750 taking a hit!
 

This was bound to happen sooner or later with the way the foreigners drive out here. Took a hit from someone trying to take a short cut and make an illegal turn across 4 lanes of traffic rather than waiting until they reached the light. It's a lease so I'm not too concerned about the whole issue of frame damage or resale value loss. Door is pretty much done for structurally. Some pretty serious but isolated damaged to the quarter panel. Cosmetic damage to rear wheel. Dropping it off at the bmw collision center tomorrow.

The door looks like it faired out well. The shop will probably avoid replacing the door due to fitment issues and then moving all the electronics over. Instead they'll probably put a new door skin on the front and repair any damage on the inside of the door. A new side skirt and some minor refinishing on the lower panel + a repaint on the WHOLE quarter panel/pillar/etc area.

I'm estimating it at around 2-3K

Doesn't sound too bad. It's going on his insurance anyway so I don't care. Dude crossed 4 solid yellow lines in that turn attempt. When I close the rear door the soft touch mechanism makes some kind of crunching sound as it pulls it shut so who knows what's going on inside there. I'm going out of town Tuesday so maybe they'll be able to finish it during the week I'm gone

Aren't you glad you leased?

Gotta love the idiots out here.. I really have a much lower opinion on the human race after seeing some of the boneheads out here.. just can't believe the ignorance..

Thank the good lord. Saves a ton of stress in situations like this. I had heard of a few people making some cash at the end of their lease by selling to carmax instead of just turning it in since the values had gone up a bit. Guess that's out of the question for me now, but at least I'm not actually losing anything.

Yikes I was just out in LA off Wilshire in Brentwood. I almost got hit 3 times, by just a hair - twice on the freeway and once on city streets.

I would not own a car out there, so much risk of being hit.

Glad you're OK, these are one of the safest cars on the road. Cant put a price on your safety.

Looks my cars twin brother got hit :(

The damage doesn't look that bad. I had some major damage on my Audi S5 last year, some guy basically backed right into me, so glad I was leasing because the damage was well over $10k. When I returned my car and got the 2013 mode the sales guy said the same thing because I would have taken at least a $15,000 hit.

The amount of BAD and ill trained drivers in So. California is shocking. This is going to sound "all my grandpa", but how can SO many people have a drivers license, if they do not even speak English? The vast majority of foreigners here in L.A. NEVER had a license or even drove a car in their home country....yet they come here and put themselves behind the wheel of a Yukon or Ford Expedition. Driving here is soooo scary. Especially in The Ghost....they are trying to take pictures or videos of my car, with their smart phones. Insanity!!!

The 7 Series is a very, very safe car. I am glad you are ok, and that you leased. We had a BAD accident in an X5...damage was almost $30,000!!! Insurance at first tried to fix, until I went ballistic on them, and they agreed to total the car (sadly after I had to get legal help, threatening them).

Good attitude, Adam; kudos!

Having a hard time deciding if this is meant to be sarcastic or positive. So....I'll be positive and go with positive :) :D

Ouch....I am going to estimate it's 8-9500 to fix correctly. Its an aluminum door if I remember correctly, plus straightening out each side of the door well/frame, and a whole repaint.

Not a bad idea about leasing bc of resale value if you get hit. Never thought about that. For me, a lease always seemed like a waste, your locked into a car for a set # of miles, and you have nothing at the end of it. Do many of you lease for tax reasons?

I'll post the estimate later on once I get it. Maybe it'll be useful down the line to someone. Door well is kinda bent out of shape and they said it'll go on some frame straightening machine after they heat it up! Definitely not the kind of crap I'd want done to a car I own, but I can deal with it for the year left on my lease unless I really notice some kind of different driving dynamic from the whole process. On the plus side, this car barely moved when it was hit and didn't even leave the lane. Really didn't even make that much of a sound inside the cabin. Part of this could have been attributed to the volume at which 2 Chainz was playing.

