[Lydiamight]

My car has been declared a total loss after a heavy front nearside collision, fortunately nobody hurt and the others driver's insurance company has accepted full liability. I'm pretty unhappy about the anount offered by the other party's insurance company as I don't think that I'll be able to replace my car with something of equivalent specification. Car details as follows:
BMW 320 diesel Motorsport Touring (E91) Exactly two years old, full BMW history, brand new set of tyres. Mileage was over book at 30,000 but the car had a lot of extras fitted----metallic, leather, auto, headlamp wash,rain sensors, xenons, electric front deats with memory, heated seats, climate control windscreen, panoramic glass sunroof, auto dipping mirrors, rear window sunblinds, bluetooth, proffessional navigation, Logic 7 hi-fi, ipod interface, folding front mirrors. Does anyone have any idea of what I would have to pay for something like that? I ahve been offered £20,618.00 which seems pretty low for something that cost over £38,000 two years ago. I'm not trying to make a "profit"--just to be given enough money to buy a similar vehivle (if I can find one of the same spec) All thoughts greatly appreciated.

Also does anyone have any thoughts on what the "real" price is of the used BMWs shown on dealers web-sites. Should I be going in with a bid that is 10%down and expect to settle around 5% down? Looking to spend in the high thirty's to replace the car---probably with a slightly used 335d Coupe

[NFS]

Originally Posted by Lydiamight

My car has been declared a total loss after a heavy front nearside collision, fortunately nobody hurt and the others driver's insurance company has accepted full liability. I'm pretty unhappy about the anount offered by the other party's insurance company as I don't think that I'll be able to replace my car with something of equivalent specification. Car details as follows:
BMW 320 diesel Motorsport Touring (E91) Exactly two years old, full BMW history, brand new set of tyres. Mileage was over book at 30,000 but the car had a lot of extras fitted----metallic, leather, auto, headlamp wash,rain sensors, xenons, electric front deats with memory, heated seats, climate control windscreen, panoramic glass sunroof, auto dipping mirrors, rear window sunblinds, bluetooth, proffessional navigation, Logic 7 hi-fi, ipod interface, folding front mirrors. Does anyone have any idea of what I would have to pay for something like that? I ahve been offered £20,618.00 which seems pretty low for something that cost over £38,000 two years ago. I'm not trying to make a "profit"--just to be given enough money to buy a similar vehivle (if I can find one of the same spec) All thoughts greatly appreciated.

Also does anyone have any thoughts on what the "real" price is of the used BMWs shown on dealers web-sites. Should I be going in with a bid that is 10%down and expect to settle around 5% down? Looking to spend in the high thirty's to replace the car---probably with a slightly used 335d Coupe

Unfortunately the options are not all value added.

According to glasses guide the figures are like this:

http://www.virtual-showroom.co.uk/sc...C06&mileage=30

On the basis that the retail price of the vehicle (without options) is £22k you could argue that the offer is a little low.

[roofer]

Wait till the 3rd offer, not the first. Tell them to find you an identical spec car for that money, and you'll take it. Your not at fault, the other driver is.

[3_toed_tree_sloth]

If it's the 1st offer, you should always reject, the insurance company would expect you to.
If you have a mind to you could also buy the car off the insurance company and sell the bits on a well known auction site because my own experience of doing so proved to be quite profitable.

[CrimsonRedE93]

Don't accept the first, tell then your concerns, be careful if you are thinking about rejecting the second offer as a friend of mine did then he had to wait a very long time whilst the case was referred I think it took 3 months and he only got what was offered in the end (it may have just been the one company though)

[AlanQS]

As you already appreciate, but insurance companies don't seem to, they have an obligation to leave you in the same condition you would have been in, had the damage never occurred. This means their first obligation is to replace your car with as near an identical car as possible - and that includes all your options. Look for a car that is similar in age and mileage with close, or equivalent in money terms, specification. If you could find two or three that would represent the cost of replacing your car.
In practice, the insurance company doesn't want the hassle of finding you an equivalent car but at least the exercise would justify your demand for them to up the payment.

[bobf]

I had a similar problem with an e46 328 I had stolen.

Insurance co offered me about £18k which was about trade price for a basic spec car, but mine had pretty much everything, satnav, tv, harmon kardon, heated leather, xenon, etc etc.

What I did was reject the offer and sent them details printed out of 6 'similar' cars from the BMW used car search facility - I printed out the full details of each car. I told the insurer to either buy me one of those or give me the average price accross the six. In the end they stumped up £22k which was about the average accross the cars I quoted.

You should definately find plenty of similar cars on the BMW dealer network if you do a national search.

[tmarshall57]

Given that it is often the bigger engined cars which have a lot of the extras you mention it might be worth also comparing the difference in price say between a 325 or 330 with few extras and one which is pretty loaded. This might give you a rough idea of the price of used extras.

I have recently made heavy use of the national dealer search and I struggled to find 320s which were reasonably "loaded". Admittedly I was looking at diesels.

Tony

[gIzzE]

Now this is where return to invoice insurance at £8 a month comes into play. You would have got the £22k from the insurer and the Return to Invoice insurance would be paying you out the rest so you walk away with £38k again.

Think about it with your new 335d coupe, worth every penny.

[F31-340i]

You're spec is very rare - 320ds with Nav are rare, let alone one with juicy pano roof too! (I'm after a 330/335 Touring with these options and even though they are about they are also rare) - Having said that there is a similar 320d Auto one on AutoTrader at the moment for private sale, its an 07 model in SG for £26,700.

I think you need to push hard to get your spec back - it won't be easy but then it shouldn't be your problem to sort this. Why should you have a touring without nav/pano roof because of someone else?!

[silverbmwz3]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

Now this is where return to invoice insurance at £8 a month comes into play. You would have got the £22k from the insurer and the Return to Invoice insurance would be paying you out the rest so you walk away with £38k again.

Think about it with your new 335d coupe, worth every penny.

With hindsight yes in this case, although I've never understood this insurance because it puts you in a better position than you were in to start with - when she crashed her car wasn't worth £38k. A fundamental principal of insurance policies is that they don't do "betterment". These ones obviously do but you are paying for that. Most of us aren't expecting to have an accident that involves our car being written off and we buy insurance to cover the current value of the car. I'd rather get the insurance company to stump up the right amount and not pay £96 a year to an insurance company to be in a better position than I was in the event that something I don't expect to be likely to happen to me, happens.

Does anyone actually do this for £8 a month anyway, I don't recall it being quite that cheap when I was quoted for it at the stealer.

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by silverbmwz3

With hindsight yes in this case, although I've never understood this insurance because it puts you in a better position than you were in to start with - when she crashed her car wasn't worth £38k. A fundamental principal of insurance policies is that they don't do "betterment". These ones obviously do but you are paying for that. Most of us aren't expecting to have an accident that involves our car being written off and we buy insurance to cover the current value of the car. I'd rather get the insurance company to stump up the right amount and not pay £96 a year to an insurance company to be in a better position than I was in the event that something I don't expect to be likely to happen to me, happens.

Does anyone actually do this for £8 a month anyway, I don't recall it being quite that cheap when I was quoted for it at the stealer.

I do, it cost me £8 a month on the 335i, the 320d is costing me £6 a month.
That is through Lombard who I also use for the finance.