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For the last couple of months I’ve been working as a detailer in the collision center of a huge 15 dealership conglomerate, here in Winnipeg, Canada. It is a place where I can see and drive (for a short distance) a lot of cool cars but I rarely see a real Curbside Classic.
Last week we received this 1992 convertible BMW 325i, we usually don’t see cars older than 2009 there, so, this Bimmer immediately caught my attention. I didn’t even need to get close by to notice the car was well taken care: paint in excellent condition, nice interior, a new set of Michelins and the clock shows only 87,000 Kilometers.
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The car was involved in a minor accident, the front bumper was damaged as well the grille and the left side headlights, nothing really serious but enough for the Provincial Public Insurance declared is not worth to fix it.
The big “T L” on the door means: “Total Loss” So the owner will get the market value of the car in cash and the BMW will be auctioned.
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So if you guys had some money to spend… would you consider buying this Bimmer and fix it?
Fix it up, why not? Here in Portland Oregon you could buy the parts for dirt cheap at a u-pull-it. Shame about the last owners.
I always think it’s better to over insure a well kept older car, as long as making the value high enough to avoid total loss.
Then as a result, my ’78 Volare with $1750 book value was insured at $5000, and probably it takes a lot of damage for total loss of the car.
I’d buy it theres a local BMW wrecker that stocks anything this might need, a little paint and flik it on before something major goes wrong after some summer fun.
It looks like a nice restoration project. It looks complete. It just needs some TLC and a little know-how, and she’ll burn up the autobahn in little time. 🙂
My experience with MPI is that they have no clue how to value anything unusual. Perhaps if the owner had insured it as a classic they wouldn’t have written it off, but he probably had years of cheap cheap insurance, so that’s the tradeoff.
I wouldn’t have even bothered filing a claim in the first place, the paint doesn’t even look damaged. Go to the local pick n pull and yank a bumper, grille/headlight assembly from the dozens of E30s there and good as new for maybe $100-200 tops.
It depends on how cheap you can get it for. Book value on it before the collision was pretty low, and a salvage title won’t help it once it’s fixed. It’s a nice car, nice color and wheels, even the top looks pretty good. I’d fix it and drive it. It wouldn’t take much to get it on the road looking fine. OrangeChallenger, do you have agreed on value insurance? If it’s insured as a collector car they might pay out. If not, I don’t know that you would get paid out over their valuation. I just cover my older cars with liability coverage only. This way they won’t end up as a total loss with a salvage title. Whether or not I fix will be up to me.
Yes, I have agreed value for my cars with possibly bottom book value as collector vehicle ( even though in reality, Plymouth Volare doesn’t have much collection value. There are few other cars eligible for collector’s insurance with obviously lower collection value, like Dodge Aries. ) and as long as they are over-insured, it would be very unlikely for total loss.
For me it would be a “toss up” as these really aren’t all that hard to find in my area of the U.S. Sure, the model that succeeded this one is more common, but what is odd is that 2 door sedan models are THE hardest to find with 4 door sedans most plentiful and drop tops close behind them.
What are hard to find are models that have had only 1 or 2 very careful owners. When these hit the 3rd and later owners they go downhill fast.
The damage does not look nearly as bad as my CTS did, which cost $16,000 to fix.
I live in Manitoba and having bought some salvage vehicles from the provincial auto insurer in the past, I am well acquainted with their policies…..and unfortunately the above mentioned vehicle, the 1992 Bimmer, will never see asphalt rolling underneath it’s wheels ever again.(at least not in this province).
Manitoba Public Insurance came out with a salvage policy several years ago, which in part, states…..” As a result of the Manitoba government’s announcement to reduce greenhouse gases on Manitoba roads, MPI has made changes to sales of pre-1995 salvage passenger vehicles. All, MPI salvage passenger vehicles manufactured in 1994 and earlier will no longer be allowed to return to the road. MPI will declare these vehicles irreparable and will be sold for parts only.”
If the Bimmer has been declared a total loss or write off, then it’s toast, parts only. Cannot register again.
I suppose an out of province person could buy it, fix it and try to insure it in another province, perhaps that might work.
Just another lame, BS reason to get older cars off the road.
So, I fear that car is parts only. Too bad. Socialist politics at work again
Damn, that’s too bad 🙁
I wonder how difficult it would be to wash off the title, as it would be legal to register the vehicle in another province ( or state ) and have a way to register it back again, and the definition of salvage title is sort of different from state to state. It is sort of common for many toasted vehicle from other states to live back again in Michigan, as the laws are pretty forgivable towards older cars, both for historic reasons and horrible condition for all-season local cars. But that depends on how much the owner ( or next owner ) likes the car.
Thankfully in Canada, okay in Alberta we don’t deal with “titles.” Just do your research by CarProof or if you know a cop, check to see if the car is stolen.
With a write-off I could buy it at auction, get it rebuildt and then follow up with a comprehensive inspection by a garage certified to inspect rebuildt vehicles. The system will show this BMW as salvage and I should be able to see through CarProof. I know people who rebuild wrecks (I don’t like the term) because most often they are not that badly damaged and if the suspension has not been too buffered up, they will drive just fine. My oldest daughter and her husband bought a V50 that was written off because of areas quarter planel damage the rear suspension was not affected. The Volvo had only 60,000km, it is a 08 model and didn’t require much body work. I could go on with more examples.
Just do your due diligence so you
I didn’t know about that change. I wonder why the owner bothered with a claim then? Maybe he knew something we don’t.
I wonder if the owner didn’t know about it either?
The pre-1995 rule is pretty ridiculous, it means that low-value collector cars will be basically uninsurable because you cannot make a claim. Also if this becomes a rolling-20 year figure, in 5 years time Prius’ would be banned from repair because they are not green enough..
Sounds like a thin veneer of greenwashing over something the car dealers’ lobby probably wanted for a really really really long time. Nothing “socialist” about it, just good ol’ crony capitalism.
Car dealers aren’t losing sales due to people with 20+ year old vehicles. The point is to make car ownership harder to achieve, and it is a goal of the left. People need to wake up before we’re all wards of the state.
Actually, that’s nonsense, too, cause US corporations have pushed similar measures through as well. The corporations want everyone *driving* but probably prefer to have people use *financing* to afford serviceable vehicles.
Remember that in the used car market, the banks and payday lenders and other exploitive types don’t want people able to sell and trade good old stuff, they want them paying interest as *bills,* without really ever owning the property.
Looks like a very easy fix. Being a convertible and in such good condition otherwise, somebody could probably even make a quick buck on this car – depending on whether or not it gets branded with a “Salvage” title, of course. In most states in the U.S., that’s not an automatic for a situation like this, but I know Canada is generally a little stricter with their vehicle inspections and whatnot.
If the title is branded, it would still be a screaming deal for a handy E30 enthusiast. Great color and you don’t find them this nice but once every few years now.
Darn right I would fix it up. Not much damage but the parts are going to be costly. A highly desireable model but what an awful colour. Must have been repainted, usually these cars are red or black.
Too bad it’s not here in Edmonton.
I actually like the color. Also plenty of E36 3-series in this color green, so it would make sense to see it on a late E30 as well.
Actually I like the color. I am tired of the stereotype of the rich girl in a red BMW convertible. It is nice to see something different.
Ridiculous to TL this one. All it needs is a little C.
Good one. 🙂 I’d fix it…
I have no complaints about my health coverage in Canada. Very little comes out of my pocket, the rest through taxes or my employer’s health plan.