tim
01-18-2006, 10:03 AM
Well gentlemen, I have an update to my story. For the benefit of latecomers, the saga deals with the loss of my 540i due to a crash, the dealings with the insurance company, and the subsequent search for a suitable replacement vehicle.
Anyway, I bet a bunch of you are wondering what your car is worth to your insurance company. In my case, after the body guy totalled it, the main office sent out one of their adjusters to confirm it and price the payoff. I spoke to him personally and asked what method they used. He said they used a multifactor pricing model that includes blue book type valuation scoring with a 1-5 condition adjustment plus a mileage adjustment. This score is then indexed against local price listings for comparable cars, and the market price for the parts salvage. In my case the grand total came out 11400 less deductible for a formerly mint '95 540i. More than I expected, but, uncannily accurate; as I soon discovered in my car search for an exact replacement. The salvage was bought by Copart, and I'm sure for those that have access to their system, it could be found. PM me for the VIN if you're serious.
Let me first say that I live in a crummy area to find a nice 10 year old car. The Northeast is freakin' brutal on cars, and as I discovered: you can make a 540 adequate in snow and icy conditions, but you can't really make it a good snow and ice car. Those who have perfect ones, tend to keep them garaged all winter, and they ain't sellin. I saw a total of about 10 535's and 540's with 150mi or so of my location. All were advertised as mint, excellent, whatever. I could write another thread about the sheer comedy of some of these meetings. To put it charitably, most of these cars were practically wrecks by my standards. I had some cars pulling codes from every single subsystem. In case any of these people are board members, i'll spare further detail. But it was bad.
There was another problem. It became painfully clear on some of these snowy voyages to see cars, that I needed a real winter car. My 540iT is better than the 540 sedan, and has DSC, but it ain't great folks. The dodge stratus I have as a rental is a snowmobile by comparison. I need a wintermobile with snow tires, front wheel drive and all that good stuff. Then I met Mark, our local version of Bill R, a Volvo indy, that does a used sales business. He has a loyal local following, as he started off in the neighborhood as a teen, fixing up cars and selling them. He has a big following now, and about 5 mechs in his shop and about 25 cars on the lot.
My wife and I drove a 2002 Volvo V70 on his lot, with the "yankee package"- normally aspirated 2.4l I5, cold weather package, and premium package(leather, sunroof, some other stuff). An odd combination I'm told- but quite common around here where no premium is placed on speed performance, but rather on snow traction and gas mileage. BTW this thing gets mid 20's local and over 30mpg hwy. Slate with sand leather. 60k mi, just 6mo off factory warrantee. Mark put on new rotors and pads, reconditioned oem alloys, did timing belt, multi belt, tranny flush, plugs, oil and gave a nice buff. He gave me a 3 month bumper to bumper, and a one year/12k engine and drivetrain warrantee at his shop which is his standard policy. I'm the second owner, and the first owner traded it to him for a XC90. 14k drive off is what I paid.
I was pretty dubious at first, as I had a 240 and I know firsthand what 168hp feels like in a 3500lb car. I have to say I was stunned at how nice the new style drove. They have a computer controlled 5sp automatic in it now, which was really really good at giving it some pep. It also has a winter driving mode, and some other system, and this car is simply unbelievable in snow. I also drove their AWD version of the same car with the low pressure turbo, and frankly I found the front wheel drive superior. Their version of AWD only powers the rears when the fronts slip. The handling suffers (IMHO) and turning radius widens considerably. It has higher clearance, but after checking both out in real life snow situations I concluded that I did not want the maintenance hassle of either the turbo or the AWD system. My wife could care less about speed, and is all too happy to turn the reigns of the 540iT back over to me.
All's well that ends well, right?
Whaddya think?
Anyway, I bet a bunch of you are wondering what your car is worth to your insurance company. In my case, after the body guy totalled it, the main office sent out one of their adjusters to confirm it and price the payoff. I spoke to him personally and asked what method they used. He said they used a multifactor pricing model that includes blue book type valuation scoring with a 1-5 condition adjustment plus a mileage adjustment. This score is then indexed against local price listings for comparable cars, and the market price for the parts salvage. In my case the grand total came out 11400 less deductible for a formerly mint '95 540i. More than I expected, but, uncannily accurate; as I soon discovered in my car search for an exact replacement. The salvage was bought by Copart, and I'm sure for those that have access to their system, it could be found. PM me for the VIN if you're serious.
Let me first say that I live in a crummy area to find a nice 10 year old car. The Northeast is freakin' brutal on cars, and as I discovered: you can make a 540 adequate in snow and icy conditions, but you can't really make it a good snow and ice car. Those who have perfect ones, tend to keep them garaged all winter, and they ain't sellin. I saw a total of about 10 535's and 540's with 150mi or so of my location. All were advertised as mint, excellent, whatever. I could write another thread about the sheer comedy of some of these meetings. To put it charitably, most of these cars were practically wrecks by my standards. I had some cars pulling codes from every single subsystem. In case any of these people are board members, i'll spare further detail. But it was bad.
There was another problem. It became painfully clear on some of these snowy voyages to see cars, that I needed a real winter car. My 540iT is better than the 540 sedan, and has DSC, but it ain't great folks. The dodge stratus I have as a rental is a snowmobile by comparison. I need a wintermobile with snow tires, front wheel drive and all that good stuff. Then I met Mark, our local version of Bill R, a Volvo indy, that does a used sales business. He has a loyal local following, as he started off in the neighborhood as a teen, fixing up cars and selling them. He has a big following now, and about 5 mechs in his shop and about 25 cars on the lot.
My wife and I drove a 2002 Volvo V70 on his lot, with the "yankee package"- normally aspirated 2.4l I5, cold weather package, and premium package(leather, sunroof, some other stuff). An odd combination I'm told- but quite common around here where no premium is placed on speed performance, but rather on snow traction and gas mileage. BTW this thing gets mid 20's local and over 30mpg hwy. Slate with sand leather. 60k mi, just 6mo off factory warrantee. Mark put on new rotors and pads, reconditioned oem alloys, did timing belt, multi belt, tranny flush, plugs, oil and gave a nice buff. He gave me a 3 month bumper to bumper, and a one year/12k engine and drivetrain warrantee at his shop which is his standard policy. I'm the second owner, and the first owner traded it to him for a XC90. 14k drive off is what I paid.
I was pretty dubious at first, as I had a 240 and I know firsthand what 168hp feels like in a 3500lb car. I have to say I was stunned at how nice the new style drove. They have a computer controlled 5sp automatic in it now, which was really really good at giving it some pep. It also has a winter driving mode, and some other system, and this car is simply unbelievable in snow. I also drove their AWD version of the same car with the low pressure turbo, and frankly I found the front wheel drive superior. Their version of AWD only powers the rears when the fronts slip. The handling suffers (IMHO) and turning radius widens considerably. It has higher clearance, but after checking both out in real life snow situations I concluded that I did not want the maintenance hassle of either the turbo or the AWD system. My wife could care less about speed, and is all too happy to turn the reigns of the 540iT back over to me.
All's well that ends well, right?
Whaddya think?