I comes with a terrible, looming guilt and embarrassment that I just got in to a serious accident with my fresh-off-the boat 89 M3. I wrecked my dream car.... I do not believe the car is totaled, it will need a new rear axle and a bunch body work on the passenger side. The (very high end) body shop I brought it to said that they do not see anything that's not a simple part replacement. My insurance Co. is State Farm and I have a great relationship with them. HOWEVER, given the somewhat obscure nature of this vehicle, I have a feeling that they are not going to value the car properly. Thus I want to get my guns in order. I am planning to compile not only sales documentation, as well as other examples of similar priced E30s. I was wondering if anyone here has any ideas of good places look that would demonstrate the value. KBB is out of the question (age and the fact that they do not consider the "classic" nature). Are there any other tools out there more specific to the nature of this car? Anyone with experience or insight would be very much appreciated! Thanks, Chris
really sorry to hear this. i hope they dont declare it a loss. would have been helpful to have had an agreed upon price with your insurer! i do not know of anything that might be helpful, other then maybe finding the handful of similar sales or purchases of E30 M3's that are, well, similar to yours. It is sad that the information tools that they use do not accurately reflect the rising prices of E30 M3's.
Hardly an insurance expert, but anything you can do to document what condition it was in, and why, may help to make your valuation case to the insurance company. I'm going to guess it's unlikely they'll pay the full amount of the repair costs and you'll be out of pocket for a portion of the repair. Stated-value insurance is appropriate for any vehicle of special nature or value, you may want to consider that once you get your M3 repaired & back on the road. Sorry to hear of your mishap, if you weren't hurt though, that's always something to be thankful for.
Thanks guys, I was probably going to switch to Hagerty, but I didn't think I would crash THIS soon. haha Hopefully in a few months, she will be up and running!
Sorry... I my self is in process of repairing my M3. First they wanted to total the car. It was in a low ball. With the help of fellow club members. I ask them to provide a basis of their value. It went on. I provided all comparable prices of similar model for sale at Craigslist, ebay, auto trader... sent them the history of the E30 M3 why it has its value. Sent list of upgrades. Until they had it appraised and came out that the car is really worth a lot that they thought. So now they're having it repair. My insurance is really good to me. Some parts are hard to find. Gooduck.
I'm in California and had Farmers Insurance try to total my E30 M3 late 2004. Farmers had an entire department dedicated to forcing you to accept their "value" for the car which included newspaper ads (wtf - who does that?) for cars of uncertain provenance (?salvage title). They could care less about the "comps" I found in Roundel etc. They also pressured me to accept their settlement ASAP otherwise "storage" fees would kick in. So there was a clause in my insurance policy that I could get a appraisal on my dime and they could get one and if there was a large disagreement, a third appraisal could be done. I found Pacific Automobile Appraisers in Santa Cruz who apparently had 20+ years worth of Roundel eventually coming up with a fair appraisal $15,850 (after Farmers offered $8173) - they chose to have the car repaired and not fight further. Caution to be careful with appraisers - the bulk of their business is from insurance companies so depending on what their business is, they might be beholding to the insurance company knowing you are not likely to be a repeat customer (hopefully). Good luck jim
