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Originally Posted by gatorgirl
Thanks for responding!! Wow . . . $8000. I was thinking maybe $2000 or so but with everything involved I knew the price would be kinda high. I told the driver that she might want to get her insurance involved!! I think she would rather pay her deductible than pay for everything out-of-pocket!!
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You're looking at $8k to $10k without a doubt. $2k wouldn't get you very far. The parts are incredibly expensive. I agree with the poster who said you should go to a shop that deals with exotics, if you don't feel comfortable with your dealer's collision center (I wouldn't).
Those that are familiar with repairing Porsches, Ferraris, and the like, are the best in the business. I've had a similar rear end issue, with a sports car once and found such a center. The work they did was magnitudes above what I'd ever seen performed from a "dealer collision center." Those that work on $250k machines are selected for their talent, and there is rarely any sloppiness.
Body work/collision repair is a very much an art, and you want to find the best artist you can find. Those who delve into the guts of exotics, are the ones you want working on your BMW, to be 100% sure.
As for the exhaust leak, I would drive with your windows open (all of them), and get it to a repair facility ASAP. Carbon Monoxide is nothing to play around with, especially if you have young ones. Their lungs are far smaller, and the lethality of the gas is far smaller. Caution is def. warranted in this situation, and the exhaust is rather fragile. A blunt force to it, as mentioned above can damage anything from the cats to the exhaust headers. Just think about the force of the impact of a 1.5 ton vehicle hitting your X5 at 15 to 30 mph. It's an insane amount of force per square inch. If it were any car, the damage could have been much worse.
One fact to note: the E70 rated the highest in every category ever tested by the National Institute of Insurance Safety. In other words, the E70 is the best vehicle they've ever tested, period, in their history. You can find videos on youtube.com, about this. Given your son was in the back, I'd say your very lucky that you were in a BMW.
Within 10-years, I'd wager to bed we'll have collision avoidance warnings mandated on all vehicles, a la Audis, Volvos, etc. Sorry this happened to you, but at the end of the day it's just a car. As long as your family is safe, have no fear. The X5 will be good as new.