Leasing definitely has its benefits but its not always the best for every situation, i.e. if you're going to keep it for 5 years, do some mods, or put lots of miles on it. Mine does happen to be under my business and results in a bigger write off than if I owned it. The depreciation method on business vehicles has an annual limit that can get in the way of expensing luxury vehicles, whereas with a lease you can directly expense the payment for whatever portion of business use.

Take care of that ghost man! The worst part about witnessing accidents in LA is seeing such serious works of engineering go to waste over someone's moronic driving maneuver.

I see more reasons to lease than to own.

Immunity to accidents as far as depreciation. Even if you're in a minor fender bender and a Cop scans your VIN, kiss a major chunk of that resale good bye.

Minimizes exposure to lemons. After having to fight with litigation against DaimlerChrysler I don't think I would finance again. I am actually financing my SRT8 but that will be the last vehicle I do so. Not that it means you're not susceptible to getting a lemon, its just less of a hassle. Worst case scenario you're stuck with a vehicle for 3 years then can walk away scott-free.

I upped my mileage on my 7 from 10k to 15k/year. It increased my monthly payment by ~$111.xx. Cheaper than trying to lease/buy a F30 for a commuter vehicle. I don't think many of us on this forum are a one-car household anyways. So mileage really isn't an issue, you can just drive another vehicle. I just was surprised how much I had racked up so quickly so I just bit the bullet and increased my allowance. And I did this 4 months after signing the papers so you're not "locked" as much as you think. You can goto BMWUSA.com and increase your mileage to whatever you want, if you want 50k/year you can, you'll just pay for it (a discounted rate as long as its at least 6 months before the end of the lease.)

I just end up turning the car over after 2-3 years anyways. I was taking a hit each time, so I needed to end the cycle. I'm not going to keep my car past 3 years so why lie to myself when I'll want a newer, and better toy in a couple years?

You don't get anything at the end, but I have a lot more peace of mind, and feel freer to drive it more often. I love the car, but I'm not worried if its in an accident, vandalized, stolen, etc...

Different Strokes eh?

HAHAHA I wonder if half of the people on here know who 2 Chainz is lol...That line is classic

As 2 Chainz would say, "pull up to da scene with my door missing." They started to take the car apart but haven't prepared a full estimate yet. Some of the damaged body components are made of some boron alloy (i think) that they're going to decide if they can even restore them to the original condition within a reasonable amount of time and cost.

Didn't look like all that serious of an accident but I guess these cars are so complicated that repairing them involves a great deal of labor. The manager was a reall nice guy and showed me some of what was going on inside with the other damaged cars. One was a 3 series completely stripped down to its body (both axles removed, every single body panel, most of the enterior) in order to re-form the body/frame back to specs from what didn't look like a very serious accident at all. He stated that the rear compartment of the 7 series is nicknamed "The Vault" because of the strength and thickness of material surrounding it.

This is at a BMW Certified Collision Center. Since it's a lease the insurance company had to pay to send it there. Can't help but wonder what kind of level of repair the car would have received at an everyday body shop. In a Grand Cherokee rental car for now. An owner of a damaged '10 M3 that was over there ended up with a Corolla :/

I'm glad I am not the only one who listens to "musicians" like 2 Chainz in my 7 series. :)

I couldn't have said that any better myself :thumbup:

Finally took it apart and got to work on it. Final estimate is 15.2K, 32 business days. Other dude's insurance is some 5k limit nonsense so it's going under my uninsured motorist coverage. Going to see if my insurance will reimburse me for a lease payment or two

Holy crap... Gotta love minimum insurance carriers... At least your insurance can't raise you're rates on an underinsured motorist claim! Here's to getting the car back and hopefully getting a newer one soon!

Thats crazy, 5k?!? I cant imagine a slow fender bender being under that nowadays.

The other person was underinsured, and should have to pay the balance after 5k. Dont drive (reckless) if you cant afford adequate insurance:tsk: