_Nathan

I decided to stop by Annapolis Porsche on my way to the gym since they were having their Panamera launch party this evening. About 2 blocks from the dealer a kid in a 2002 Hyundai Accent made a left turn from a gas station right in front of me and I hit him on the drivers side. No one was hurt and luckily I was driving my wife's 2001 330ci and not my 997. I would have been driving my car but I had it all cleaned up for the Rennlist MD/DC/VA meet-and-drive tomorrow morning, so I took the BMW instead. We had already ordered a 2010 Z4 to replace the 330ci. The BMW dealer was going to give us $10K for the 330 on a trade in so I don't know what happens now. The Hyundai driver was at fault and I have already called in a claim on his insurance.

As you can see, when you hit a Hyundai Accent broadside with a BMW 330, the Hyundai gets the worst of it (Hyundai pic was taken with my crappy cellphone).

BTW, I still went to the Panamera launch party and that car is HUGE.

PHDX2

Sorry to hear of this and glad that no one was injured.

I agree---better the BMW than the Porsche, especially given that the BMW is slated to be traded soon.

By the way, my reaction to the Panamera was the same as the one you noted. The car is HUGE!

sharmat

Sorry for your misfortune. The BMW didnt fair too bad compared to the Hyundai.

rijowysock

ull prolly get a check from insurance for the car, then turn that into the dealer... probably over 10 unless your insurance company tries to screw you.. still cant believe the 330's got that cheap.. for 10 everyone should be driving 330's!

dD/dt

About to trade in?

Get it to Earl Scheib quick!

Nicole

Have a body shop check the BMW for hidden damage (under the bumper). It may be worse than it seems at a first glance - you never know.

Glad no body and no Porsche were hurt.

Macster

Glad no one was injured.

About the BMW. Get it checked out by reputable repair shop that speclizes in these cars. One way to get shop is to ask various local BMW/Mercedes/Porsche dealers where they send cars for repairs.

You can have a problem with the BMW. 1) Trade in offer was based on car's lack of accident damage. After repairs, even if done as good as humanly possible your BMW will have lost some trade in value. In fact dealer may no longer want it, though if new car sale riding on trade in dealer might take car even if it had a dead body in the trunk, but you can be sure trade in alllowance will be adjusted downwards. If this happens though you might be able to turn around and file a diminished value claim against the other driver and his insurance company. You will have the pre-accident offer for the car and then you will have a post accident offer and from this you can clearl show a loss of value arising from the accident.

2) Dealer may insist you owe it a BMW comparable to the car you have offered as trade in. Depends up on how firm the deal is, but a real hard *** dealer could try to scare you into either coming up with a comparable replacement car -- which you would be of course hard pressed to do -- or of course take way less for the car or pay way more for the new car.

Worry about these later.

First task is to ensure BMW's condition accurately assessed -- it will have suffered more damage than you think -- and then get the car properly repaired. This can take weeks maybe a month or even longer depending upon work load at repair shop and parts needed, etc.

Sincerely,

Macster.

_Nathan

Thanks all

umsneeze

Had a similar issue (although hadn't put a deal together). Wife's Saab was backed into. We were considering replacing it. I had an estimate $1100 for repair. Dealer took her car at blue book minus the estimate. I took the insurance check and deposited it.

At Law

Since the BMW is not worth much, I would have it repaired by a decent
body shop and trade it in.

In reality, a BMW with some minor body repair work is not worth
a whole lot less than one without any damage. It would be a
rare find to buy a 2001 car of any type (besides P-Cars, F-Cars,
and a few others with **** owners like us) that haven't had any body work.

Alfie

Call the dealer you're trading the car in to. Ask them how they want to handle it. Have them re appraise it if necessary. If it was worth 10k, and is worth 8k now, and costs 3k to fix....

Get all the information before you get the car fixed.