My Poor Poor Pristine e30.....

[joshh]

Devil's advocate: "Sir, you've been driving around a near twenty-year-old BMW that is valued just above $6000. You can take that money and buy a car ten to fifteen years newer."

For us E30 enthusiasts, it's hard to imagine what is "better" for this kind of money, it sounds cheesy but you get my point. However, to the rest of the world, it's an old BMW. Sure it has low-mileage, sure it's in great shape, but to others (your insurance company included) a 2000 Honda or Toyota is their idea of "bettering" your situation.

Like aptyp mentioned, you have to sell your car as a low-mileage classic, a car that on forums such as this would fetch very close to five figures. If you don't they're going to see it as some run-of-the-mill BMW that someone forgot to drive for 10-12 years.

Exactly. Great post.

[einstein57]

OK, here's my new area of expertise, since i wrecked my car lastg month and got it settled just today after 42 days of negotiations ($8k for 325eS, modified)

Step by step.

1. they will send out the adjuster and appraise it. If they offer you $2000, don't get pissed. just send in receipts and that will add in a little more, but keep the chains moving. it's like a football game, you'll have to grind the field 10 yards at a time.
2. Request an independent appraiser and make sure you pick one, not them.
3. Go to NADA and get the value yourself, and fax it to them, alond with a few advertisements of similar model.
4 Read your state's general assembly laws about total loss claims.
5. Request appraisal clause, may get denied, but worth asking for.
6. If the adjuster is being a dick, call another adjuster and ask for manager's name and number. Do NOT let your adjuster know you will do that, let the manager come down on him and review files. Remember, in insurance industry, every manager has a manager, so don't be afraid to jump around on the management tree.

PM me, if you want, I'll help you go through your state's general assembly, also tell me what's the insurance company. Some companies are a pain in the ass to deal with (allstate, gave 40 day run for my money). As long as they have to increase offer little by little, they will HAVE to pay for your rental.

So many things wrong (at least for the state of california)

1) The appraisal clause can be envoked by either party. They can't deny it, they can only deny paying for the appraisal. (ie you have to hire your own). Normally if you bluff (even when the insured's being an ass) we will fold and say well go ahead and order one and you can order our own if you don't agree with the findings.

2) Don't call another adjuster. Just ask for the managers name and # and ask to be transfered while they are talking to you. They can't deny you the information. They aren't going to come down on the adjuster so don't think it's going to light a fire under the adjusters ass (unless they are just a crappy adjuster). Trying to jump around just makes the insured's seem childish and irrational.

3) They do not have to continue paying rental if you are disputing the value. Regardless of the outcome of the value the rental is a seperate coverage and has its own conditions. Typically 2 days after an offer is presented. Not accepted.

Read the contract. Almost all are the same and have to abide by the "standard policy" that has minimum requirements that have to be met. Most policies go above and beyond the california standard policy.

I paid $7500 cash and did about $1200 worth of labor to the sellers car. I still think I got a deal, and would pay it again. The have the adjuster up to about $6500 but it still is NOT enough. My whole thing is by law they have to get you into a car the same or better than what you had, and with this value it aint never gonn happen. Also, does anybody have an A to B car(any make) for sale in socal (santa monica area) for cheap that I can tool around in for the meantime? Thanks in Advanvce

There are two types of policies, agreed value which is normally for classic and collector car, and ACV. There is no such law that states they have to get you in the same or better. The ACV or actual cash value policiy states they must pay the actual cash value which is determined by comparable vehicles. Meaning other equivalent year, make, and model cars. Not neccessarily condition or mileage. Once they have determined the base market they make adjustments to reflect the difference between the typical e30 and your such as mileage and condition. The market survey must be conducted by an independent third party, normally CCC or ADP and NADA and KBB can not be included cause they are not accurate. KBB even tells you in fine print that it may not reflect the correct market value. Just remember an appraiser is going to do a nation wide search for other e30's and pull 2-3 cars that they feel are the closets to yours and make there value based on that. So if there are not and bone stock e30s advertising for 10k+ they will not value your car as such. The highest advertised one i found was $7500 with 64K miles on cars.com.


