Another one bites the dust...

[M-technik-3]

Ask your insurance agent to pull his phone records. Then get a quote.

[CabbE30]

OH NO!!! I'm sorry dude! That is shitty. Hopefully everything works out & you can be back in a fresh e30 in no time.

[TimKninja]

4g should be enough to repair it. They can pull out those quarters . But that's up to you.

I got rear ended in my e30 like 6 months ago. But it wasn't bad at all. I got a 2g check and I have to tell people that I got hit .

There must be something with these cars. So many getting rear ended lately. Do people just suck or is the e30 harder to notice? Definitely know I'm putting in brighter brake lights .

[RondoAcapriccio]

How much distance did you have between you and the car in front of you? I tend to have a car length just incase of instances like this. I know that as soon as your struck from behind your foot tends to come off the brake. Hence why I asked.

Sorry to see your ride crushed like that.

This, I was involved in a similar accident except I was the guy in front of OP.

A truck slammed into the car behind my car while at a red light, and as a result the car behind my car bumped into my car. My brother was driving my e28, and at the time had american bumpers... damage wasn't too bad just pushed in the rusty shock mount side lol...left it in till the adjuster came, then I popped it out. a few weeks later I got 1k lol.. went and bought euro bumpers. The adjuster was talking about how he had an e23 back in the day so I don't know if he was being nice in his assessment or because with the exception of that rust spot my car was pretty mint lol(by 30 y.o car standards).


anyway now I am always cautious of how I pull up between cars.. and I maintain a relative distance until I know the guy behind me has stopped for sure.

[Wild Ride]

Beautiful car sucks to see it hit. I had a similar thing happen.

My dad rear ended a guy in my beloved first car a wagon my parents bought brand new in 92. The sentimental value and condition of this car was through the roof. Salvaging it was not an option for me which insurance companies will often try to do on an older car with a low book value so we came out of pocket for the repair and kept the insurance company from assigning a salvage title to the car. They claimed the car was worth $1700 market value (even though we have over $4500 in recipts over the last 3 years. At that value any accident would total it. If the car was newer and with more fixing it would have been no big deal so we were aggressive about not assigning a salvage title by coming out of pocket at a qualified shop to pay the difference for a proper repair.

Buying good used body parts, trim, radiators etc at enthusiast/junkyard prices will keep repair costs reasonable to allow you to keep this wonderful car on the road. Good used e30 parts are plentiful. For example you can find a used hood for $100, the body shop buying new from BMW would be $900. A trim piece could be $100 instead of $5. Same goes for bumpers, valences etc.

Here are some before and after pics to give you some motivation to keep it on the road.

[freeride53]

OP, sorry to see that. The car looke extremely clean! Accidents also fucking suck. However, I dont think fixing the rear wouldn't be worth it. Give it a shot. E30s are plentiful in yards.

Beautiful car sucks to see it hit. I had a similar thing happen.

My dad rear ended a guy in my beloved first car a wagon my parents bought brand new in 92. The sentimental value and condition of this car was through the roof. Salvaging it was not an option for me which insurance companies will often try to do on an older car with a low book value so we came out of pocket for the repair and kept the insurance company from assigning a salvage title to the car. They claimed the car was worth $1700 market value (even though we have over $4500 in recipts over the last 3 years. At that value any accident would total it. If the car was newer and with more fixing it would have been no big deal so we were aggressive about not assigning a salvage title by coming out of pocket at a qualified shop to pay the difference for a proper repair.

Buying good used body parts, trim, radiators etc at enthusiast/junkyard prices will keep repair costs reasonable to allow you to keep this wonderful car on the road. Good used e30 parts are plentiful. For example you can find a used hood for $100, the body shop buying new from BMW would be $900. A trim piece could be $100 instead of $5. Same goes for bumpers, valences etc.

Here are some before and after pics to give you some motivation to keep it on the road.

Sounds familiar. A 92 Volvo Wagon that my parents bought new, sentimental value etc.. When my dad hit it in a pillar in a parking garage, we fixed 'er up in the same manner. 240's are all over the yards in norcal.


The Swaggawagon goes to SF by sina.pour, on Flickr

BTW, I see this car on Mission sometimes. Looks super clean!

[plmichal]

Thanks for the support guys. I would love to keep the car and I have every intention to do so. I just don't know whether to buy another e30 and make this one a dedicated track car. Or I could fix it and keep driving it with a salvage title and save the money from the adjuster/settlement and invest. Shit, I may get enough to find a nice e30 m3, I just don't know.

One of my biggest problems is that I don't have many receipts of all the parts I purchased for this car. I have every receipt from all the parts I bought at BMW, but things like coilovers, side skirts, Recaro, wheels, and other misc things. So I don't know if I'll be able to squeeze out any more than they're offering (definitely my mistake). What I do have are links to cars currently for sale of equivalent value. Some are modified more closely to mycar than others, but I don't know how much that helps.

NOT HAVING MY CAR TO DRIVE BLOWS.

[Lodsin]

Didn't read it all, Dibbs on grids. +1 on mirrors, sorry for your loss :( No girl should go before her time.

[Wild Ride]

You can fix the car without a salvage title. As far as not having receipts it's often better to let the insurance company assess the car as stock because they will let you "buy it back" for cheaper. If you say the car has x dollars in parts they will give you more money to salvage the car but also charge you more to get it back. You can part the car out if you take it back or keep the parts for the next car so the accident didn't really affect the parts you would keep.

[Wild Ride]

Then again higher the value the more they will give you while not assigning a salvage title