Z4 written off

S

SUBstandard

Member
Hi,

I had some-one run into the back of my Z a few days ago. There is not much damage, but the rear bumper is scratched and loose on the drivers side.

The insurance company are talking about writing it off, but they haven't yet told me what they are offering.

Looking around, it seems that there are very few cars with my spec out there, a 2006 2.5i SE with Heated Seats and Xenon Headlights. I'm concerned that I might have problems replacing like for like. Is this a rarer spec, or am I looking in the wrong places!? If they offer me a low ball figure, which is what I expect, they might allow me to buy the car back and fix it myself. I'm sure that people on here have done that in past. Are there any issues or pitfall in doing that?

Sorry, just after a bit of advice and sense check.

Thanks

Sheldon
 
You are kidding right?
Bin it due to a damaged rear bumper?
I have a facelift one here you can have for nowt if it saves the car
 
Do you have access to the car still? If it's just the bumper that's damaged, then you can replace that easily. It might need new clips on the sides, but they are not huge money from BMW.

Even if it's bent the crash bar behind the bumper, they are easy to remove/change, too. As long as the boot floor/chassis is intact, I'd be tempted to buy it back and repair.

The problem is the cost of labour and parts vs. the value of the car.

Here's what's underneath the bumper cover, if it helps you make sense of any damage a bit better.

PXL_20250413_093944700.RAW-01.MP.COVER.jpg
 
Went through this with my previous 2.5, my fault backing out of a car park space, young lad came along and obviously didn't see me backing out and continued, rear end of mine hit his front wing and door, put a hole in my rear bumper. My insurance wanted to write mine off and his little Renault also got written off. I declined the write off on mine and didn't pursue the claim for my damage just the claim against me. I managed to find an in colour bumper at a breakers for the grand sum of £38, it was in perfect condition. Had to travel to collect but once home it was fitted to the car in 1 hour by me. Having done so much work on the car previously I wasn't going to have it written off but they classed it as uneconomical to repair which I suppose it was if done at a body shop. It wasn't worth having it written off and buying it back as it would have then had a marker placed on it.
 
If its just the bumper upto crash bar it will be be an easy fix as long as the chassis is still straight. Buy it back and fix it.

Whats the colour code and could you post any photos.
 
Thanks everyone, that sort of confirms what I'm thinking. It really was the lightest of nudges, but enough to skim the paint off. But as you say, you can't be sure until you take the bumper off.

bump.jpg

Anyone be stung badly with your insurance going up a lot after buying back? I assume it is then a Cat N write off?

I've had the car nearly 10 years, so not planning on selling. Hence the marker isn't an issue for me.

Thanks for the help.

Sheldon
 
SUBstandard said:
Thanks everyone, that sort of confirms what I'm thinking. It really was the lightest of nudges, but enough to skim the paint off. But as you say, you can't be sure until you take the bumper off.

View attachment 290047

Anyone be stung badly with your insurance going up a lot after buying back? I assume it is then a Cat N write off?

I've had the car nearly 10 years, so not planning on selling. Hence the marker isn't an issue for me.

Thanks for the help.

Sheldon
Click to expand...
What colour is that?
The one I have is Stratus Grey
 
That sounds very similar to what happened to my manual 2005 E90 330i daily in 2023.

I claimed against the insurer of the car who tapped it in the rear and too it for an estimate at a place they recommended. I did know a good repairer but the owner had just retired and sold it.

Anyway next thing I knew it was a Cat N because they had padded their estimate up to over £2K when all it needed was a bumper cover that was £650 inc. VAT from BMW in primer. They had included things like checking the bumper support (why, even the parking sensors still worked) and blending the paint on the wings which hardly mattered on an 18 year old car! But it would have cost the insurer up to a week of car hire on top.

First offer was derisory but I managed to get another couple of hundred out of them and as it was only going to cost me 22% of their valuation to keep it I decided to do that as I didn't want to have to replace it as it has Xenons, split-fold rear seats, electric sunroof and power-fold mirrors which all seem to be quite rare options.

So I ended up with a brilliantly performing 3 litre N52 engined car with just a couple of gouges and barely visible cracks in the bumper cover and half what I had paid for it in 2019 in the bank, which didn't seem like a bad deal despite their mean valuation.

When I told my insurer at next renewal all they wanted was sight of an MOT that was done post-incident.

Hope that might be helpful and that you get a decent outcome. :thumbsup:
 
The third party insurer has no title to your car, so if written off the salvage is yours (they may offer to dispose of it, but cannot force you to do this). If the car just had cosmetic damage and its a good car worth keeping then a diy or sensible body shop repair might be the way to go. Only down side might be when you come to sell with a reduced value due to the car being on the total loss reguster, albeit a cat N. Keep all quotes/invoces for repairs and photos before, during and after repair if you can to reassure futuer buyers.
 
I know of a person who had a car totaled, got paid for the vehicle by the insurer, bought the car back from the insurer, had it repaired, and then the insurer once again agreed to provide full coverage insurance on the same vehicle. No salvage title was ever issued. It would have been interesting to see what the insurer did if the vehicle was totaled a second time. If the insurer accepted the premiums knowing all of these facts (which they did), they would have to cover the 2nd loss.
 
