Bought an old BMW M3, filled with regret...

No details on Housey's M3 m8 as of yet. I don't think the marker will affect me mentally at all. D is minor and not a cause for concern in most cases. If I was a buyer I'd be wary, I'd want everything documented, I'd want to visit the bodyshop to see what their workshop is like and what they're like etc.

[TW]Fox;28977085 said:
Would they not pay the bill at your mates place, thus avoiding Cat D?

How much is the cost repair going to cost you?

Will £7650 cover the cost of the repair and the depreciation through it's Cat D status?

Seems like you are paying £3k for the salvage, which seems a lot?

Yes Admiral's savage value has gone up in recent times it seems. It's certainly not 10-20% any more.

I considered the depreciation too, but as the car isn't going anywhere any time soon/at all, I don't think this will matter too much.

Even 7000 will more than cover the repairs being done here. I'm looking at about 4-5k based on his initial giving the car a once over (it's only been with him a day and the shop is now closed for the holiday period). I'll have the exact figure when they open up on the 5th January.

As I walk past the shop twice a day to and from work, he's said I'm welcome to stop by each day and check out the progress and photo document each stage. This might mean nothing to anyone else, but it's peace of mind and at least I'll have documented evidence showing it's all been done to a quality standard.

It needs:
- A new boot lid
- Weather seal
- Rear bumper (this can be used as it's only going to be painted anyway)
- Crash panel 1 for the bumper area and panel 2 repair for the boot floor area
- Some trim bits under the bumper and in the wheel arch area
- Paint process (I will probably pay a bit of extra cash and get them to do the whole car)
- Both passenger side alloys refurbed by local wheel specialist

Cheap bits that I've ordered anyway this afternoon:
- New lip spoiler
- New OEM M3 boot badge
- ///M stickers for the alloys

Once everything is done, I'll contact my insurer and see about getting an agreed value arranged. This should add some security should I get hit again in the future.
 
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No details on Housey's M3 m8 as of yet. I don't think the marker will affect me mentally at all. D is minor and not a cause for concern in most cases. If I was a buyer I'd be wary, I'd want everything documented, I'd want to visit the bodyshop to see what their workshop is like and what they're like etc.

Be realistic, as soon as you see cat D you go to the next advert.
 
You're assuming I'm going to be selling the car. Upgrade in the future will more than likely be a new/AUC car, not a private buy. So will just part ex in. Otherwise I'll just stick to the plan from earlier in the year when I got this, keep it and add an EV in years to come.
 
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You're assuming I'm going to be selling the car. Upgrade in the future will more than likely be a new/AUC car, not a private buy. So will just part ex in.

You'll part-ex in for thousands of pounds less than if it was a Cat D. It's worthless to any decent dealer as a Cat D, all they can do with it no matter how nice is throw it at the auction house, where for the same reason it will attract very few bids.

I'm not averse to the idea of Cat D at all but the numbers have to make sense.

And with just £7650 to both pay for the repair in full and account for loss of value I don't think the numbers do make sense in this example.

I can't see how a decent bodyshop can do a decent job for a huge amount less than the BMW quote. Main dealer bodyshops are not like main dealer service departments, they work on far leaner margins and often find themselves having to play to the insurers tune in terms of labour rates etc. The rates they'll do for insurers will be very keen and I'm just not sure how anyone else is going to suddenly take thousands off it - they'll be a bit cheaper, sure.

Which means if BMW is £7k your alternative is going to be what, £5.5-£6k at the best case scenario?
 
[TW]Fox;28977344 said:
You'll part-ex in for thousands of pounds less than if it was a Cat D. It's worthless to any decent dealer as a Cat D, all they can do with it no matter how nice is throw it at the auction house, where for the same reason it will attract very few bids.

I'm not averse to the idea of Cat D at all but the numbers have to make sense.

And with just £7650 to both pay for the repair in full and account for loss of value I don't think the numbers do make sense in this example.

I can't see how a decent bodyshop can do a decent job for a huge amount less than the BMW quote. Main dealer bodyshops are not like main dealer service departments, they work on far leaner margins and often find themselves having to play to the insurers tune in terms of labour rates etc. The rates they'll do for insurers will be very keen and I'm just not sure how anyone else is going to suddenly take thousands off it - they'll be a bit cheaper, sure.

Which means if BMW is £7k your alternative is going to be what, £5.5-£6k at the best case scenario?

exactly what I was going to say! :) that marker will have a massive hit on the value, you might not sell it now but in a few years you'll be struggling to get a reasonable price, especially for condition that I'm sure it'll stay in.
 
No details on Housey's M3 m8 as of yet. I don't think the marker will affect me mentally at all. D is minor and not a cause for concern in most cases. If I was a buyer I'd be wary, I'd want everything documented, I'd want to visit the bodyshop to see what their workshop is like and what they're like etc.



Yes Admiral's savage value has gone up in recent times it seems. It's certainly not 10-20% any more.

I considered the depreciation too, but as the car isn't going anywhere any time soon/at all, I don't think this will matter too much.

Even 7000 will more than cover the repairs being done here. I'm looking at about 4-5k based on his initial giving the car a once over (it's only been with him a day and the shop is now closed for the holiday period). I'll have the exact figure when they open up on the 5th January.

As I walk past the shop twice a day to and from work, he's said I'm welcome to stop by each day and check out the progress and photo document each stage. This might mean nothing to anyone else, but it's peace of mind and at least I'll have documented evidence showing it's all been done to a quality standard.

It needs:
- A new boot lid
- Weather seal
- Rear bumper (this can be used as it's only going to be painted anyway)
- Crash panel 1 for the bumper area and panel 2 repair for the boot floor area
- Some trim bits under the bumper and in the wheel arch area
- Paint process (I will probably pay a bit of extra cash and get them to do the whole car)
- Both passenger side alloys refurbed by local wheel specialist

Cheap bits that I've ordered anyway this afternoon:
- New lip spoiler
- New OEM M3 boot badge
- ///M stickers for the alloys

Once everything is done, I'll contact my insurer and see about getting an agreed value arranged. This should add some security should I get hit again in the future.

Will they give you a decent agreed value on a cat d car?
 
[TW]Fox;28977344 said:
You'll part-ex in for thousands of pounds less than if it was a Cat D. It's worthless to any decent dealer as a Cat D, all they can do with it no matter how nice is throw it at the auction house, where for the same reason it will attract very few bids.

I'm not averse to the idea of Cat D at all but the numbers have to make sense.

And with just £7650 to both pay for the repair in full and account for loss of value I don't think the numbers do make sense in this example.

I can't see how a decent bodyshop can do a decent job for a huge amount less than the BMW quote. Main dealer bodyshops are not like main dealer service departments, they work on far leaner margins and often find themselves having to play to the insurers tune in terms of labour rates etc. The rates they'll do for insurers will be very keen and I'm just not sure how anyone else is going to suddenly take thousands off it - they'll be a bit cheaper, sure.

Which means if BMW is £7k your alternative is going to be what, £5.5-£6k at the best case scenario?

All I can tell you is what BMW confirmed to Admiral and myself, that they were only authorised to lower the price to 7000 and would not budge below that figure, the best they could do was remove the need for the supplied hire car and offer the BMW courtesy car. My place would do it cheaper by default anyway, it just so turns out it's even cheaper because they can give me a good rate. To be honest I should have gone to them back in early December instead of arranging it through BMW. Had I know then the time constraints wouldn't have applied and the car would be nearly finished and back on the drive by now and not cat d.

I'm also pretty sure that Admiral's approved repairer in Portsmouth would have come back with a lower repair figure than BMW too.

Lesson learned.

Will the quality of the workmanship be as good as BMW? I can't answer that this case, but on previous cars I've had work done by them and BMW (Same BMW bodyshop in fact) and to be honest I couldn't tell one result from the other - Both met expectations.
 
Is it not and option to pay £500 out of your own pocket so that BMW can do the repair? I know it's 500 but it could be worth it to avoid cat d and get BMW to do the work.
 
Is it not and option to pay £500 out of your own pocket so that BMW can do the repair? I know it's 500 but it could be worth it to avoid cat d and get BMW to do the work.

Genuinely don't know, a bunch of options were put forward by both BMW and Admiral, but this was not one of them - And it never came to my mind either. But it would essentially be like paying someone £500 to rear end me no? :o

[TW]Fox;28977409 said:
And you'd have honestly been happy with them carrying out the work?

I have had no dealings with them so have no idea what they are like, so I'd need to build up some knowledge of them first. But that comment was in relation to yours about the BMW price vs the alternative price and why they don't quite make sense.
 
I'm not saying that nobody will be cheaper than BMW as that's an obviously ridiculous thing to say. BMW will be more expensive than most other places and believe the work they carry out reflects this premium. However my point is that it isn't like the service department where they'll bill you £130 an hour to change the oil. The bodycentres are quite different and work on much slimmer margins otherwise they won't get the insurance work - and they NEED the insurance work as surely most of this sort of work is insurance work not personally paid for work.

So therefore it's unlikely you are going to get the job done for thousands and thousands less simply by going elsewhere if you retain the requirement for genuine parts - you can get discounts on genuine parts, sure, but then so can the dealers especially when bidding for work with an insurer.

Have you had a genuine quote from this alternative place yet?
 
Mrk with a Cat D marker you make it 100x harder to ever get decent money for the car again.

Instantly anybody looking for a good M3 (and with good money to pay for one, like yourself) will ignore it. It doesn't matter if it's the best ever M3 in super mega mint condition - nobody will even bother to phone and look at it.

You basically limit yourself to selling it for bottom of the barrel money, to bottom of the barrel buyers (think "I've got £4k cash now m8, it's been in a smash take the money bro" type people).

I know you are thinking about keeping it for years and that's all wonderful but things do change. You might decide you are not happy with it after the repair, you might be offered something better in a years time, you might need a different type of car etc... the list is endless.

By all means take the Cat D and money, but in my mind as soon as that happens the value of your M3 will never be more than the cheapest one you can see on AT. It massively limits how easy it is to change into a different car at a later date.
 
I know you would be out of pocket and that sucks but all things considered if it was an option it would be better than your current proposal.

Worth thinking about.
 
But it would essentially be like paying someone £500 to rear end me no? :o

The option you are taking now is offering to half the value of your car instantly in exchange for someone rear ending you.

Make no mistake, in this situation, with your figures - you are going to be financially out of pocket at some point.

£500 now, or having to sell an £8k car for £4k because it's got a Cat D marker on it in a few years.
 
Just a thought, buy the car back for £2800 and then break it? That guy on the M3 forum sold just the engine block for £2k, and the other bits set to bring in another £2k-£3k. SO that would give you the remaining money from Admiral (£7800) plus say £5k in breaking bits and a much better budget to replace the car?
 
I don't think he wants the hassle of doing that. I'd soak the £500 if that's an option - don't see it would be a problem they pay £6500 and you pay £500 off the invoice.
 
Hang on a minute - this is a third party claim. He isn't claiming on his own policy.

He's asking for a £7000 repair on a £10500 car.

This doesn't seem unreasonable, am I wrong in thinking he has additional rights to insist it isn't written off? There is just £500 between the insurers 'max offer' and the BMW bodyshops lowest quote.

Does the insurance company really get this much say in whether they accept the £7000? The repair cost is reasonable, he is an innocent third party - a negligent motorist, for whom they provide third party risk cover, has caused £7000 of damage to his car. It seems right and proper and they cover this £7000 cost.

I wonder what a court would say?

Maybe throw a post up in the PH Speed/Plod/Law forum. Be breif and stick with the facts.

a) Your car has been valued at £10500 by the insurance appointed valuation agent
b) Your preferred choice of bodyshop has provided a reasonable quotation of £7000 to repair the car
c) The negligent third parties insurer is refusing this reasonable quote and insisting on writing off the car

People who are more legally informed may be able to offer advice.

You've got time to pause over the Christmas period now. Spend this time to make sure you know exactly what your rights are. If you accept Cat D and keep the car you WILL end up worse off in my view.
 
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Fox if they needed the insurance work so much then I'm sure they would have knocked off another £500 - All this was discussed with both people I spoke to at BMW and they just would not move from the £7000 figure and Admiral wouldn't work in favour of this either.

I won't have a full quote until the 5th January as they are now closed until then. Because of the time all this has taken with the car being at BMW, the valuator taking a few days to visit and another few days to send over his report to Admiral. It all cut into crucial time.

Peerzy I know it's going to be a much harder car to sell if I ever did sell it for whatever reason. I'm confident enough to say that if one thing does make me want to not have the car then it won't be the repair job but something else entirely.

Everything I've done the past year has been in view of keeping the car for the long run. Circumstances change I agree and anything could happen that might mean I need to sell or change the car. Those things I guess are unavoidable whatever the outcome of all this and you could say an M3 (marked or not) would be the least of my worries f such a thing happened. All I know is that nothing in my mind so far points to me not wanting to keep the car for years and years. That was my goal from the start of this thread and nothing has changed yet.

Edit*

Just a thought, buy the car back for £2800 and then break it? That guy on the M3 forum sold just the engine block for £2k, and the other bits set to bring in another £2k-£3k. SO that would give you the remaining money from Admiral (£7800) plus say £5k in breaking bits and a much better budget to replace the car?

Yup I've got that thread bookmarked and this is a fallback. Whatever happens the value of the parts in breaking alone are still substantial and a Cat D won't change that at all.
 
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