spwolf

huh? lol. You really dont want to get your car totalled, because insurance company will not simply give you an new car dude.

kudos to BMW for making their cars unrepairable! lol.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, but they'll give me the amount of $$$ that is close to what the car is worth - i'd rather take that and add some and buy a new one, instead of driving a flimsy wreck.

mmarshall

Well....yes. You partially got me on that one. The poster used the word Hummer....I didn't realize he was talking about the Land Rover in the picture.

doug_999

BMW didn't make it unreparable - they just made the entire front clip removable - if anything it is easier to repair now. But the cost for that clip is obviously more than a day or two on a frame straightening machine. Still you get a car back that drives the way it should.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

How big of an accident are you talking about? It also depends on what type of damage there is. If there is any frame or unibody damage I don't want the car. If it is just the bolt on stuff like fenders, hoods, trunks, lights and such I have no problem repairing the car even if the cost start to get up there in price.

spwolf

by using so much aluminium parts, they did make it more costly to repair. What will happen if you dont have full insurance and it is your fault? Who pays for it then?

You know guys, we often forget that a lot of people drive these cars for longer than 2-3 years, and at that point, most people dont opt for full insurance.

new Prius is our first car in Europe that uses significant amount of Aluminium parts in suspension, hood and other areas. We got instructions from Toyota on what aluminium parts can be repaired easily and what can not.
For example hood - anything but really small damage will be cheaper to replace completly than fix.

So now we have something that have costed 15$ before in materials to fix, and that now requires 200$-300$.
Lets not talk about firewalls and entire front frame made of aluminium.

In my experience, after 3 years, most people dont pay for full insurance coverage anymore. In an minor accident, they will require whole new front section of the car so where before it would be $2k-$3k accident, now it ends up being $6k-$10k accident.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Aluminum is more costly to repair, but lots of manufacturers have been using aluminum parts of a long time now. In fact now aluminum is cheaper to repair than it was 10 years ago. If you don't have full insurnace that is the owners fault.


Many people have to finance their car purchases. In that case, most are financing with a 5 year/60 month loan. It is required to have full coverage on a car with a lean on it. That means most have full converage for at least 5 years or the duration of their car loan.

Those that drop their insurance after 3 years might have to pay a higher price, but for those normal people who keep full converage on their cars as long as the value of the car warrants it will only have to pay $500. If you are dropping your insurance on a E60 BMW after 3 years, you are either very rich and can afford the risk, getting ready to trade the car in for a new one or turn it in from lease, or you are not very smart considering the value on a car like that is still very high. I still have full coverage on my 92 Acura that uses a lot of aluminum parts. The front fender alone cost $1000. The rear 1/4 panel fender is $1400. A minor fender bender where the any of the fenders get dented already warrants full coverage especially since the value of the car is still around $30K. On the other hand, my 93 SC400 has 137K miles and its value is only about $5000. I don't have full coverage on this car because I consider it a throw away car. If I get into an accident I'll just dump it and get something else.

doug_999

Have to agree with CK6Speed - rarely does someone take full insurance coverage off of their BMWs in the first 5 years - even then it would be rare as a 10 year old one can easily go for $15K plus.

I think that BMW wants the best handling car that is easiest to repair back to OEM format. I don't think that the guy who owns the car after 10 years and might have to total it because of the cost of fixing it right is paramount to their engineering efforts.