Comments on: 120 BMW (1-Series and M3s) Lost at Sea

By: yankinwaoz

yankinwaoz — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:16:25 +0000

Ha! Remember last year, or the year before, where a cargo ship ran aground off England and boxes with new BMW motorcycles were being washed ashore. Plenty of lucky Englishmen ran down to the beach and were able to salvage themselves a brand new BMW motorbike.

By: Alfamike

Alfamike — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:04:48 +0000

Even with the damage, they look better than the equivalent Mercedes.

By: danms6

danms6 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:37:32 +0000

That damage actually makes the car look more bearable.

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:32:20 +0000

joemoc1

I’m just curious but how do they repair the cars in transit? Do they have a body shop on the boat? Or after they are off loaded at port do they have a repair shop not far away with parts regularly available to make repairs and paint cars?

By: Michael Karesh

Michael Karesh — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:25:02 +0000

Saab95JD: No doubt they disclosed the damage to all potential buyers of your trade-in.

A few of TrueDelta’s panel members have reported similar experiences.

I assume you had not bought the MINI from them? That would be a nice twist, to have a dealer knock you for damage they repaired and failed to disclose when they sold you the car.

By: sitting@home

sitting@home — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:56:41 +0000

That’s how they’re meant to look, it’s Chris Bangle’s new “hammered surface” design motif.

By: SAAB95JD

SAAB95JD — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 03:57:54 +0000

I had a 2004 Mini Cooper that had “port damage” that was not disclosed. Turns out that if the damage is below a certain dollar value they do not have to disclose. The only way I found out is when trading the car in the BMW dealership measured the paint thickness and found one of the side panels had paint nearly 7 times as thick. Granted, I could not tell… but still! The dealer actually took money out of the deal because of the “accident damage”. So much for BMW and Mini…

By: joemoc1

joemoc1 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:48:30 +0000

Redbarchetta :
January 15th, 2008 at 6:28 pm

When I worked for the Dealer and was responsable for checking in vehicles, It was not uncommon to simply see a notice stating that the vehicle had been repaired in transit. We did not have to report damage that cost less than $1500. and used only factory new parts. If we recieved a vehicle that had more than 1/10 the value of the vehicle in repairs, were sent back to teh Transporter.

By: t-truck

t-truck — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:51:55 +0000

Maybe the fact that these cars had not yet been shipped to dealers will keep them of the street.

Damaged new cars routinely seem to end up with salvage dealers like this one that has a load of brand new Audis in its lot. http://www.casmiami.com/inventory/carlist1.html?MAKE=Audi#Audi

The question is more what happens to them afterwards. Buying a professionally restored vehicle with a documented history might be ok; getting stuck with an improperly fixed and documented lemon is another thing.

By: AuricTech

AuricTech — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:44:47 +0000

I can imagine one of these “damaged beyond repair” Bimmers as a Jalopnik Project Car Hell. A glorious potential payoff (a BMW 1-Series for next to nothing), tempered by the near-impossibility of getting the parts needed to repair a vehicle that’s already deemed “damaged beyond repair.”

By: tdoyle

tdoyle — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:25:18 +0000

I could make a killer coffee table with all four wheels off of that one!

By: gdudds03

gdudds03 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:37:55 +0000

To Supreme, depending on where the ship was coming from (Germany I assume), the other older cars you viewed were probably vehicles of our armed forces personnel, being shipped to new duty locations. Hope tthat helps clear the mystery.

By: guyincognito

guyincognito — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:30:22 +0000

Damn, I’ll take on N54 and wiring harness please. It would be so perfect for my M3!

By: supremebrougham

supremebrougham — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:17:02 +0000

This might seem a bit off topic, but I noticed something when I was looking at the pics from this. Did any of you notice the rather large amount of used Toyota Corollas and Camrys sitting there??? Were they waiting to be shipped overseas??? Could this be why it’s so hard to find five to fifteen year old examples of these cars???

Just wondered…

By: Eric_Stepans

Eric_Stepans — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:13:25 +0000

Probably a good number of these will end up at BMW training centers throughout the US (NJ, MD, OH, FL, TX, AZ, CA)

By: akitadog

akitadog — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:55:32 +0000

(in slo-mo)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!!

By: BabyM

BabyM — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:07:20 +0000

If you got two or three or four of the dinged up ones for salvage and swapped parts around, perhaps you could assemble one whole Bimmer on the cheap.

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:28:11 +0000

I remember reading something a while back that you can’t sell an untitled damaged car without putting some sort of salvage title on it. I’m not sure if this is state specific or not. I remember I read it while investigating a Subaru being sold my a dealer that had been plowed in from of the street. Any dealers that might know the rules on this sort of stuff, if it’s based on amount on cost of damage or what.

Also when they say scrapped do they mean brought to a salvage yard or shipped back to Germany to pull engines and stuff out.

By: SexCpotatoes

SexCpotatoes — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:17:25 +0000

Man, could you imagine getting ahold of one of those “unrepairables” and entering it in 24 hours of LeMons?

You’d have to prove you bought it for $500 or less though.

By: quasimondo

quasimondo — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:09:16 +0000

It’ll buff out.

By: SexCpotatoes

SexCpotatoes — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:08:56 +0000

I’ll take one of the “unrepairable” totalled ones for free, thanks.

Anything with a running engine, preferably.