E39 Damage | Repair or Sell As Is?

[Filth 5]

Hi Guys,

Come September I'm leaving NZ for the U.K and sadly than means my beloved needs to go.

She has a bit of damage on her though and I'm unsure whether or not to fork out the 1.6k excess on insurance to get her fixed up in hopes that I'll keep more on resale or just sell as is??

Here are some pics of the damage.

It's a 2002 530i Motorsport - it has a few options you normally wouldn't find on a model like this, sunroof, 16:9 display, msport wheel etc, done 149k

Thoughts?

[Guest MP0wer]

Small repairs really, Pop out the bumper, have a body shop do it for you, do some cut and polish, but to be honest, you can just sell it here to a fellow member and they should understand and take it as it is, unlike trademe, where you will get a lot of tire kickers for smaller imperfections as these.

Are you moving to UK permanently?

[Filth 5]

Small repairs really, Pop out the bumper, have a body shop do it for you, do some cut and polish, but to be honest, you can just sell it here to a fellow member and they should understand and take it as it is, unlike trademe, where you will get a lot of tire kickers for smaller imperfections as these.

Are you moving to UK permanently?

Yeah I've had the experience you're talking about with TM as I tried selling last year ( before had planned trip ) and people offering me 2k for it - told them to take a hike.

Not permanently, it's my OE!

[kulgan 1042]

Given the price these are selling for these days it'd be a 50/50 decision for me. If you spent the excess would you be able to get that back on resale or would you be better off selling as is. Depends how much your already into the car financially.

If it's your OE and you dont need the money from the car why not put the rego on hold and park it in someones garage till you get back?

Edited June 1, 2015 by kulgan

[Filth 5]

Given the price these are selling for these days it'd be a 50/50 decision for me. If you spent the excess would you be able to get that back on resale or would you be better off selling as is. Depends how much your already into the car financially.

If it's your OE and you dont need the money from the car why not put the rego on hold and park it in someones garage till you get back?

I'll be gone for around 3 years - 2 years in UK / Europe then 1 year divided across the states the asia.

I'm wanting to buy a bike when I get back as I miss them too much - kinda need the money going on the trip too! The NZD to GBP isn't the best!

[Filth 5]

The thing is re the 1.6k excess is I've spoken to my insurance company - I may have to pay two excess $800ea as the damage happened at different times... don't think there's a way to get around that otherwise I'd happily pay the $800 to have her all shiny again

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2132]

hard to get a feel for the overall car from just those two photos

[elmarco 56]

Leave it as is - you wont get the $1600 back in sale value from my experience.

[Guest MP0wer]

Sounds Good Jordy, We might have something to talk about. I myself am Planing to leave for good by next year.

I have done repairs like that myself, with much success, I have a friend up north who's a panel beater too, Hes name is Steve, look up his listing on trademe. But it may be a bit far for you, what I would do then would be, 1 take the bumper off, inspect the damage, then the damage to the fender you can simply heat up and pop out, use some rubbing and polish compound to remove as much as the scratches you can, then the bumper I guess you can grab a cheap swap one or just take it to an independent body shop, cant be more then a few hundred bucks to repair it. Or just cut groves, use a plastic welding gun, use small cable ties, and then body filler and all it will need is a respray touch up, that is if you want to.

Doesn't look like a repair thats worth more then $500 to spend on.

[BM WORLD 1283]

parts here to fix it .

http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/50248-2000-e39-540i-motorsport-parts-car-bm-world/?hl=%2B540i+%2Bmotorsport

[Filth 5]

Sounds Good Jordy, We might have something to talk about. I myself am Planing to leave for good by next year.

I have done repairs like that myself, with much success, I have a friend up north who's a panel beater too, Hes name is Steve, look up his listing on trademe. But it may be a bit far for you, what I would do then would be, 1 take the bumper off, inspect the damage, then the damage to the fender you can simply heat up and pop out, use some rubbing and polish compound to remove as much as the scratches you can, then the bumper I guess you can grab a cheap swap one or just take it to an independent body shop, cant be more then a few hundred bucks to repair it. Or just cut groves, use a plastic welding gun, use small cable ties, and then body filler and all it will need is a respray touch up, that is if you want to.

Doesn't look like a repair thats worth more then $500 to spend on.

Cheers for the info Hyde!

Might catch you in the UK next year :-)

[Filth 5]

parts here to fix it .

http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/50248-2000-e39-540i-motorsport-parts-car-bm-world/?hl=%2B540i+%2Bmotorsport

Cheers Brent!