I hope this does not sound like i'm being a jerk. Just putting out the facts about insurance claims.

[Aptyp]

HA, as I said, need to read your states general assembly to find out all the quirks.

In liability situations, insurance company doesn't have to disclose the the appraisal clause (Allstate or NC rule???) Plus they do not give away their drivers contract information to the liability claimant (that would be against the law in every state, unless you're dealing with your own insurance company).

It is not bluffing when you ask for an independent appraiser. It is a regular practice, and every insurance company has some one on call, all you have to make sure that it's some one local and some one you can easily come into contact with.

Every time they make an offer, request it in writing, and for it to be detailed. Since adjusters know less about cars, it's easy to find mistakes in offers, and dispute the offer as being incorrect (I did it 4 times, even with independent appraiser).

DO request ADP or CCC, whichever one they use, uber important since it's their offer.

And i do not mean jump between adjusters. All I am saying is, contact supervisor before the adjuster contacts him. If the superviser has to get of hi9s chair and go to the adjuster and go through the claim, it makes the adjuster less important.

Keep everything in writing, ask them to contact you by fax 100%. My adjuster lied to me about the property loss disclosures (NC law), but he lied on the phone, and unless they recorded the conversation, I got nothing.

Now rental is separate, but in my case I didn't have a rental, so i got the cash-out. By any policy, they try to stop rental when they make an offer, but by law (in NC) they are required to give you time to find a car. In NC it's business days. So if they make original offer, but it's low, you send in receipts, you get second offer, independent appraiser, third offer, only then they can legally stop rental. If you find mistakes in independent appraisal, rental will continue. Cash out was awesome, I got $20 per day for 40 days (July 4th holiday, and adjusters and his managers vacations also helped).

READ CA GENERAL ASSEMBLY or ask Einstein57, since he's in CA already, and he helped me out when I was learning NC laws.

[Aptyp]

OH, don't fall in for the ACV and FMV (fair market value), those terms SUCK ASS, and mean nothing. Adjuster is not going to do you any favors or try to help you locate a similar car by searching their database and other classifieds. It is your job to do so. I went on Autotrader and found only 4 ES's for sale in the country, and sent him all 4 of them. Average price between those 4 was $4,087 and I would NEVER pay that much for an E. What I am saying is, use ridiculous and crazy people to your advantage.

FMV - “Fair Market Value is the price for property which would be agreed upon between a willing and informed buyer and a willing and informed seller under usual and ordinary circumstances”

You are the buyer.

Also NC doesn't have the law about them finding you and buying a similar vehicle, but they are in business to reimburse you for your property loss. Under NC property laws there were plenty of rules about insurance company having to put you back into the position you were pre-accident. That means, by law they are required to put you in a pristine 89 IS.

I can't stress this enough, READ GENERAL ASSEMBLY. It's very hard to understand, it's annoying as hell, redundant at times, common sense for the idiots, but most importantly, it's the law.

[einstein57]

Hmmm. I assumed he was going through his own carrier. If he has a liability claim then they are not allowed to disclose their insureds policy coverage limits w/o their insured's consent. I'm not to keen on the liability side as i only handled 1st party claims. But our liability adjusters always handled 3rd party claims as if they were our own. What better way to advertise for your company. The bluffing thing was to have him say that he would hire an appraiser if the adjuster did not offer one after he submitted his comps. The adjuster does not want to make it look like he was not proactive if there is a DOI complaint filed and will acquiesce to paying for it. They are required to send you a copy of the value report within 10 days. Our internal time was same day. And with the supervisor thing we would have to walk to our supers desk with the file and explain what the situation was and everything we did to rectify the claim. Including showing print outs of comps to show the value was a. right on the money or b. slightly off, or c. unable to be verified due to the nature of the vehicle. If its b. or c. the supervisor would tell us to request the appraisal and to inform the insured of the appraisal and advise the insured the manager is available to discuss the claim if they still need to discuss the claim. That way if, or when you do speak to the manager they are not going to have to say I'll call you back once they have had time to review your file. And if the deny any part of a claim or tell you they can't do something for any reason request it in writing. Always request a denial of anything ( including receipts) in writing. We had a preset denial letter for everything we could not cover. For example a cylinder head receipt and the insured is claiming a full engine rebuild. Or receipts for new tires and the tires on the car are bald. Or a receipts for spark plugs on a diesal car.

