My 2009 Z4 S35i Got hit over the weekend by an insured driver

[djnewage]

He has progressive and they said they are going to assess the damage. car is valued at 16k, 67,000 miles on the dash. do you think they will try to pay for repairs or is it totaled? Also no air bag deploy. Im praying this is fixable as this is my first bmw and i just got it back in april. What do you guys think?

[T-Bears]

I don't think they will total the car. Just by looking at the pictures I see a $4500 repair maybe more once you start removing the bumper apron & bracing. I could be wrong but I don't see it exceeding 6k.

Let's do a quick break down you will need a: Hood, headlights, front bumper apron, bracing, radiator core support, and radiator at a minimum.

It really depends on the insurance company at what % of the cars value will they consider it totaled. I had a similar but worse damage on one of my cars years ago I paid 4k out the door on a Supra.

[racerbruce]

So very sorry to see this - hopeful it is repairable within the insurance parameters.

If it is, you may wish to ask for the out-of-pocket expenses to repaint the entire car if you intend to keep it long term.

And, you may wish to have a clear 3M type anti-rock chip treatment on the front of the car.

[djnewage]

he has progressive im just waiting on them now i submitted all the photos and videos

[wdb]

I'm not a bodywork expert but from what I understand paint matching these days on cars is pretty much computerized. So I don't know about a full repaint being needed, if the concern is to have it match. I could also be completely wrong!

In terms of what to do with the car: I go right to "is the frame damaged?" Any modern car has frame rails in the front end that are designed to absorb impact and to direct that impact away from the passenger compartment. Again I'm no expert but I would think that they would begin to deform well before any serious damage were done to the rest of the car. Your impact made it to the hood, which makes me question whether it reached those rails.

Having said THAT, one more small tale. I wrecked a Subaru STi a few years ago by not seeing an oncoming car and pulling in front of it. The entire front end of the car was bent at a 30 degree angle to the left. It was totaled. (I was very lucky.) I bought it back and sold it to a Subie indie shop. 2 years later the guy at that shop called me and asked if I wanted my car back! He let me drive it. It drove perfectly. It also had a rebuilt title, and was worth a ton less because of it. But I was still tempted. The lesson I learned from that is that competent repairs by professional individuals can work wonders.

[Arsend76]

If the frame is fine and the airbags not deployed, its not total, expensive but not total. Good luck!

[Lucky1]

Geeze, here your insurance pays for it and goes after the other guy to collect the damages. You don't have to deal with the other insurance company or hope the offender even has insurance. The other way around would be scary to me! Sorry this has happened, wish you best of luck.

[Efthreeoh]

I've had several of my BMWs hit in the front end by deer, so I'm a bit experienced with this. I think T-bears' estimate is accurate. I'm more on the $6,000 side because both headlights are damaged. The major cost of BMW front end repairs are the headlights, which run $1,500 each when priced into a repair. You can go on realoem.com and get the part numbers for the various body parts to start building up the estimate. Get the part numbers, then go on line to a site like getbmwparts.com and get the retail price for the parts. The repair estimate will use the retail parts cost. The rough estimate for such parts and body shop labor for the E85 Z4 (you have an E89) from my deep hit repair are below. My car needed a hood right headlight, right fender, bumper cover. You car will need other parts behind the bumper cover and possibly replacement of the core support. I'm not familiar with the E89 Z4, so I don't know how the cores support is configured, but like most modern BMWs it's probably fiber reinforced plastic and bolts into the front frame assembly. Using my numbers, you'll need two headlights, the bumper beam and maybe the core support, which is where I think the repair gets to $6,000.

If the repair estimate comes back with used parts, don't freak out because your car is used as well, so there is no harm using used parts on it.

Good luck with it.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by wdb

I'm not a bodywork expert but from what I understand paint matching these days on cars is pretty much computerized. So I don't know about a full repaint being needed, if the concern is to have it match. I could also be completely wrong!

In terms of what to do with the car: I go right to "is the frame damaged?" Any modern car has frame rails in the front end that are designed to absorb impact and to direct that impact away from the passenger compartment. Again I'm no expert but I would think that they would begin to deform well before any serious damage were done to the rest of the car. Your impact made it to the hood, which makes me question whether it reached those rails.

Having said THAT, one more small tale. I wrecked a Subaru STi a few years ago by not seeing an oncoming car and pulling in front of it. The entire front end of the car was bent at a 30 degree angle to the left. It was totaled. (I was very lucky.) I bought it back and sold it to a Subie indie shop. 2 years later the guy at that shop called me and asked if I wanted my car back! He let me drive it. It drove perfectly. It also had a rebuilt title, and was worth a ton less because of it. But I was still tempted. The lesson I learned from that is that competent repairs by professional individuals can work wonders.

It's a legitimate concern, but I'd like to ease the OPs mind a bit. Based on the two front end repairs on my E90, the core support was damaged both times. The deer hit in the corner of the car and no frame rail damage was incurred. What did happen is the fiber reinforced plastic core support started to deform first and bend to where the plastic began to crack apart. BMW's design is good in low energy impacts as the cores support gives way before and metal starts to bend. The OP's car took some energy into the hood which probably deformed the core support. The core support bolts on the the front frame of the car and ties the two steel frame rails together, so it giving way first prevents deformation of the steel frame.

To your last point, the OP should call his local BMW dealership and ask them what body shop in town is a certified BMW collision repair center. BMW body repair is just as unique and complicated as the mechanical side.

[djnewage]

Thank you all for the responses you have all put me at ease they came and towed the car yesterday so im waiting to hear back from them tomorrow i will post the estimated repair price in here as well also thank you Efthreeoh for that table of repairs and cost i didnt think my car would be more than 10k in damage so im just hopping they dont try to say its totaled