Please Need Help Proving to Insurance that my e30 is not wrecked at $2300 damage

[nando]

Get the car appraised professionally. it will cost about $100. That is the only way you will "win".

They go off of kelly blue book. Thats where they got that number. Your car on KB says is worth 2100

no, not everywhere and only the shitty insurance companies (hello geico). The better ones have their own method for determining the car's value, based off comparible cars that have actually sold recently in your area. The problem is they are dealer sales, so finding comps for an old car is hard. Mine tried to use an early E36 325i as a comp, which is a worthless POS, and nothing like my car at all. So I got an appraiser who found several good comps and bumped the value of my car from like $3k to $7k.

[StereoInstaller1]

This thread is exactly why I had a discussion with my agent BEFORE there was an issue.

My settlement was with the adjuster for the city of Renton (I was hit by a cop) and the guy was actually pretty knowledgeable about E30 values, and was quite sympathetic to my idea of "this was a cherry little car and was going up in value daily". The adjuster I worked with understood that I do all of my own work and was able to cash me out at $3100 without totalling my title.

Hire a lawyer if you have to and stick to your guns. Don't ever accept the first offer.

BTW: I went from making the claim to having cash in hand in 6 working days.

GL.

Luke

[richard.torres4560]

OP, even if your friend is ready to foot the bill, make sure you get estimates from some state of the art workshops and present them to the car insurance adjuster. Once you have a reasonable amount check in your hands, get it fixed somewhere for less and party with the balance. Good luck!