[jamesna120]

i was coming home from work which is in little tokyo at about 7pm yesterday.. 2cars in front of me (sentra and f150) and i were stopped at a red light when a nissan titan ran into my car (rear ended) approximately at 35-40mphm, causing a chain reaction along with the 2 cars in front of me. and it gets better.... the guy hit and runs...... and about 10 sec later a cop cruises by the scene and i yelled at him HIT AND RUN... and to make long story short..... the cop caught the guy five blocks down block at san pedro and 5th. with the air bags deployed. it turns out this man was uninsured and unliscensed driver who was driving one of his family members car. sorry no pictures to show you guys at this point but i have couple of questions i like to ask you guys....
Does accidents avoid any types of warranties on the car?

can anyone recommand any certified collision bodyshops in LA/OC area that does good job??

fyi.. the car is not a lease.. less than 1yr old jet black e90... the most damage is to the rear and i can clearly see that my trunk , bumper and probably the inner beam bent. i can say one thing...e90's a one stong mofo yo... and i know im lucky because it could have been alot worse.. health is everything...

[just4kickz]

wow... some story... good thing the cop got him... & i dont know the answers to your questions

[txusa03]

at 40-45 mph, I wonder how much damage. I am glad you are ok (I assume you are ok since you are log on here). A nice way to get out of this is if they say your car is total. I dont think accident will void factory warranties. Ask your insurance agent about it. GL.

[nmulax]

yeah, if he truly hit you at that speed, I would imagine there's fairly extensive damage to the frame and rear suspension. Push for your insurance company to declare your car totaled. A repaired vehicle never performs the same as one that hasn't been in an accident.

[jamesna120]

Originally Posted by nmulax

yeah, if he truly hit you at that speed, I would imagine there's fairly extensive damage to the frame and rear suspension. Push for your insurance company to declare your car totaled. A repaired vehicle never performs the same as one that hasn't been in an accident.

the damage looks bad but repairable.... thats the thing...

35-40mph is a rough estimate.. i honestly don't know as i was whiplashed..
at what crash speed does the airbags usually deploy for cars like titan?? anyone??

[txusa03]

Originally Posted by jamesna120

the damage looks bad but repairable.... thats the thing...

35-40mph is a rough estimate.. i honestly don't know as i was whiplashed..
at what crash speed does the airbags usually deploy for cars like titan?? anyone??

so your airbag did not go off?

[jamesna120]

Originally Posted by txusa03

so your airbag did not go off?

correct... only the titan who rear ended me..

[Ghunger]

It takes a pretty big crash to set off the airbags in newer cars. A coworker of mine talked to Chrysler about it and their words were that the airbag would go off if "death was imminant"

[espo]

Originally Posted by jamesna120

the damage looks bad but repairable.... thats the thing...

You will be surprised at how much damage getting rear ended can cause to a car. Where we you in the line of cars? A number of years ago the same type of thing happened to my mother at a stop light. A truck didn't stop, hit the car behind us, then hit us... It was estimated he was doing about 45 mph at the point of impact. Our car, which was hit only in the rear, had damage totaling $6000 which was about 75% of the cars value at the time.

Considering what it costs in labor to fix a BMW correctly (and make sure it is done by a BMW approved shop if you do have to fix it), I could possibly see the car being totaled.

[nmulax]

Keeping what espo89 said in mind, you also said, the accident caused a chain-reaction with the two vehicles ahead of you. If you have both front end and rear end damage, and being that it's a BMW, that could pan out to be a fairly expensive repair bill... again, push for it totaled.

[jamesna120]

would it hurt my insurance rate and driving record if i go ahead and use my insurance to fix things up??

[hotsand5]

hmm.. I had a 35-40mph off set frontal crash in my 330 where the side and front bags went off and the car looked banged up, but not that bad. It was totalled! I guess w/ BMW parts start to add up really quick.

