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A few years ago, a teenage girl talking on a cellphone slammed into my passenger door (with wife sitting in the passenger seat) of our pristine, rare 2003 540iTA (that's touring for those of you who don't know).

This is one of only 59 (or thereabouts) '03 sport models with navigation...very very hard to find. I paid a good amount for it under the CPO program and at the time it had low miles and was otherwise in perfect shape. It went from this:



to this:



Being that the car was rare, I paid top dollar for it, it was otherwise in pristine condition and would fetch higher than average resale value, I went after diminished value. I paid an appraiser to prepare a lengthy report and presented it along with documents I got from some people inside BMW showing the rarity of the vehicle and along with the $6500 repair bill from the body shop. Her insurance company offered $1500 extra (the report claimed much higher DV) and would not budge no matter what. It was a "take it or leave it" situation and they implied I was lucky to get anything at all.

FWIW, YMMV.

Good luck.

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Brian

2010 K1300GT
2001 E39 M5
2003 540iT Sport

Yeah, I'm putting in a 14mm rear bar from the 2004-2005 Mazdaspeed Miata. I need to call him up on Wednesday to get the suspension started. I also need to start ordering parts to get the engine all sealed up and ready to go. I even found some paint to put on the valve cover: http://fyad.org/11odt

Cline can probably provide "real world" details but what we did with Lotus insurance through State Farm was pay "extra" for "stated value". Keep in mind that "stated value" will need to be supportable by appraisals, etc.

Remember that insurance rates are based on what it will cost to pay claims. If you want "more" than what the standard rates "assume" you should pay for the extra protection.

FYI I've used State Farm for decades for home and car. No complaints even after major Hurricane Fran claims. We did have to "explain" to an out of state claims adjuster that our NC homeowners policy included coverage for spare car parts. In many/most states this apparently was not the case. When our detached garage was crushed some of the damaged stuff was car parts. FYI this coverage may have been removed in subsequent years.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

I guess I might as well ask in here about this here since we're talking about insurance. If anyone would rather this be it's own thread I'll just repost it.

I'm taking my Miata off the street once the tags expire. What does everyone do for liability insurance on their track only cars? Do typical insurance policies cover cars that are not registered? I'm OK with walking away from the car if I goof up and wad it up but not really comfortable getting sued by an insurance company to buy someone else a new car.

NOOOOO, you policy explicitly excludes another car owned by you but is not on the policy. If you buy an additional car there is coverage for the first 30 days but that's it.

I suggest having a liability only policy on your track vehicle, my biggest worry is running over some kid in the paddock. No matter what you will get sued on that and probably have to pay!

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

IIRC, umbrella policies are cheap (couple hundred-ish/yr for $1M) can also cover some of those possibilities, particularly the kid in the paddock scenario. And for a small fee you can by track-day coverage for your car--not sure if that covers only your own vehicle or others that might get in its way...

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

FYI you can cover the car for property loss off the track. (stolen, falls off trailer, etc.)

This is who we use for the race car. Cost is low. This is a "stated value" coverage.

http://www.heacockclassic.com/

As others posted, umbrella may be the best option for the liability concern other than while towing. Be sure your trailer is covered by your auto insurance.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

I'd be hosed because if 'intent' was proven I'd be in prision.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

Dick,

I think you mean an "agreed value" policy? Stated value ones are essentially worthless (all the biggies will sell you one, but then settle like they would have anyway), but agreed value policies will pay off at the agreed value in full in the case of a total loss.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Thanks Chuck for the terminology clarification! It has been many years since I had that kind of coverage on our Loti. We changed to Heacock (Parish then) for the property coverage and only used State Farm for Liability.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Hi Brian,

Your story sure fires me up. But I have a feeling that given your effort to prove what a gem this car is, the bimbo's insurance company assumed that you would get it fixed and keep the car. With that said, if you kept it for another 5-7 years and THEN sold it, the diminished value at time of sale would be much less than if you were to sell it right after the accident, because the base value of the car is much less. So instead of giving you say $3000 in DV, they gave you $1500 in DV.

Anyway, it's not the right thing to do, I'll admit, but might have been what they were thinking. Was the damage purely body work? Or was the frame/suspension tweaked?

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2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

James, it was just the door and lower side molding. No suspension or any other issues. And I agree, that might be what they were thinking or basing their decision on, but the point was, that isn't an assumption they should be making. What if I had planned to put the car up for sale the following week? Or in 6 months? Or, even worse, just after Carfax gets the report that the car sustained "significant damage" and therefore REALLY lowers both the car's perceived market value and also the potential buyer pool?

The insurance industry isn't set up for people who are passionate about cars. It's for Joe Blow driving a '92 Civic with 350K miles who just needs a new reproduction bumper so he doesn't get pulled over.

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Brian

2010 K1300GT
2001 E39 M5
2003 540iT Sport

Bingo. IMO, it boils down to how long you are going to keep the car because it becomes less of a big deal.

I'd imagine that most of the time it's better to get an appraisor to help you out. For $100 or so they whip up a letter (I still can't figure out how these guys have that much clout) to the insurance company why you should get more. I ended up with about $2k after Therese get slammed into on 40 by a guy pretty much drafting her in a work truck.

Overall, I felt it was fair for a car worth about $16k at the time. Two weeks at Kenny Hawkins later, we had it back and it's been fine.

Ugh, so much toe in the wrong directions!! Hopefully all I need is a good alignment to get everything back in order, but it was super unsettling to drive it back home with the steering wheel turned left at 15-20 degrees while driving straight.

Ugly toe out: http://i.imgur.com/2gKfA.jpg
Old and busted: http://i.imgur.com/MuyIU.jpg
The new hotness: http://i.imgur.com/UUiGo.jpg

I'm willing to bet you have a suspension a-arm bent. You don't get that much toe out from 100k+ jelly bean bushings getting tweaked.

_________________
2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B