Damage estimate? HELP
 

Transportation company's driver had a accident on the trip to the port, not sure how it really happened. Need some advice, I'm from Europe, not familiar with US law's.

Thats a beautiful car !!! I'm sure some1 will help u here from USA :)

The transportaion company should have insurance. Have you contacted them to discuss? I would have it fixed prior to shipping from the USA and get full documentaion and pictures after the fix. That won't be a inexpensive fix. Looks like the rear bumper and the Aero kit will have to be replaced and possibly the light assembly and paint of course. Good luck.

Yes, but they said its driver responsibility an his insurance will cover the repair cost and they are not very compliant, keeping offering me to fix it by myself, dont know for sure how that works-probably nohow. Should I hire a lawyer or something? And I'm concerned about that smashed exaust, could it be more damage than it looks?

Yes the smashed exhaust is a concern. The whole cat back needs to be replaced. This comes as a one piece assembly. Unless you want to have them cut the extension pipe and tailpipe off and weld another one on. i am not sure how you arranged this, if it is a legitimate company they should have insurance to cover their driver employees. Do you have a contract with them?

Well, yes I guess, I have invoice sent by mail and paid, also applied marine insurance, didn't sign anything. Car is in NJ. My English is not very good so I can't argue and negotiate well by phone.

If you bought the vehicle through a dealer perhaps they can help. Depending on the terms of the sale when do you take posession of the vehicle? If legally you do not take posession until the vehicle arrives at your destination I guess you can refuse delivery. I assume this is a brand new car? Where are you located?

The title is already on me, its CPO, 13K miles, Europe, Germany. I think the transport company has the full responsibility for that and they are avoiding repair, they said the must have a quote of estimate of th repair before they can confirm anything so that means that if its to much they will not repair the car, just my opinion. company is frightmar int

Wow, sorry this happened to your car. It's such a gorgeous car too.

A few suggestions:
- Maybe try and talk with your auto insurance people and see if they're familiar on how best to proceed? Maybe they may even have a bi-lingual/interpreter that's willing to be involved with the communications/negotiations.

- Do you have any family members, friends/associates that could intervene on your behalf here in the States or that can understand English better?

- Myself, I try not to involve lawyers unless it's the last resort. However, if you feel they're not cooperating or stonewalling then by all means.

Good luck with getting this resolved. I wish I could offer better suggestions. Hopefully someone more helpfull will chime-in soon.

Well perhaps someone in the NJ area could recommend a shop or dealer in the area to have a look at the car. You will need an estimate then submitt it to the company. If you have a lawyer have them send a letter to the transporter.

OK guys thanks a lot on advice

Something is very wrong here.

You haven't taken delivery of the car so legally it's not yours yet even though the tittle says so. Unless you already paid for it in full. Did you pay in full or did you finance it with a bank or something?

Legally, if the dealer signed off the car to the transport company, then the transport company is fully responsible for the car. They are also responsible for their own driver. It's kind of similar to shipping with FedEx or UPS. If your package arrives damaged for whatever reason, the shipping company is the one responsible for the damages, not the delivery guy.

There's also a shipping insurance associated with the transaction. This is standard for any type of auto transport unless you declined that option.

The bottom line, you never took possesion of the car so you should not even be doing anything.

Please post all important details so all our knowledgable forum members can help and discuss any additional suggestions, actions that you might need to take.

Full payment, wire transfer,...I applied marine insurance, I know I shouldn't do anything but they are not showing any sign of professionalism, for example I waited for them to get estimation of the damage and after 3-4 days of not getting anything on the mail I sent them mail to see is there any news, they only said: " no , we can send it like this and you can fix it with whoever you want"...this is after I said that I want the official BMW dealer tio repair the car and not some 3rd class shop

I would find out who hired the transportation company and if it was the dealer, then I would lean on them, make it there responsiblity, because really it is there's, you paid them $$$$ . If you can threaten to refuse delivery, use this to your advantage. :stickpoke

Oh an the BS about its the drivers problem, is wrong and maybe illegal, this kind of stuff happens daily they should have some form of company insurance or plan of action already in paper

and yes good advice about calling your insurance it can't hurt

good luck with everything

ultimatly I pretty sure There insurance is going to pay for this anyway, not out of there pocket, so I would push for having dealer fix it right without question, so if for some reason something is fixed wrong, or subpar work, there could be more damanage then you can see

One more piece of advice.. DO NOT have it delivered to you. You don't need any added aggrevation for them to come to you later and make up other stories. I would contact the selling dealership (where you bought it from) have them review and estimate repairs and then forward that onto the shipping company and wait for them to complete repairs. This way it'll be repaired correctly the first time.

Don't have a choice , dealer is 200 miles from the port, I don't have a luxury to argue much with them , I;m from Europe, don't have anyone there. If there is a lawyer among you or insurance employee I would hire him just not to deal with that anymore

Following are my suggestions:
1. Get the insurance information from the transport co. driver, threaten to file police complaint if they refuse to give you the information
2. Find out when did the accident happen, exact details. If accident happened while the transport co. driver was driving the vehicle, his/her insurance co. should cover the damage. Typically transport cos. have their own insurance which overrides the drivers insurance, find out if this is true, if so get the transport cos. insurance information.
3. Contact the drivers/transport cos. insurance directly, they will probably open a claim for you, if they refuse to open claim, call your insurance co. and give them details, they will then call the other insurance co. to open a claim.
4. Get a list of BMW authorized body shops in your area from the bmwusa.com website, additionally get a list of recommendations from this forum and other X5 forums. BMW Authorized body shops might not be covered by the insurance co., I would recommend going with a body shop covered by the insurance co. because that eliminates any money going out of your pocket.
4. If the drivers/transport cos. insurance opens a claim then things are easy and simple for you, just give them the names of the body shops you would like to take the car to and if they cover any of them, they will directly setup an appointment for you.
5. The body shop will give you an estimate, if the repair costs come out to be more, then they will directly contact the insurance co. and you won't be hassled.

Good Luck

love those rims.. should contact insurance company, they either come out to assess damage or they will tell you to take it to a dealer to get the estimation.

Transport company mail after 10 days and their answer to nearby BMW dealership estimation:

The transporter that damaged your vehicle would like to take the vehicle to a BMW dealership in North Carolina(600miles) to repair it The quote given by you was fairly high, and he can get a better deal at another BMW dealer. He would like to remove the vehicle from New Jersey tomorrow and have it repaired for you by the end of next week. It will be repaired with all original BMW parts and be as good as new!

What should I do?

take the deal.. it's better than before!

Take the deal. Get it in writing that it will be repaired back to factory using BMW OEM parts and make sure they transport the truck via flatbed.

OK , thanks very much.

Find out which BMW dealer they will ship to in NC, and contact them to make sure they know about your X5 coming in, this still sounds not right, the fact that the transporter wants to save money by sending your X5 from NJ to NC.... thats alot of money in transporting fees........ when there is 19 BMW dealers in NJ ......

I would be careful, as sleepless mentions, confirm with the dealership that they are expecting the X and what estimate they gave to the transporter. It sounds shady transporting the vehicle 600miles for some minor repairs.