RE: my plastic BMW - year 2000 323Ci E46 - minor collision

["Fadeev, Alex" <alex.fadeev@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

lew@domain.elided [mailto:lew@domain.elided] wrote:
> 
> A minor collision, where I "touched" the rear bumper of a delivery
> van caused $3700 CDN damage to my BMW 323Ci, year 2000, E46 model.
> The delivery van did not realize that we had collided, and drove
> off, with no damage whatsoever.
> 
> The steel bumper of the van was higher than the BMW 323Ci bumper,
> causing the damage to the BMW to be located on the front hood. The
> hood was slightly bent, the right plastic grill was cracked, the
> plastic assembly holding the right front zenon head lamp was 
> cracked. The zenon headlamp itself was undamaged. There is an 
> amazing amount of plastic in a BMW car, all very fragile!  The 
> sheet metal on a BMW is very thin, and very easy to dent.
> 
> The key parts needed to repair the BMW 323Ci were as follows:
> Grille assembly       $53.00
> Headlamp assembly   $1245.00
> (its not possible to buy the plastic mount separately - you 
> have to buy the entire headlight system!)
> new hood             $633.00
> 
> total parts   $2398.00
> total labour  $1000.00
> 
> Fender-benders are very expensive to fix on BMW 323 cars.

Lew,
Sorry to hear about your accident.
Fender benders, despite a dismissive name, are never cheap to fix. OEM body
panel + repaint will run you into thousands of $$, US or CA. 
In your case, just like when my wife's E30 was rear ended by a Ford Bronco
and pushed into a Pathfinder, everything would have been fine if truck's and
car's bumpers were at the same height. As we both found out the hard way,
they are not. DOT regulates NA-build trucks to have bumpers hanging just
high enough to clear the bumper of an average car. Thus any minor collision
turns into a contest between truck's bumper and car's body panels. The
bumper wins every time. 
In the case of my E30, both trucks drove away from the accident with one
cracked bumper cover between the two of them. The E30 incurred $6K of damage
and was eventually totaled. Fender-bender between a truck and a car are
always very expensive to the car. 

alex f

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