Insurance wants to total my car! I need your help.

[ThisIsTheRanger]

So a couple of weeks ago I was dropping off my manager at his house. He goes to start his 70's Chevy stepside which happens to have a huge square steel bumper, but unbeknowst to him it had been left in first gear. He turns the engine over straight into the side of my '86 535i taking out the rear passenger door and damaging the rear fender in the process. He offered to pay cash for the repair or go through insurance depending on how much it was going to cost. I got an estimate at my body shop the next day for a rather steep $2700 including a brand new door skin, so he ended up reporting it to insurance. They sent out a guy from a hired appraisal company to assess the damage to the car and take note of its condition.
They determined the value of the car to be a mere $2600 (along with hallucinogen inspired notes such as dented body, scratches, faded glass, soiled carpet, etc. none of which is true). I was insulted at this and demanded to talk to the manager of the company, USAA Insurance (one of the worst insurance companies). As I was explaining why that value was wrong explaining the condition of my car and the parts that have been put into it, he kept putting down everything I said, stating that 2600 was the average market value for "these cars" as if I was some fool. They used four cars in the "Local Marketplace" to determine the value of my 535i, none of which were even in this state (CA). Two of them were 528e's, one was an '87, and one was $1900. Clearly this small sample does not represent my car at all, and they were all far away, one reaching 1500 miles away in Colorado.
Long story short, they determined my car to be a "total loss" as the damage was too high of a percentage of the value of the car. The appraisal guy reported the damage to be only worth $1600, putting the repair at 62% of the car's value.
The USAA manager said that the parts put into it don't add value to the car "even if it has been restored" because that is simply what these cars are worth. Sounds fishy to me, as I have thousands of dollars worth of receipts for the car. And of course the company doesn't even look at parts older than 6-12 months. I know they are yanking my chain with some foul play and I'll have to take it to the insurance commissioner or small claims court if they refuse to raise the value.

Anyway, they only way to raise the car's value is to show what great condition e28's sell for. So please, Mye28, help me save this beatiful car from getting a salvage title. I need to see some ads for 535i's priced at least $4,500. They need to be in California to me most effective, but the more the better!

Also any advise you could give as to what to do would be great, as I haven't dealt with insurance in this situation before.
Thanks in advance guys I appreciate your help.
-Cody


I've attached a pic of the damage and a few of the car to show how straight the body is, or was I should say

[cddallara]

That sucks to hear, but what dumbass leaves a car parked in neutral? Or, thaught he did?
GLWI, pm kohler or vince, they'll tell you how it's done!

[Kyle in NO]

They are smoking crack. Where is the fender damage? You can get a good black used door at the Pick-N-Pull and swap it out. A little polishing and it will likely match very well. You could also have just the door resprayed and it will still cost under $300-400 for everything.

[ThisIsTheRanger]

He said he usually leaves it in neutral but his buddy drove it last and must have left it in first
I suppose its more of a quarter panel than a fender. You can see the damage just to the rear of the door seam in the first pic.

That brings up another point though. I asked the insurance man if I could just cancel the claim and have the guy pay cash. He said that they could cancel the claim but they would still be obligated to California to salvage title the car. However I learned from someone in the business that that isn't true. If they don't pay any settlement, then they can't salvage title it. Maybe someone on here knows the true answer to this?

[Cactus]

This is interesting, I understood USAA was an awesome insurance company. Friend in CA with a Datsun 240z got bumped similarly in a parking lot. They're paying to have the whole car repainted.

Situation sucks, hope you get it all sorted out, sorry I can't help.

[Kyle in NO]

I suppose its more of a quarter panel than a fender. You can see the damage just to the rear of the door seam in the first pic.

Dude, easy fix for a body man. Cancel the claim and tell the insurance company to piss off. Have your buddy pay for a used door and have the fender lip repaired. Respray the door and quarter and have the whole car polished. Viola!

