X6 built like a tank

[Mako]

My wife was t-boned this morning by a car going around 45-50 mph! Front of their car (older Camry) was totally smashed. Somehow my wife walked away with just bruises and some whiplash. Side airbags deployed, and frame held up, on the inside you couldn't even tell there was an accident, windows didn't even shatter! Other driver suffered a broken ankle from what we know so far.

I think the height of the X6 helped as well, I don't think my M3 would have had as good of an outcome. I just hope the frame is okay and the X6 doesn't have to be totaled...

[turboawd]

i'd push for a total. that is not a simple bolt on repair. it will require metal pulling, cutting, and welding i assume.

[Enrico 35d]

wow , good to hear your wife is ok. At that angle of impact, she should have been the one with the broken bones !
Good to know these cars are built that way, but I'm not sure it's repairable. Maybe a lot more underlying damage unfortunately.

[Jenya B]

Cheezz good your wife is ok .

[Samurai of 2day]

Good to hear your wife was not seriously injured. Please stay safe out there.

Thank you for posting how reliable our cars can be in a dangerous situation.

I agree with the others. Try to push for a total, that way you can avoid the headache of lengthy repairs, and you can get a fresh car put of the deal through insurance.

[nyalpine90]

happy to hear x6 did its job protecting your wife from tbone collision.
hopefully it will be declare total and she will be back on the road in new car.
sometimes its difficult to get back on a road after an accident.

[Kzang]

This maybe just my theory but I really believe that we pay a premium for not only performance but safety in a luxury cars. My thoughts are that a BMW 5 series car would be safer than a Camry or Accord in a similar car crash.

[Buckerine]

Originally Posted by Kzang

This maybe just my theory but I really believe that we pay a premium for not only performance but safety in a luxury cars. My thoughts are that a BMW 5 series car would be safer than a Camry or Accord in a similar car crash.

Absolutely. It's really just simple physics. An X6 weighs so much more than an old Camry. This was like Allen Iverson running into Shaq. Might've been a different story had it been an Escalade rather than a Camry.

This is actually why we only buy SUVs. Not putting my family at risk in a smaller car with all the SUVs that are out on the road here in the US. Just got back from Europe last week and an X5 looks monstrous compared to all the other pipsqueak cars on the road.

[WJMSprtXDrive]

Thank God for His protection. May your wife have a swift and complete recovery.

[Mako]

Quick update

Took 4 months to repair , half that time was waiting for parts which had to come from Germany (even though car is made in US) and were mis-ordered.

$38,500 to fix it and that is with no mechanical damage. Car really should have been totaled but initial estimate was only $14,000 and then adjusted was $28,000.

It was maybe worth in the low $50s when they got started, but I am guessing this is common as body shops want the business and under estimate initial costs on purpose.

Needless to say our insurance rates doubled but obviously long term we are way ahead vs not having insurance.

X6 parts are crazy expensive

[nyalpine90]

that will hurt resale value of the car...are you going to claim DV?
what insurance do you have?
shouldve been total at $38k in repairs.

[Hrmmm]

yea you're going to take a major hit in value. most people i know would avoid purchasing a car that's had so much body/frame work done on it after an accident. if you plan on keeping it until it dies, however, then its resale value is not as big a deal i guess.

[Doanster]

Rates doubled? So your wife was at fault? Sorry, I haven't (knock on wood) been in an accident for a couple decades now so haven't had to truly "deal" with insurance companies so not sure whether rates would go up that much even if you were not at fault.
Glad to hear the car is back on the road.

[F15GorDe]

Definitely go after DV. Glad the wife is OK.

Good luck and keep us up to date on how this works out.

[sapper5]

missed the first post but glad everyone was ok.
Agree with claiming DV.

Rode in a Tesla S for a few hours yesterday--the frame seemed much lighter and body less sturdy but it still weighs a good 4500lbs, maybe 1000 less than the X5 depending on battery size but that's where all the weight is (~under carriage battery weight). I wonder how those things do in crashes...
People say the weight is good and makes it impossible to roll, but if you hit a high-riding vehicle i imagine you have a lot of momentum that would propel you under/down.

