Help: Ins company wants to total our IX

[jflower]

yo kids..

we (hms motorsport) have an 88 iX with 80k on it. mint. not one accident ever, no rust anywhere, etc. cardinal leather, mint. fresh paint on plastic bumpers, huge service overhaul 15k ago, new M Tech springs and bilstein shocks.

rear ended by an ambulance. no specific info on what they wrote up the damages as, or what we're going to be charged by our body shop.

so i need help compiling documentation showing that the car is worth more than it's 3500 NADA value. found an ad for a similar car in our want advertiser for 5500, but i'm hoping to find more than just that. we have pictures of the car, so that's not a problem.

anyway, i know people here have had to fight this fight, so i'm wondering if anyone has this specific information already compiled.

any help would be appreciated.

[e9nine]

Yo gramps....I think there is an iX registry. They would have mint cars for sale or bought within recent times in some publication or website you can use to appraise the car by street value. Good luck

[bimmerphile]

iX Registry Classifieds:

http://home.earthlink.net/~hainesinutah/iX/general/classifieds.html

[jflower]

y'all be the bizzle fo shizzle.

[MR 325]

http://www.autotrader.com/findacar/results.jtmpl?model=325IX&start_year=1984&end_year=1992&min_price=&max_price=&distance=any&certified=n&advanced=y&advcd_on=n&make=BMW&address=91214&search_type=used&x=45&y=11

[UNHCLL]

Show the insurance company the records for the maitenance it recently had. Show the reciepts for the paint, find other similar examples (ebay, want advertiser, etc) to show fair market value.

Make it a pimpin project for HMS... ;)

[Numbersix]

Keep in mind--they can't declare it a total until you sign the papers.

How are they arriving at that value?

In Washington state, there is (apparently) a state law which prohibits insurance companies from going by blue book value. When my car was involved in an incident last September, the insurance company contracted to a third party service that looked up three similar cars (in terms of age mileage) for sale in the vicinity of my zip code, averaged the asking prices of the 3, and gave them a value of $3,180. That was less than high blue book.

However, my policy stated that if I was not happy with that value, I could contest it (which I did). If we were unable to arrive at an agreed value, they would hire an independent appraiser; if I was unsatisfied with THAT, I could hire my OWN appraiser (at my expense) and the two reports would be compared.

I produced as much documentation as I could--receipts for the motor rebuild, suspension, body hardware (car was repainted), etc...and it raised the value by only $700.

I gave them as many comps as I could find, and most were discounted for being out of my geographic area.

The thing that made the difference in my case was pre-accident photos, and lots of 'em. Once the claims agent saw the car as not just a dusty, dirty, broken thing stuffed in a corner of a body shop garage, she *immediately* went to bat for me.

Final result: Appraised value of ~$6,150, car fixed, good as new.

[JRowe]

I'm an attorney. I don't know about the law in MA, but in KS and many other states, fair compensation for your car is arrived at by looking at comparable sales in the local area. It can be contested as mentioned. You need to find out the law in your state.

If they insist upon totaling, buy the car back from them and use the difference between the buy back and settlement values to repair the car.

What it comes down to, probably, is that you will have to prove the condition and value of the car bases upon comparables and do your best at negotiating the settlement. It's really not worth a lawsuit. Unfortuneately, the insurance companies know this and thats in their favor.