I purchased a Classic Car insurance policy from Hagerty after I used Kelly Blue Book to value my 2008 Z4 Coupe. It's insured for $20k U.S. and if is totaled, I get paid and can keep it. No mileage limit.
 
Nice 2004 , 2.5i with 44k on the clock & FSH, written off for a rear quarter dent last year, insurance valued it at £4,200 initially. Bought it back and repaired for pennies. Its now a CAT S ( shouldnt be , I know), If you work on buy back price at being 20% of your payout , you wont be far off.

Now insured with Hagerty, all mods declared , agreed value & salvage rights, no issues & cheaper than the previous year. It will most likely stay in its current ownership for quite a while & unfortunately will most likely be broken at sale time as it has some fairly valuable and sort after options, making the sum of its parts far more than its actual value.

Do not, under any circumstances allow the car to leave your care if you wish to keep it, at every oppportunity tell the insurance you wish to keep it and do not take no as an answer. You must play the clever game here, unfortunately your insurance is going up at renewal time, regardless of if you claim or were not at fault. If you want to keep it, I would let them write it off, buy it back and repair yourself. Highly unlikely there will be any nasty surprises under that bumper, wost case I suspect is that the end of the crash bar ( they bolt on) will have folded over or snapped off if it was a little corroded.Nothing to stop you taking the bumper off yourself and having a look before commiting either. Good Luck
 
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steveharen said:
I purchased a Classic Car insurance policy from Hagerty after I used Kelly Blue Book to value my 2008 Z4 Coupe. It's insured for $20k U.S. and if is totaled, I get paid and can keep it. No mileage limit.
Click to expand...
I've insured my Zed here in Aus for an agreed sum that is 50% more than I paid for it in the UK 17 years ago (there are only 100 examples in the Aus and cars are worth more here). If damaged, my modifications will be replaced like-for-like (not with OEM equivalents) and I have salvage rights. I don't have a mileage limit but I shouldn’t use it more than an average of twice a week. It's a much better policy than I would be able to find in the UK, but I suspect it's somewhat more expensive too.
 
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If the 3rd party has admitted fault for the accident I would now deal the with their insurance company to deal with the claim rather than your own.

You'll likely get a better payout or possibly get the vehicle repaired if you sent them photos of the damage or get quotes for cost of repair.

Your own insurance company will only act in their own best interests and the easiest solution for them is to write it off and claim the money off the 3rd party.

Your own company will look after themselves first because even with the 3rd party admitting liability the 3rd party insurance company can refuse to pay the claim once your company has paid out to you. So they then have to take them to court and reclaim the costs.

If you deal direct with the 3rd party then the payout comes directly from them and there's no dispute.
 
Not sure we'll ever know what happened as the OP hasn't been back on since just after he started this thread?
 
I think the problem with the 2006 2.5 se is that in that year it fell between two stools. It had the 6 speed gearbox but much less bhp than the 5 speed 2.5 se which predated it. This was because the si was introduced so they had to detune it if you like otherwise the si version would not have sold. Probably nothing wrong with performance but I think most people would be looking for the si after 2006 so values will have fallen.
 
Mike6 said:
I think the problem with the 2006 2.5 se is that in that year it fell between two stools. It had the 6 speed gearbox but much less bhp than the 5 speed 2.5 se which predated it. This was because the si was introduced so they had to detune it if you like otherwise the si version would not have sold. Probably nothing wrong with performance but I think most people would be looking for the si after 2006 so values will have fallen.
Click to expand...
Correctly it’s a 2.5i, which replaced the old 2.2. Both the 2.5i and 2.5Si were available in SE and Sport designations. It is a detuned version of the 2.5Si, but it is also fairly easy to upgrade.
 
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SUBstandard said:
Hi,

I had some-one run into the back of my Z a few days ago. There is not much damage, but the rear bumper is scratched and loose on the drivers side.

The insurance company are talking about writing it off, but they haven't yet told me what they are offering.

Looking around, it seems that there are very few cars with my spec out there, a 2006 2.5i SE with Heated Seats and Xenon Headlights. I'm concerned that I might have problems replacing like for like. Is this a rarer spec, or am I looking in the wrong places!? If they offer me a low ball figure, which is what I expect, they might allow me to buy the car back and fix it myself. I'm sure that people on here have done that in past. Are there any issues or pitfall in doing that?

Sorry, just after a bit of advice and sense check.

Thanks

Sheldon
Click to expand...
The same thing happened to me 16 years ago with my 10 year old SUV. The rear bumper/side back panels were damaged and the insurance company for the driver that hit me from behind sent me a check for $125. Really? I did not cash the check. They called me a few weeks later because an uncashed check seems to bother them. Anyway, I told their insurance company I would be taking their client to small claims court and suing for damage as well as depreciation of the car caused by an accident caused by their client. (I am retired so I had the time to do this and i was serious.) They called me back and told me to send them a damage estimate from a collision company. I said well I guess its OK since I have to get 3 estimates for court anyway. I sent them the highest estimate and i got the check in the mail for $2900. It seems that insurance companies do not like their clients to receive summons for court when their clients have been faithfully sending their premiums in every month to the insurance company. I do not know if it will work for you but it worked for me.
 
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