurance company and get it fixed. Going this route is a gamble though because you'll lose big time when you go to sell it (diminished value), and you may not be able to get full-coverage insurance due to it now having a salvaged title. This means no comprehensive and collision coverage (collision: pays for damage to your car that you cause [backing into a poll, hitting a tree, going in a ditch, rear-ending someone, etc]. Comprehensive: pays for damage to your car that is not caused by you or another vehicle [hitting an animal, tree falling on it, fire, theft, etc]).

If they don't total it, make sure you ask about diminished value and try to get some sort of compensation above and beyond just getting your car repaired.

Also, go to the doctors if you haven't already. Even if you feel fine. Medical issues/problems can develop years after an accident, and if you dont have this on file, your docs will have a hard time figuring out what caused the issues and/or how to treat/diagnose. Always go get checked out after an accident. Always.

[tennis_pr0]

Well you have the right to choose where your car gets fixed, so as long as the body shop you chose isn't a much higher estimate than what the "going" average is where you live, the insurance should work with your body shop. It's pretty common for insurance companies to give a low estimate and then meet you somewhere in the middle if not all the way if the price is more.

As far as the car being totaled, 18k in damage for a car that is worth low 20's, that's a no brainer for me to want to have it totaled. At 16k it is getting close, but any more than that I think the insurance company would push for totaled. Like I said it's close and you could probably fight to have it fixed at the shop you want to though, but 18k in damage I don't think the car will ever be the same again and when trying to sell it, well good luck with that...

[DC_Oldboy]

Originally Posted by jaguar36

Why wouldn't you want it to be declared a total loss? If it is you can get a nice accident free car, instead of having to worry about it being fixed properly. Plus your resale value won't take a hit.

Usually if the cost of the repair is over ~50% of the value they'll total it.

I'm pretty sure it's more than 70% that they'll total it, not 50% if I remember correctly but may vary from state or insurance but that I do not know.

[DC_Oldboy]

Originally Posted by thientien

my car got hit by an F150 truck head on on the driver side. My car slided backward and hit my wife's car parked behind, about 4-5 ft. The exhaust end up on top of my wife's corolla bumper. The damage is pretty severe, buckled the frame, radiator mount crack. the car run fine, but I feel a little instability with it, sometime it wobbled on the freeway. I don't have any picture of the tear down.

@DC Oldboy, where did you find 26k for the value?

Thanks guys.

I did a quick search on KBB, Edmunds and Cars.com and that was the average but without putting in your mielage, packages and etc.

[wdlfbio]

" The damage is pretty severe, buckled the frame" and you WANT to keep it? Consider that almost nobody will want to touch this car when you go to sell it. You can pretty much count on taking it in the shorts later on. Or, move on and put the money towards something better in the long term. Maybe even buy the 335 back as a track rat

[.Lindsay.]

Unless you want to keep this car forever, I would walk away (and without tooting my own horn, i feel i have the authority to give such as advice as i'm a licensed insurance agent [although i dont sell insurance anymore]).

Regardless, good luck with this whole situation.

[HPIA4v2]

Originally Posted by mikolk

I'd take the total loss and use the money on a new ride.

Hard to say, but I'd second this suggestion.

Insurance is big business they want to minimize loss so whatever less between fixing and blue-book is what insurance go with.

I wish last time insurance total my car, btw actual total repair cost will exceed the initial estimate, body-shops find stuff after tear-down, that's why $18k repair on $25k car almost always a total loss.