X5 rear ended - repair advice in north nj
 

Our 2005 X5 got rear ended this morning in maywood nj as I was about to drop my wife off at work. A tree was down from the storm and traffic was being diverted, we were stopped waiting to turn when we got slammed from behind at about 40mph. The guy claims he took his eyes off the road to light a cigarette :angryfire I don't think he even braked.

The OEM tow hitch took most of the impact and the rear bumper is broken, there could be more damage so I had it towed to a local place until I can deal with it. My wife had back surgery (lumbar fusion) in 2008 so I wanted to have her checked out so getting her to the ER was my primary objective. Thankfully, she is fine.

I called my insurance (State Farm) and already got a claim going. Tomorrow morning I am going to have the car towed to a BMW dealership for repair. Any advice on which one? I am thinking JMK but Open Road, Morristown and Prestige are fairly close as well. Also, does anyone have advice on what the extent of the damage could be. It looked drivable to me but I didn't want to chance it and I was anxious to accompany my wife in the ambulance.

I really wouldnt want the dealer to do this work...

I've seen a guy in Hackensack do AWESOME work...

C&D Auto Body Inc.
176 Saddle River Avenue
Building G
South Hackensack, NJ 07026
973.779.0497 tel



heres their website:
C&D Auto Body | Excellence in Auto Collision Repair Since 1987

They fixed a friends white 5-series (the door was dented badly). This body shop matched the paint and texture perfectly. They also do alot of the new cars damaged during shipping. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND them

interesting pov naz. i would have thought the dealer would be best suited. the place you mentioned looks good however.

+1 to this. Matt @ C&D is the man. Best BMW body guy around, period. I know quite a few people who have had work done there and the final product was always perfect. He even gets the factory orange peel perfect.

This is in the Testimonials section:

"In my 18 years in the business, C&D Auto Body is by far the best collision repair facility in our area. Matt Casiano and his team of skilled technicians truly love what they do, and consistently turn out factory quality repairs. I exclusively send my customers to C&D because I know they will come back to me and say thank you."

Bob Teunisen
Park Ave BMW
Maywood, NJ


So forget park ave, go straight thru the source

yeah park ave isn't even a consideration. i will call c&d in the am.

While we haven't had bodywork done at C&D, their work does look amazing. We checked them out when our 3 series needed work, and the amount of damaged new cars and BMW's in general was amazing. They were expensive though, being very thorough with replacing all damaged parts; even if we didn't want all the parts replaced which pushed up the cost.

just without looking at it, the repairs are going to be at least 12-15k. if equipped with navigation, the navigation computer should be checked and the battery box for damage, most times, the radio in the box is fried also. add 5k for navigation and radio.

yeah i'll have them check obviously but i fail to see how navigation/radio can be affected. the only damage is to the lower valence/bumper where the hitch is. the other vehicle was lower. i don't think the rear door was even damaged. airbags did not deploy. i'm more worried about frame damage than anything else due to the low hit right on the hitch receiver. will post pics tomorrow.

WOW NAZ! PAPASMURF! It is a very small world. Matt actually worked on my X after I was rear-ended on the Garden State Parkway in January 2007. So I can definitely vouch for C&D. He brought my X back to mint condition. A very honest and detail-oriented individual.

I have 2 things to add:

1) Going to C&D is equivalent to going to the dealer. Kishg: if you go to Park Ave BMW, guess where they will send your X....yep that's THEIR body shop, C&D Autobody. LOL. At least that was the case back in January 2007 when I went to Park Ave BMW Service (after the accident) and asked the Service Director who the best autobody guy is. So you can either have Park Ave tow your X to C&D Autobody...or you can just have it towed straight to C&D. Unless they've changed their bodyshop since '07.

2) Kishg: Keep in mind that most of my damage was cosmetic. I did need a new muffler on one side and obviously a new bumper. But the main frame did not sustain any damage. My overall bill (or rather GEICO's overall bill) was around $4,000. And my X was less than 7 months old at that time with very low miles, meaning the KBB value on it was still quite high.

Fast forward to 2010: Your damage bill, based on the speed of the other vehicle, may easily approach $10K. Which is probably not much lower than the KBB value of your vehicle. So you have to ask yourself if repairing is a better option vs. pushing the insurance company for a "total". That's only a question you can answer. You need to decide if you're comfortable getting back into your vehicle after that kind of collision. Versus just taking the fair market payout and putting it towards something else. Good luck!

stan, thanks for the comments. yes, whether it has sustained frame damage or not is the main concern. if not, i don't have any issues with having it repaired by a reputable shop like C&D. I was leaning towards having it towed to JMK in Springfield. They have their own bodyshop but am thinking C&D might be better right now. Will call them in the AM.