[vinceg101]

Cody: This is going to suck, no bones about it.
I seemed to luck out in my ordeal and ended up not having to go to war over it too much before I got a decent settlement out my opposing insurance company. I can only give you this advice:

1. If you don't have it already, get the total loss adjuster's contact information (usually most companies have total loss in another department). This is the guy who determines the value of your car. I say this because in may case, the claim adjuster and the total loss adjuster were two different people with the former being a complete imbecile when it came to valuing my car.
2. Search Autotrader, Recycler, BMWCCA, and any other online site you think of (I went with Autotrader first) and cull your year and one year up and down. Sort by most expensive first. You should find at least five high priced examples; print the ads (hard copy or pdf). You should have no trouble finding all these in California or just over the borders (AZ, NV, OR). I can even send you the ones I saved from last month.
3. Photo-document your car completely showing it's exact condition to illustrate its' condition. Current photos along with recent photos before the accident. They're kind of right about all the money you've spent on replacement parts and restoration, in the end they will only look at current market value of other like cars (comps).
4. Find a body shop and try like hell to get an estimate from them that's lower than the $1600. Two would be better.
5. In my preparations, I had one body shop suggest that I go so far as to get and independent vehicle appraisal done that would accurately value the car (prior to the damage of course). I never had to go this far so I don't know how I would have gone about this, it's cost, or whether it would have made a difference. But it might be worth looking into.
6. Communicate continuously and document it. If they work in email, all the better.

Can't say much more than that. This was path I was on when my luck turned for the better. You should talk to Chris Kohler as he had to fight more in this stage than I did. As to them reporting the salvage to CADMV, I don't know about that. AGI (my opposing company) never said anything directly to me about it nor was it in their official paperwork. I've yet to receive anything from DMV about it, but I wouldn't expect to as they're so backed up and short on money (hell, my wife is still waiting from her renewed driver's license which expired 4 weeks ago).

It's a shame this had to happen to such a nice car. But seriously, this looks like an easy and relatively inexpensive fix. At least it doesn't look like frame damage.
I know this means little right now, but good luck. Let me know if you need anything.

[Dinan e28]

That's complete BS, I got a company to pay $3200 for rear end damage, they said thew would total it out at $3700.
I payed $6000 for the car.
I have my car inured for 15,000 now threw Hagerty.

[rmiddendorf]

Here's one in Ohio:

http://www.autoassets.com/cars-for-sale ... 535is-5995

No affiliation.

[Blue Shadow]

Actually USAA is one of the best insurance companies.

Check with L_N_Love as his M5 was damage and his payout from USAA went from totally unacceptable to the correct value after the car was determined to be in good condition and marketable in its pre-damaged state. This is what insurance is for, making you whole in this deal.

[nnarth212]

That's complete BS, I got a company to pay $3200 for rear end damage, they said thew would total it out at $3700.
I payed $6000 for the car.
I have my car inured for 15,000 now threw Hagerty.

Do they have a mileage allowance? I am interested in details on this... PM?

[rmiddendorf]

I don't know if you followed this thread or not but Chris went through quite the ordeal on his E12. It is a different car though.

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=82093

[Karl Heinz]

Not trying to be an ass,but there was just recently an 87 is sold through our forum with 200k on the odo for in excess of $10k. That might be something to help with valuation, I would think.

Also, I know of another 87 535is that went for $3500 with ~154k on the odo (nice example) and an 88 528e with ~160k on the od for $2700. Only bad thing is the 535is was sold in 2004. However, the 528e was priced and sold in Feb of 2010. Hope this helps.

[ThisIsTheRanger]

Damn that is one crazy story about Kohler's car. That sucks but I don't know which is worse because I actually saw and heard this happen from outside. It was not a good sound. I found the ad for RonP's 535is that sold for $10,500 so that should help some..

[E.rouzbeh.28]

Damn that is one crazy story about Kohler's car. That sucks but I don't know which is worse because I actually saw and heard this happen from outside. It was not a good sound. I found the ad for RonP's 535is that sold for $10,500 so that should help some..

I would make sure that you know the whole story behind RonP's car.

