Farewell
 

Just wanted to say goodbye. My X5 was totaled while in the shop a couple of weeks ago. I'm heartbroken as I have had her for almost 10 years and absolutely love her. This was probably the only way my wife could have gotten me to let go. I obviously have something wrong with me because I jumped into another used V8 BMW but at least there's a CCP for it.

Thank you to everyone here who has saved me so much time and money the last 9+ years!

God bless!

Good luck with your new one! Sorry to hear about the circumstances.

These are addictive vehicles. Was there a story to the shop totaling your E53?

Mech was pulling out for test drive and got smacked. Appeared mostly cosmetic but when a headlight is $1200 dollars it doesn't take much more to make repairing excessive relative to value.

I can buy a complete use X5 for @1200, not just a headlight.

A fender and hood at the pick n pull yard is about $100.00
Bumper cover $45.00
A headlight is just $25.00

If you got lucky you could have found a X5 in the same silver as your old one, so for under $200.00 you could have got the X back on the road. What did your insurance or the shop insurance cut you for the X5. I would have bought it back and fix it myself.

Hi Tom,

Has the insurance already totaled the car out? What was it in the shop for? I say this as that thing can be saved, the damage does not look that bad.

That’s sucks! Sorry for the misfortune. I’d definitely try and buy it back from insurance and fix her up yourself. Unless there is more damage than can be seen in the pic.


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Ima be a devils advocate on this one to say, not quite so. It will get expensive very fast and to save money you would need to have a good amount of spare time and patience.


Yes, you can get yard parts, but only to a certain degree.

- Bumper cover wont happen. 4.8is Bumpers are single unit (You cannot order just the OEM lower diffuser unlike 4.6is'...ebay replicas disregarded) $800+S/H core only (sprayer jets, fog covers = extra $)
- Hood is attainable, You would have to be SUPER lucky to get a TiSi 4.4i LCI with matching grills/trim and good paint. Otherwise $400 in plastics alone + parts + paint. (I have yet to come across an X5 with good hood plastics... and I do yards ALOT) Some may say transfer existing grills, but believe me. I just did mine and as slow as I took it, they came out in pieces.
- Headlight, technically doable price is probably regionally dependent, but almost guaranteed to need resurfacing. Still 10% of retail. Only issue is getting one. LCI X5's are HOT for picking.

This is all assuming the radiator support isn't tweaked in the slightest.

One option you could propose to your insurance if you really want to keep the car is used OEM parts for repair by the body shop, likely to drop new core costs.

I've been playing scenarios out for the last couple of weeks and none of them had the insurance paying out what they told me over the phone yesterday. I won't believe it until I see it in writing but let's just say it's helping with my heartache.

When my E39 was totaled with minimal damage, I bought it back from the insurance company for $200 (yes two hundred) and got the payout minus that $200. I fixed her up for around $1500. I still have it and she's a beauty as ever. The only downside is that the title is salvage, but who cares:nanana: … since I'm keeping it for ever. And she has an amazing sentimental value to my family. My grown-up kids were raised with it, learned to drive with it, it was my first BMW etc.

Right there with you. My e39 wasn't my 1st Bimmer, but it *was* THE Bimmer that brought me back.

I may like the silly thing *too* much. When the guy who referenced my build for his E39 decided to buy an E53, I couldn't get there fast enough. :p: I brought 'em out the other day for a drive and snapped a pic.

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