C&D Autobody
 

I can personally vouch for Matt Casiano of CD Autobody, he is the best BMW body shop you will find in NJ. He is the only guy I have every used that I was completely happy with. He does a ton of work for BMWNA, you will allways see lots of BMW's waiting for work in his shop. The only caveat with him is he is allways busy and will not be the quickest due to his backlog, but if you want it done right he is the guy to go to. Going to a dealer is not your best option, you really dont know where it will be shipped off to for repair. You want to go to the shop and talk to the guy doing the work.

agree. the one main reason i was considering jmk is that they have their own bodyshop and i know some folks there. time is somewhat of a concern because although we have a rental car covered by insurance and 3 other cars, I do need to tow my race car to mid ohio in early april.

Keep in mind!
 

most new car dealer dont paint there cars - they send send them out to local auto body shops. which mean most likely if you bring it to bmw a local body shop will fix your car... it cost dealer alot to have in house body shops - plus -must dealer are tight on space-

Don't forget to have the mufflers checked and especially the manifold. I was rear ended in a Mitsubishi Endeavor, the muffler pushed up against the manifold and did some damage to that as well. Make sure they replace the mufflers. Insurance will try to cover a small percentage of this because the muffler is used for xxxx miles. Don't let them get away with that.

ok. car is on it's way to c&d. went there today and met matt. i am very very impressed. Thanks to all for that referral. this board rocks! i will keep everyone posted on the details.

glad to hear everything worked out. Its a great shop, good luck :thumbup:

Well, I'm a bit late to the party here but here's one more vote for C&D...I suppose the reassurance is still good for you to hear!

While I didn't end up going there (I guess I really should have from the results on the board here!) I also heard from a big time enthusiast about C&D. Good luck with everything.

Also, as I JUST went through a front bumper repair ($3800 total) might I add that this may be an opportunity for you to add the 4.8is kit to your repair since she's in the shop. Morristown BMW worked me a crazy-good price on the parts for my body shop to use so it worked out real well. Not sure if that's of any interest to you but we just had the front and back 4.8is "kit" added to our 3.0 and it looks AWESOME. Shoot me a PM if you'd like to hear the details.

Here's a link to my post on my bumper job and everyone's wonderful insight on how to best do this.

PS glad to hear your wife is ok.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ated-pics.html

Do you have pictures of the damage?

update: the other driver's insurance (geico) is picking up the tab. the adjuster has been out to c&d and the tab so far is around $5k for the bumper, tow hitch, mufflers, muffler shields, battery box and the battery cable. there maybe more supplementals as they go along.

I love you guys!!!! Thanks for getting the shots. Doesn't look bad from the outside, but I hate how much damage is under the skin. If that ever happens to me, I would want to sit and watch them at every step of the repair.

Good job on taking care of your paint, it looks great :thumbup:

You're in luck. There's only one Geico adjuster that goes over there, and he will go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure the car is perfect.

thanks. i wish i could sit at c&d all day and watch. it's like a bmw nut's playground there :) unfortunately i've already lost 2 days of work this week due to this accident and really can't afford to lose more. gotta keep working to pay for the toys :) i have faith that matt and c&d will spare no detail in getting it all back together.

OK, that's does not look too bad. Roughly equivalent to the damage I had 3 years ago when Matt fixed it all up for me. It will be a walk in the park for his crew.

Probably what you meant to say on your first post is that the other driver was going 40 mph "initially". By the time he made contact with you I'm sure he slowed down at least a little bit. If he truly hit at a full 40 mph you would have had frame damage and the bill would have been much higher. Just like the lady that smacked into me applied her brakes but still could not stop her rickety Ford Escort from plowing into me. She was probably going 50 mph initially, and 20 mph by the time she made contact.

As far as babysitting the repair, that's absolutely not necessary. You take care of your own work, and Matt will take care of his.

yeah, he could not have been going 40. had to have been less.. i agree, it should be a no brainer for c&d based on what i saw them do.

C&D Auto Body Inc.
176 Saddle River Avenue
Building G
South Hackensack, NJ 07026
973.779.0497 tel

Bump for C&D .... They did my 03 X5 after it got hit by a deer and the job was fantastic, The guy Matt Casiano was great to work with. They come highly recommended.

try and get a good price on 4.8 replacement mufflers with the nice tips. they will fit right on to your x. check all the hangers in the rear, they r probably shot. someone suggested the 4.8 reear spoiler, thats a greeat idea too. check your rear carrier bushings, they could be broken. check the whole exhaust, start her up after the x is dead cold and listen for exhaust leaks near the engine exhaust manifolds