R. Range

I have an '05 E55 which I bought for my wife almost 3 years ago. Nice car with no damage history, pewter over black, and fairly well optioned. We have always had it serviced at the local MBZ dealer and the car now has 70k miles. A couple of days before Christmas one of our sons was in what I would call a relatively minor accident in which he was stopped and a driver coming from his left clipped the front foot and a half or so of our car with the rightmost foot and a half of their car at 30 mph or so. The impact ripped the front bumper off our car and in doing so damaged the radiator, the front of the hood, and the fronts of both fenders, along with the bumper supports etc. of course. But everything from there back is fine, including the front wheels and tires, brakes, etc.

Given the relatively high cost to repair these cars with OEM parts, it sounds like the insurance claim is going to be around $16k to repair. I figure the car was worth around $26k before the wreck. I don't think the insurance co. will total the car, although they have mentioned helping me find a buyer for the car in its present condition (presumably a salvage or parts outfit) if I want to go that route. Which leaves me in sort of a gray area as to what to do. I'm sure the car can be repaired to like new condition, but at that point I figure it will be worth a few thousand less due to the wreck on its history, and we had been talking about trading/selling it fairly soon anyway as she's due for something new. Another option would be to take the insurance payout, plus whatever I can get for the car as a whole as is (the insurance adjuster mentioned 8-9k as a preliminary number, which would put me close to what I figure the car was worth), and be done with it. And I suppose a third option would be to take the insurance payout and then part the car out myself (it seems to me the engine/tranny alone ought to be worth $6-7k), but that's probably more time/hassle than I want to mess with.

So, does anyone have any thoughts about the best route to go? Anyone happen to know of a place that might be interested in buying the car as is, either to part out or to repair themself at a lower price? TIA for any feedback.

adianaty

Same thing happened to me. I ended up taking the money and finding used OEM parts for everything. Insurance was going to pay me $15k and I essentially got it done for $6500 doing most of the leg work myself. The key question you need to ask is if the insurance company is going to make it a salvage title if you take the money. Given the numbers they will likely decide to total it since when it happened to me the car was worth $30k and the damage was half of the value. If I were in your shoes since it sounds like you were going to trade it in anyway, I'd just let it go. Maybe someone on the board would purchase it from you as well so post up some picks. If the drivetrain and suspension were not affected it would make forna great race car.

Good luck!

Toadster

maybe a nice E63 front conversion now

FASN8N

johnc2000 needs your motor!

R. Range

I figured there had to be someone out there in need of a 55 engine and/or tranny. Getting it out and shipped might be a hassle though. Plus from reading his thread it sounds like he still doesn't know for sure whether he defnitely needs an engine (although it doesn't sound good).

If I kept the car I'd definitely do an E63 front bumper on it, but it really doesn't make sense to keep it and fix it unless I plan to keep it several more years and well up over 100k mile territory.

R. Range

Nevermind--insurance co. just called and said they're going to total it. Probably the best thing, but she will be missed.

Worth the wait

How much are they giving you?

R. Range

Right at $32k with tax. Go Allstate!

02S430

buy it back and part it

hbr

Glad it worked out........good on Allstate too

Johncy2000

How much for your engine? Please. Thank you sir!

R. Range

Won't be my engine soon as they've totalled out the car. I saw in your thread you said your dad didn't want to pay $9k for a new engine--were you talking about a rebuild? I can't imagine you could buy a new 55 engine for $9k.

AWOL

Steal the BCM from the trunk before it goes away. Ill pay you for it

emoving

Hes getting $32000 for a 2005 with 70k on the clock. Parting it out is some stupid advice at this point!

skratch77

serioulsy stop with the negative posts bro.

yes he can buy the car for like 4k off them and part it out and keep what they gave him in the first place.

what do you think insurance companies do with wrecked cars?

they go on copart/auctions and they try to get something for them.I would offer them 3k for it and ask them to keep it and then part it out.

emoving

3k............I am sure they were born last night and it their first day in the ins. business. Quit the pair you two are.

novae500

if i had a blown engine. I would just buy the whole totalled car. Pull the engine and replace the damaged one. And part the rest of the car out. I'm sure there would be a list of guys needing parts for their E55.

skratch77

lol you have no clue wtf your talking about.

search copart and see what wrecked cars sell for and it will cost the insurance about 400-500 bucks just to list it and bring it to a facility.

fully clean running e55s sell for 13k-15k at auction

ohh and my mechanic bought his e55 from there for under 5k shipped to his house and a turbo 911 with x50 turbos for 25k and sold it 2 weeks later for 36 grand

ask dima he has seen how many turbos my friend has.its over 10 and counting

320 dreamer

my 02 slk32 was totalled in jan. the ins. co. paid me 20,650$ for the car and i bought it back for 2900$. Stripped all my mods off and sold the car with driveline for 3500$

skratch77

yeah it happens all the time,insurance companies are not used wrecked car dealers.They dont want to bring the car to a junk yard and wait to see what it will sell for.

Iv been eying this car for a few days now.The thing I like about copart is you only up the price if a real buyer wants the car and there is no inflation of the actual insurance company upping the bid on you.If no one wants the car you get it for what it sells for.

http://www.copart.com/c2/homeSearch....SEARCH_RESULTS

Ag02m5

Anyone every buy anything at Copart? Seems like possibly a good way to pick up a track toy that you are going to thrash on.

02S430

Well I said to part it out incase some of our brother on here need some parts and wanted OEM ones

justinwrock

I have bought a few cars off copart and IAAI.



Best score was 2 E30 shells for $1000. Im building one track car out of the two cars lol

WHTEVO

Just take the money and move on to another one, or something else. Sounds like they are giving you a fair amount. Good luck.

Aaron