[E.rouzbeh.28]

Actually, I don't think it'll matter.

[Dinan e28]

That's complete BS, I got a company to pay $3200 for rear end damage, they said thew would total it out at $3700.
I payed $6000 for the car.
I have my car inured for 15,000 now threw Hagerty.

I forgot to add that the 20yr old girl who rammed a car into me with her car had USAA and they were easy to deal with.

[smootch]

Can you present to your insurance past and present "for sale" examples of quality E28's that have been peddled here on mye28.com?

[lostatoll]

here you go. The listing for the car I bought in january. In california. It's in amazing condition though.. with 141k on it. I priced out many of these before I bought and it was the best condition for the fairest price. For a thousand or two less I could ahve had one with 200k, but I opted to spoil myself

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?c ... dard=false

[ThisIsTheRanger]

Yes Smooch that's what i am trying to do to raise the value.

here you go. The listing for the car I bought in january. In california. It's in amazing condition though.. with 141k on it. I priced out many of these before I bought and it was the best condition for the fairest price. For a thousand or two less I could ahve had one with 200k, but I opted to spoil myself

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?c ... dard=false

Funny you mention that one bc I already had it printed out! Small world... and nice e28, it may help save mine
I have about six ads now for clean e28's all over California to send in so we shall see what happens

[lostatoll]

great.. best of luck to you. eff insurance companies. Now I'm going to have to research getting mine appraised so that if anything were to ever happen i would get what it's actually worth.

[wkohler]

That really sucks. Looks like minor damage. I wouldn't have the door skin replaced. Those dents can be fixed.

I've always heard USAA to be a great company to work with, though everyone I've heard that from are policyholders. I think it works a bit differently when you're not the one paying them.

The manager was feeding you a line of bull. You'll argue with them until your head falls off. You'll think there is no dumber person in the world than a claims handler/manager, etc, but you soon realize they're going from a playbook.

If you give them comps, you'll just get the runaround about how they use an independent third party company and if they determine the market for these cars to be X, that's what they work with. I ran out of ways to counter it and was fortunate given that I have a special car, I could get it appraised through another company. The value was still too low, but I was able to finagle some things around in the estimate and make it work for a decent payout and a clear title. I don't see that happening here.

IIRC, in CA, you have to agree to a settlement before they can send a salvage notice to the DMV. The problem is that the notice can theoretically be sent anytime, and isn't reversible once it is sent.

The thing I'd tackle first is to just argue and reject their comps until they give you comps for an M30 car. Go after the incorrect assessment of the condition of your car. It looks gorgeous in your photos. On looks alone, that is much, much better than a $2600 car.

Good luck. I'd also consider showing the premium that Euro-converted cars sell for over their NA-spec siblings.

[stratos]

I know this does not help the OP but this topic is somewhat all of our problem and this should help.

I live in CA and have Wawanesa insurance. http://www.wawanesageneral.com/ (which, btw, is an AMAZING insurance company.)

My policy is due and I've just put a lot of money into my car. I called and asked if they had "Stated Insurance" where I would say my car is worth more than FMV and I'd pay them more. They said they don't offer this or any form of restored/classic car insurance. (which I knew)

But then I asked her what's the difference between this and me buying a new car and putting a $5000 dollar stereo system in where I then provided them the receipts for "Non Standard Equipment" and then paid them more to cover that equipment. (which I KNOW they do.)

She thought for a moment and had to put me on hold but she came back saying that I could!! Things like bodywork/paint job, rims, and possibly even my motor can be included in all this. I have to provide receipts and then they need to do an inspection of my car to verify these items are installed on this car. She was able to look up prices. I asked what $10,000 dollars in receipts would cost me. $158/year. And the car remains my daily driver. (Did I mention this was the best insurance company?)


I realize this isn't even the concept here, as the OPs car might not have such "upgrades" which would inflate the value of the car, bringing it more in-line with what we all think. But, when dealing with your insurance company, be sure to feel out all the options they offer.