Man I used to have an Isuzu Trooper in highschool and that thing was like driving on stilts...take a corner faster than 35 and you'd just roll over.

[P1]

Was it your wife's fault? Is that why the insurance rates doubled?

[Barbja]

Originally Posted by Mako

Quick update

Took 4 months to repair , half that time was waiting for parts which had to come from Germany (even though car is made in US) and were mis-ordered.

$38,500 to fix it and that is with no mechanical damage. Car really should have been totaled but initial estimate was only $14,000 and then adjusted was $28,000.

It was maybe worth in the low $50s when they got started, but I am guessing this is common as body shops want the business and under estimate initial costs on purpose.

Needless to say our insurance rates doubled but obviously long term we are way ahead vs not having insurance.

X6 parts are crazy expensive

What, what, WHAT? Does your shop want you to come back? You'd think that they'd want to look out for your best interests if they did.

I T-boned a little car in my '12 X6 (not my fault). My opponent's car was pretty much destroyed. I was probably going 40-50 and she pulled out a car length or so in front of me. Besides every air bag in the my car going off and the Diet Coke spillage, the only apparent damage was to my front passenger quarter panel and the windshield. However, if you looked closely, the front passenger tire was now touching the back of the wheel well -- not so good. At the time, the car was a little less that 3y old and worth a little north of $45k.

The insurance company's initial estimate was about $17k to fix. The shop didn't think that the estimate was that bad until I told the guy how fast I was going. He told me to hold off on everything until they could take it apart and do the blueprint. Well, they stopped calculating after the amount hit $35k. Absolutely everything that wheel was connected to, in succession, was broken -- and I had DHP (or whatever we called it then) which seems to make everything cost 2x more.

After I talked to the shop, every single time I talked to someone at the insurance company I said the magical words "diminished value". Since my opponent only carried minimum coverage, my claim had to be handled by my insurance. Since I had new car replacement coverage (thank you Allstate), they bought me a new car (another X6, yes!). If I had been dealing with my opponent's insurance company, I believe that the road may have been harder. Allstate really didn't want to part with the bucks though; I was in a rental more than 30 days waiting for them to cut that check.

If I had actually T-boned her and not faded ever-so-slightly left as PC training taught me, I probably wouldn't have totaled my car, but the other person may be missing some bones instead of her engine compartment going missing. I guess making you do it 8 million times does make it automatic! The high-speed slalom saved me once too (such a weird story and unlikely story).

[expidia]

I'd put it up for sale real fast, privately and "burn the car fax".

If you trade it with a dealer they will farm it out to the auction.

Can you imagine a perceptive buyer reading your car fax report now

I can't believe any insurance company would even fix it with that amount of damage and totally kill your resale value. It should have been totaled. Thats not right to double your premium and then have "you" eat the drop in resale value.

Will even be tougher to find a new insurance company now at a decent rate after that big of an accident no matter whose fault it was.

[neverdone]

that's just the worst outcome ever you will never sell that car unless you put it up for next to nothing. I figure if it is worth 50k before the accident and it took 38k to fix the damn thing, you'd be lucky to sell it for 30k.

[Scott2.0]

The most important thing is that everyone is OK, but I would have gone apeshit on the insurance company before they left me with a borderline totaled car and double the premium.

[turboawd]

Originally Posted by Mako

Quick update

Took 4 months to repair , half that time was waiting for parts which had to come from Germany (even though car is made in US) and were mis-ordered.

$38,500 to fix it and that is with no mechanical damage. Car really should have been totaled but initial estimate was only $14,000 and then adjusted was $28,000.

It was maybe worth in the low $50s when they got started, but I am guessing this is common as body shops want the business and under estimate initial costs on purpose.

Needless to say our insurance rates doubled but obviously long term we are way ahead vs not having insurance.

X6 parts are crazy expensive

did you go to patrick collision? they did the same to me.

[Mako]

So it?s a lease. Do I need to worry about BMW financial coming after us in a year when we turn it in?