cakes

On sunday evening after running some errands, I was in the right lane of the freeway since my exit was coming up and all of a sudden - bang - I was hit in the drivers rear corner; I spun around a few times, with the front grazing the snow covered sidewall, and came to a stop facing traffic. No airbags deployed since there were no sudden stops and the initial impact wasn't to the doors. The other car was on the other side. Thankfully traffic was light and people were able to avoid hitting me. I must have hit my head on the A pillar swinging around so I had that checked out at the hospital later that night, but thankfully everything checked out fine. The police were there right away and were very helpful, though they forced me to use their towing service instead of AAA. Per the police, the other driver has a suspended license and had a kid in the car w/o a car seat.

I had the car towed home since I don't know what to do with it yet. I'm waiting for the insurance adjuster to come to take a look at it. Every time I look it, it seems worse and I think they might total it sine it's there so much that needs to be cut out and straightened. The doors open/close fine so it's got that going for it.

seanjordan20

What year car do you have? The police can not force you to use their tow service. As long as it was on a flat bed it does not matter. Looking at the car it looks like you have an 07 or above. If the airbags did not deploy then your car may not be totaled. These cars do not hold value like Mercedes do so you may be at the cusp and they will just total it out. It all depends on the adjuster. He may not hit that mark with the initial estimate but after t is taken apart and additional things need to be ordered and fix it may hit the mark but then it would not matter they will just fix it and give it back.

If they do not total it I would use this opportunity to get some cosmetic things fixed on the insurance dime ( new headlights, tail lights (if you want to change the ones that is on it), wheels. The collision places usually work with you. Just make sure you pay attention to the estimate and then buy the headlights and/or tailights you want on the car. Usually you can find them cheaper new than they find them used. That is how I got new adaptive headlights and it only cost me $150 more than it was going to cost them to replace one light with a used one.

Cricketts

I can only judge by your pictures and I think you got off very lucky. It looks like the othe party bounced off your quarter while not running directly into you.
The plastic front and rear bumpers are easily replaced.

Good fortune and good luck.

KyleB

If there is any damage to the left apron once they get the fender off, it is game over.
FWIW I am an appraiser for an insurance company here in FL.

cakes

Insurance Adjuster came and took a look at it, after he ran the numbers he said the repair estimate is right on the border and it's up to me if its fixed/totaled.

KyleB, we opened the hood and there's no visible damage to the apron and the hood opens/closes normally. As he said, if they uncover more once they start taking it apart, it'll be totaled.

westsidebalto

You would think, but more often than not, it's not the case. Cops frequently don't want to wait for AAA and want to get the cars off of the road as fast as possible so they can be on their way and get traffic moving again.

cakes

^that's what they told me. AAA said to keep the receipt and they'll take care of it for me.

Update: AAA says the repair estimate is 15K so it's up to me if it's fixed or totaled. At first I was leaning towards fixing it, but after talking to some folks and moving the car in the garage and looking at things again, I'm leaning towards total now. There's so much to repair and no matter what they say it won't be the same. Plus they're going to find something else that'll probably push it over the edge. They're going to have to remove all the wiring from the car to rebuild the back so there may be electrical problems down the line. They're going to have to remove the rear window to remove the quarters and weld in new ones, so there may be water leaks down the line. The panel gaps between the back doors/rear fender is different side to side, the drivers door doesn't feel the same way when I close it, and the exhaust tone sounds different, just to start.
I'm going to test drive a few different cars to see what I might move to - if I can't find something I really like I may end up buying another E60.

dingolfing

That sucks Cakes, same exact thing happened to my 550i. Luckily no airbags deployed, but the active headrest did its job and I had no whiplash. Easy charge canister to replace and the headrest is functional again.

I was hit in the back by an uninsured and license suspended driver also. Funny thing is the officer said this guy was driving around for over 10 years with no insurance or license, and he somehow managed to get by all that time without police ever pulling him over until he hit me. Gotta love our auto insurance / OMV industry. They are definitely looking out for us.

star69me

Wow sorry to here that. What yr is the car. I was hit in run in a parking lot. Only $900 in damage so I got lucky.

07 550i base model

star69me

Wow sorry to here that. What yr is the car. I was hit in run in a parking lot. Only $900 in damage so I got lucky.

07 550i base model