On the way home from dinner with my wife and son. First in line at a red light. My light turns green. I roll off and make it through 2/3 of the intersection when I see a car streaking in from my right. Lady ran the red light and I hit her at her front left wheel. I'm going to need help proving to the insurance companies that my car (2003 sport package, manual, 98k miles) is worth more than book. 
On to the carnage.
I've alerted my company (USAA) and initiated the process with them. Her company (Progressive) has reached out to me, but I missed the call and will have to wait until Monday. Please share any/all advice on how to best proceed.
That sucks. Hopefully no one was injured.
Good luck with the insurance company. To get them off book value, is going to take some leg work on your part to prove why your car is worth more.
Should have mentioned that. Everyone is unscathed. Grateful we were a split second earlier, as my wife would have taken a direct shot in the passenger door.
That sucks. Glad to hear you are ok!
Biggest point here from past experience is to have a full listing of the vehicle options and kbb book. Next step is a pretty comprehensive look for comps on auto trader. If you can show via ~100 mile auto trader search what it costs to replace you should be ok.
I watched a buddy do this with his WS6 Firechicken his dad bought new and sold to him. He basically talked it up from the first step, kept talking after they made him an offer he didn't like, provided gobs of documentation on the cost of specific options, favorable comps, how his dad broke it in all special like, etc. Basically a nice guy who was super convinced it was worth more and provided a pretty good amount of proof it might be. It worked for him without lawyering up.
The first trick will be finding a comparable car for sale. There aren't many sport package e46 Tourings out there, much less with a manual transmission and under 100k miles.
Really glad to hear everyone's ok, that could have been a whole lot worse. Beautiful car, hope you are able to get a fair shake from the insurance co.
scary stuff. You may have come through physically unscathed, how are you and wife doing mentally? A shock like that to the system can take a while to get over.
As a fellow E46 Touring owner I weep for your loss.
But, the truth is... it's probably not worth what you think it is. The E46 is at the bottom of it's curve and while you can sell a wagon fast... you can't sell it for a lot. The good news about that - if you love it - you can buy a whole front clip from the junkyard for less than the cost of the paint. I spent under 5 bills fixing a little less damage than that. Straightened the horns, bolted on new fenders, hood, cooling parts and bumper... then had a buddy spray it for me. So, repaired for about the $1k deductible. It looks like E36 M3 again 2 years later after my kid has been driving it but it's still running like a champ.
Good luck anyway - you can give the rest of us hope if you get a good number. I'm glad your clan is unscathed. That's the really important bit.
Fortunate location for the other driver considering shes gonna need a new tire and all. :-)~
sadly, the way people run redlights around here, I HATE being first in line.
We went through a similar experience with a fairly pedestrian Maxima. The only two special things about it were that it was the cleanest one I'd ever seen, and it was a stickshift. We basically just kept sending them links to every one within 10k mileage that was rust free--that was he hard part; insurance only wanted to look at ones close to us, which were all rusty. Ours wasn't. We kept saying "rust free"; eventually we "won".
USAA treated me very well when I lost a Corvette. You may be surprised at what they offer.
Get comps. Make sure you get dealer comps not private sales. Get used to saying no to there first offer. I would try and line up a car or three that you would actually go purchase. Maybe call CarMax and see what they have in inventory and have it transferred to the local store? I went through it with my jag.
Oh and I would not talk to the other insurance company. File the report with yours and let your company deal with them.
Sorry about the accident.
So why is it worth more than book? Does it have mods, upgrades? As hard as it is, you'll need to remove yourself from any emotional attachment to the car and look at it as a piece of machinery. What's it really worth? I can tell you right now that comps will be hard to find...both for you and the insurance company, because a sport manual transmission E46 station wagon is just slightly less common than the Honda Accord. Truthfully what they will likely have to do in the absence of a lot of easily locatable comps is find something as close as they can...auto trans wagons, manual sedans, etc... They won't search forums, CL, etc... so you may have to. Don't bring one that has an asking price that's ridiculous, be reasonable.
There is no real reason not to talk to the other insurance company...in fact you may make it more difficult on yourself.
My only comment based on experience is that if and when you speak with the other insurance company, they will be fishing for you to say anything that implies you were not injured. Keep in mind that you are most likely being recorded.
Has the car been totaled ?
NOHOME said:My only comment based on experience is that if and when you speak with the other insurance company, they will be fishing for you to say anything that implies you were not injured. Keep in mind that you are most likely being recorded.
They will ask if you are injured, it's standard protocol. But I can assure you it's no "fishing" expedition. You wanna see fishing...go contact a plaintiff attorney. They have people who's full time job is to dig through police reports and recruit. Not only will they tell you that you are in fact injured...wink, wink...they'll tell you exactly where you're injured, what "doctor" will treat you, how long and how much money they'll steal...uh...get.
As for the recording part, the carrier will request permission to take a recording. If you don't want to, you can say no and they won't record it. Frankly, there's very little to be paranoid about if they do record it. It actually can work very much in your favor.
Klayfish said:Sorry about the accident.
So why is it worth more than book? Does it have mods, upgrades? As hard as it is, you'll need to remove yourself from any emotional attachment to the car and look at it as a piece of machinery. What's it really worth? I can tell you right now that comps will be hard to find...both for you and the insurance company, because a sport manual transmission E46 station wagon is just slightly less common than the Honda Accord. Truthfully what they will likely have to do in the absence of a lot of easily locatable comps is find something as close as they can...auto trans wagons, manual sedans, etc... They won't search forums, CL, etc... so you may have to. Don't bring one that has an asking price that's ridiculous, be reasonable.
There is no real reason not to talk to the other insurance company...in fact you may make it more difficult on yourself.
I'm actually not emotionally attached to the car, though I did enjoy it. My concern is that the open market has always valued these cars differently than the "book". Manual transmission, sport package e46 BMWs are incredibly rare so the few out there tend to trade at inflated values. Comps are going to be super hard to find. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if there are zero comps out there, forums, CL, or otherwise. I bought the car ~1 year ago and paid $8500, knowing it had issues I would have to correct (which I did). Meanwhile, KBB estimated $5700 in good condition for a private party sale.
I'm not looking for a lottery win here, but don't relish the thought of ending up pretty far in the hole either.
iceracer said:Has the car been totaled ?
Not yet. I have to call USAA back on Monday to continue the process, which includes meeting an adjuster (I believe). Based on the above KBB number, I'm not holding out hope that they'll pay to repair it.
Klayfish said:They will ask if you are injured, it's standard protocol. But I can assure you it's no "fishing" expedition. You wanna see fishing...go contact a plaintiff attorney. They have people who's full time job is to dig through police reports and recruit. Not only will they tell you that you are in fact injured...wink, wink...they'll tell you exactly where you're injured, what "doctor" will treat you, how long and how much money they'll steal...uh...get.
I have come to enjoy being interviewed by plaintiff's attorneys at work. The number of ways some of these guys can try to twist a story is incredible and they will work feverishly to get you to tell their version of the story instead what happened.
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