[e90rocks]

Damn! Your insurance should still cover you. In fact, if it doesn't, then let us know, because this is the scenario that agents try to scare ya with to get you to pay for "uninsured motorists" coverage, which I heard was a scam. The insurance company should still go after this guy, who no doubt has not enough resources to pay them anyhow.

Tough break. I'm amazed that one would try to continue driving with airbags deployed.

Sigh.

[Asiann]

Make sure that your frame is still good and straight. Don't know what the rear bumper is rated but at that speed damage could be bad enough. Good luck anyway!

[blke90man]

I got rear ended in Santa Monica and it did some pretty good damage. I went to Spectrum Collision in Irvine, California...they are awesome. They are BMW certified and only use BMW tools and parts. The car came back flawless. Also, my friend got in an accident with his e46 and had about $11,000 damage...the car came back like new. They do an amazing job.

[Gavinw]

Airbags deploy at between 8 and 14mph, varying on the car. In LA, Beverly Hills Auto Body does a good job but they're slow. My car took 8 weeks for front end damage that barely scratched the bumper of the car in front of me. The good news is that much less "stuff" is in the back, so it requires fewer small parts and can hopefully be repaired quicker. How bad is the front end damage?

[calvino]

Originally Posted by Gavinw

Airbags deploy at between 8 and 14mph,

wrong ! airbags deploy went the speed of the crash is over 25 MPH however if you are going at 15 MPH and you hit a car that is also going at 15 MPH ( head to head ) your airbags will deploy because the total speed of impact was 30 MPH but went you get rear ended is different b/c most of the force of the impact is adsorbed by the chassis of your car and his front bumper

[egtlover74]

Do you have uninsured motorist coverage with your insurance company?
If yes, they will cover your damage but you are still responsible for the vehicle in front of you. Therefore your insurance will go up.

[espo]

Originally Posted by egtlover74

If yes, they will cover your damage but you are still responsible for the vehicle in front of you. Therefore your insurance will go up.

No.... When we were in a "chain reaction" collision (see post above) we were the first car in the line. The pickup truck hit the car behind us then that car hit us. The pickup driver was responsible for ALL of the damage to both cars (well his insurance).

If you are hit into someone else, you are not at fault.

[nojoedoe]

Originally Posted by calvino

wrong ! airbags deploy went the speed of the crash is over 25 MPH however if you are going at 15 MPH and you hit a car that is also going at 15 MPH ( head to head ) your airbags will deploy because the total speed of impact was 30 MPH but went you get rear ended is different b/c most of the force of the impact is adsorbed by the chassis of your car and his front bumper

airbags deplay when a huge decceleration is sensed
so depending on what you crash into, solid or deformable, the car will experience different forces-> decceleration rate

if you crash head on, there are the 2 crumple zones so even though effectively the speed of the crash is 30mph, the force is distributed in half per vehicle
so you airbags might still not deploy

[E90niMRS]

James, if you don’t mind taking your car to the OC for repair, Sterling Auto Body in Tustin is a good place to take it. My wife’s brand new 330 (3weeks new) was rear ended a couple of days ago and this is where Crevier referred us to. My wife dropped it off yesterday AM and I stopped by in the PM to talk to them. Our rep was super nice. He explained the damages and the shop’s process for repair. Then he gave me a tour of they’re state of the art facility. They mostly do BMWs and Porsches, I also saw a couple of Bentleys.
Now who can tell me where I can order an ACS rear bumper? They said they’ll do it if I pay for the difference in parts cost. Anyone?

[jamesna120]

Originally Posted by egtlover74

Do you have uninsured motorist coverage with your insurance company?
If yes, they will cover your damage but you are still responsible for the vehicle in front of you. Therefore your insurance will go up.

yes i do have UM coverage but i just found out that it's a shitty one..

are you saying it will go up even when it's 100 percent other drivers fault(behind me).. drivers in front of me and i were all stopped at a red light...