[bmwtyler]

I am going through the other women's policy. Im botexactly sure what to do. Ive sent them 5 different ads of low mileage e30's ranging from $11,000-29,000. Still they only low balled me. Truly is a shame.

[george graves]

subscribe - maybe I can learn something here - seems like a lot of conflicting info.

BTW - sorry to hear about your baby.

[Sean]

Sorry about your loss man. Goodluck getting everything sorted out! But, I really don't see how an e30 can be worth 10k, 60k or 150k. unless it's been rebuilt from the ground up and upgraded everywhere or something.

Where did you find an e30 for 29k?! It's never going to sell for that!

[parkerbink]

Sorry for your loss. I got 9k a little more than two years ago for my sub 60k cabrio.

If they refuse to be reasonable I'd ask my insurer to get involved. I hope you have full coverage.

[Lair]

OP - if you decide to settle with them and sell the car, shoot me a PM. I'll be in Pasadena in late August or early September, and I'd like to have the car if we can come to terms. If you can get enough from the insurer for the damage, you might be able to make the numbers work by pocketing that cash and selling the car.

I have deep connections in the local body shop biz, and I have most of the parts to repair the car lying around already. I'm looking for a nice builder.

[Jean]

I paid $7500 cash and did about $1200 worth of labor to the sellers car. I still think I got a deal, and would pay it again. The have the adjuster up to about $6500 but it still is NOT enough. My whole thing is by law they have to get you into a car the same or better than what you had, and with this value it aint never gonn happen. Also, does anybody have an A to B car(any make) for sale in socal (santa monica area) for cheap that I can tool around in for the meantime? Thanks in Advanvce

Sorry this happened but you have to be realistic. What you paid for a car doesn't mean what the car is WORTH when it comes to insurance. If you paid 7500 and they are actually giving you 6500 that's a damn good deal if you ask me. This isn't a collectors car, and you've had it for a how long/driven it?

I am going through the other women's policy. Im botexactly sure what to do. Ive sent them 5 different ads of low mileage e30's ranging from $11,000-29,000. Still they only low balled me. Truly is a shame.

Are the 11-29k E30 M3s?

I don't think 6500 is low balling you on a clean stock e30 (non m3).

Good luck.

[TDE30]

Are the 11-29k E30 M3s?

Oh, I found this one for $40k.

I kid I kid.

[rThor432]

Oh, I found this one for $40k.

But that was 3 years ago-- gotta think about the appreciation of the vehicle. The value could be close to $50k now .

Ha I remember that from back in the day..

[Aptyp]

Not conflicting info, just different states. Also doesn't help that insurance jargon is a two-face to confuse the living hell out any one.

By the way, there was a good idea here. If you have full or comprehensive coverage, call your insurance company. They will try their best to get you what you deserve.

And don't listen to any one here who says to take money and run. If half of the people on this forum crashed their cars, they'd be sitting glued to the screen crying and whining like little biatches.

If it was a pristine e30 and with such low mileage could easily be a collectible. If you sent them advertisements for $29k i think you've overshot even the craziest of people, unless somehow you went back in time to get an original advertisement.

You should be aiming for 8-10k honestly, but anything more than that will have to be lawyer, unless you can prove some super significant emotional attachment (which you'll have to prove in arbitration or court).

[parkerbink]

Oh, I found this one for $40k.

I kid I kid.

Anything to do with wes is a clusterfuck.