Thank you guys, I appreciate all the suggestions. I will talk to my insurance company and will find out next week when I am back home.

To gpt: sorry to hear that, hopefully you can get your car fixed soon

 

Get a 2nd opinion on the damage cost

 

Yes, I will indeed go to other body shops around to get several estimates next week and see how they come up

 

Sorry to hear about your little prang. I know how annoying it is as I recently did the same to the rear door and sill on a low concrete post leaving a nasty gouge. :thumbsdown:

How do you keep your wheels looking so imaculate though. Mine are always soiled with brake dust even after the first trip after just cleaning them.

 

Maybe the guy's from North America where orange reflectors are mandatory.

 

I think $ 2700 is alot for just that. You can get a new mtech bumper . I would just order a new bumper from Quad m . Or go to realoem

fender is only $270

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mo...hg=41&fg=10


fender painted $500-600
mtech front bumper skin $999

total $1500-1600 saving of over $1000

 

Although it can be hard to tell from pictures I think they are not being honest with you.....to put it mildly. What is it that they can't repair on the fender because it's aluminum? The only thing that I see on the fender is a scratch. Are they saying they can't sand, primer and repaint it because it's aluminum?? The E60 uses special adhesives and rivets to attach the aluminum fender to the non-aluminum chassis, so replacing the fenders is not as easy as on other cars and I would not want a body shop to mess with the factory installed fenders if it were not absolutely necessary.

The bumper can be repaired for $800?? The list price for a brand new bumper is $463. Many dealers will give you a discount of 5% to 25% on top of that, not to mention if it were the body shop that was buying the bumper from a dealer it would cost them a lot less. So worse case scenario if you were to buy a brand new bumper at the list price of $463 and paid even $200 to $300 for paint and installation it would still cost less than what they quoted you for repairing the old bumper. If the damage on the bumper was really extensive then the labor for repairing it would be more costly than just painting a new bumper, however, since it seems to have mainly just scratches it should not cost that much to repair it.

Bottom line is that I think they are not being honest with you and from the looks of the pictures I would say that both the bumper and the fender CAN be repaired/repainted for MUCH less than what they quoted you and they don't have to be replaced.

I would get more quotes from both independent body shops and other BMW dealers to get a better idea of what you really need to do.

As far as the insurance claim is concerned, unless the cost to repair it was only a couple of hundred dollars more than your deductible I would go ahead and claim it from your insurance.

 

Actually, I should have circled the main issue regarding the front fender can't be replaced... And for your information, I went to Weatherford BMW body shop in Oakland, CA (that's the BMW certified). I do not think that I will be getting an M-tech bumper as this is my daily driver and will prefer to keep it look standard.

Now with that misaligned fender, is it possible to fix it or will it need a new one?

I will ask for more estimates this friday to see what others come up with

Thanks guys!

 

more pics on the misaligned fender

 

The fender does look out of place on the latter picture. But I would seek a second opinion from a non-certified shop if there's not much real damage

You are right, check out the US spec LCI E60, they got a amber reflector on the side because the turning signal for the new headlight unit does not come in amber. I think this is a cheap solution for BMW to cut down on production cost which make the car look :thumbsdown: