Has anyone had a front end collision with the M?

[paulypotz]

Had my M for a week until a kid decided to treat a red light as a suggestion. Long story short, as i slammed on my brake and swerved out of the way i ended up smashing into the driver side corner of a jeeps bumper with my driver side. Headlight, hood, bumper, fender, radiator, intake manifold and basically everything on the upper driver side is gone... it was a high end hit so i missed the frame. I know driving my M after all repair will never feel the same as brand new. So i was wondering, to those who have had a front end collision, does it still drive some what close to the same as before and what symptoms still remain ?

[szh]

Ouch!

Sorry to hear this. I don't know if anyone will respond to this per se ... it probably depends a lot on how badly things were hit. You probably also want to check the engine mounts, the suspension mount position, whether the front wheel on that side can be aligned properly. These are all swags ...

Z

[M45Runner]

Sorry to hear that, man. It totally sucks.

I have not had or heard of any M owners that involved into an accident, so can't help on that. But, since your frame is not damaged. As long as the engine and transmission and intact and make sure they do a good job on the driving axle and wheel alignment, most probably, you should not feel any difference driving wise. There might be some cosmetic (new parts never looks the same as OEM, due to age and model year change, plus, it is next to impossible to match the body work 100% - could be fairly close though).

[GJEMD]

The problem is finding the shop. In any major metropolitan area there will be one maybe 2 shops that have the people and equipment to fix anything. In my area there is one shop and I've seen $100,000 late model S class Mercedes completely absent back to the firewall and drive like brand new.

In my own experience my 2004 M45 was sitting under a 400 yr old 100 ft high live oak in Savannah Ga. Wind gust blew a 400lb trunk 70 feet up from this tree,with a direct hit to the roof through my sun roof into the interior. This shop replaced the entire roof of my car. $13,000 repair. The car is perfect not the slightest wind leak from windows at 85 mph. The car is straight and true. Now understand it took 3 months to do the job and the parts were shipped from Japan but these guys are simply magicians

If you find the right shop anything is possible. This shop does exclusively high end luxury cars.

[paulypotz]

thanks for the input guys... insurance estimator is coming today, which will hopefully get the ball rolling with all repairs... as far as the shop is concerned.. its a very reputable, family run, shop in the neighborhood thats been in business for over 20 years... hopefully they live up to their reputation and my M would be restored to the condition i bought it in.