Cat-D BMW 3 series, is it worth buying?

vax2002

Even repaired, it may look rippled, you can spot a car quite easily these days that has had a bump by chucking a bucket of water over it, the shock is spread through out every panel and it causes a ripple effect on just about every panel, plus you get "spriging" which is gaps around bonnets boots and doors opening up as that is what it is designed to do so the occupants can escape.
An air bag detonation usually requires quite an impact as they do pose a risk to the occupants when they fire.
Imo, walk away and look for a 3 series at Auction, it will be lower than retail without all the damage to fix and most likely work out cheaper. .

vax2002

Ps not sure on years but around 2005 onwards the airbag units are coded to the car so swapping them does not put out airbag lights, you need the tech software from the manufacturer and enter the airbag serial code manually on a coding screen and write it to the cars firmware, this is done on cars where bags are fired separately so it knows which airbag to fire and which have already been fired where as older models just fired the lot.
Sounds strange but it enables extra protection if the damage vehicle is struck a second time from another direction following the first collision , so you will need access to the coding techware for that firmware version.
Some private garages do claim to have access to it but generally it is a main dealer job.

Jakg

It's odd theres so much damage to the doors (multiple impacts - pushed in quite far), but the sill looks fine...

Would be very worried the sill is damaged.

makkan00

Jakg wrote: »

It's odd theres so much damage to the doors (multiple impacts - pushed in quite far), but the sill looks fine...

Would be very worried the sill is damaged.

my ignorance, what is sill?

you mentioned sill looks fine.... (did you miss t)

and later mentions sill is damaged....

scheming_gypsy

<<<--- The sill is this bit

Hintza

Without seeing it in person the sill looks OK.

The main thing OP you are budgeting £1k for repairs if you double that to £2k do the numbers still work? You should also budget to run this car until it dies as it will always be worth less.

OP if you fancy doing up a Cat D don't let us put you off too much, but especially on your first choose carefully. I am very lucky in that I get mates rates at a friend's bodyshop.

Having said that he is the born optimist and I always tend to double his estimates (from photos) for repairs to try and get a reasonable guide.

Hammyman

makkan00 wrote: »

Thanks for pointing that out. I cant personally check that as the car is 300 miles away from where I live.
But will ask the seller.
Cheers.

No, don't ever do that. Always look at a CAT C or CAT D in person. Do not rely on what the other person says and don't rely on photos. There can be subtle bends in panels, especially floor pans, that don't show up on a photo. There may also be creases in areas the seller wouldn't even consider looking.

Jakg

makkan00 wrote: »

my ignorance, what is sill?

you mentioned sill looks fine.... (did you miss t)

and later mentions sill is damaged....

It looks fine in the pictures - but the pictures aren't brilliant.

Doors, bonnets, bumpers etc are bolted on, easy to replace - the sill etc is "part" of the chassis so is a lot harder to replace.

I would be worried the sill is damaged - but that they've taken clever pictures to avoid showing it.

colino

I wouldn't go for it simply because the curtain air bag is deployed. Only did one and it needed to go to a trimmer to get the rest of the headlining looking anything like presentable, a new module and a trip to the autoelectician to getit recognised. There's better bargains out there.

in_the_Cotswolds

I wouldn't buy a BMW period. I'd leave it where it is to be scrapped and by something better. Not so over rated and over priced and a lot better.