A little update and a rant: It looks like I'm going to be settling at $22k on my baby because of what was a minor accident. It's just amazing how all accidents are treated the same by a consumer, sort of like equating a cold and cancer as being the same sort of "sick".
I know *I* would be wary of any hit, especially given the nature of the car business, but at $22k this is the cheapest 1 series in Canada
by at least $2500 (and that's not apples for apples on mileage, tranny, packages etc--that takes it even higher). Have I had a stampede at this crazy pricing? No just a steady trickle of people who get terrified at my transparency, including the accident photos that show
exactly what happened. Too much CSI for people, lol? Maybe.
The wholesalers have no fear once they see what's actually happened on the car, because they know cars, but they naturally use consumer's fear to their advantage and lowball. Can I fault them? Nope.
What happened in my low speed hit? A truck made a lane change from a dead stop without looking. Door was hit and the mirror shaved off, but other than that, pretty harmless. Low speed, no engine damage, no biggie.
The collision company bills $4600 in parts and $5k in labour and suddenly it's a $10k accident on the carfax, which sounds bad until you consider that on a BMW you sneeze and it's two grand. Tell that to the consumer terrified of lemon sellers. Hey, I can sympathize.
The other driver was at fault, but as I said to my insurance guy the other day why can't I also make a claim against the other guy for loss of resale value?? It's crazy! While a BMW dealer told me I shouldn't take more than a $2500 hit on resale for such an accident, it's going to turn out to be more like $8k if you're doing apples to apples.
Anyway, rant over, please begin your tears for me. I might just end keeping it and drive it lovingly into the other driver's truck at full speed. Hopefully he'll be in the car at the same time.
