[F30Andy]

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A few months ago a friend of mine buys (without consulting anyone) a reasonably priced salvage F90.

It was originally purchased by someone from copart who quickly realised that they had bitten off more than they could chew and sold it on to my friend at an allegedly small loss just to get it off their hands.

He very excitedly calls me to inform me has bought an M5 that needs a little work and if I would be interested in project managing it for him.
He assures me its “just a light front ender” that has gone to the rad pack.

I go round to have a look at the car and instantly understand why the first guy got rid of it as quickly as possible and advised him that he should do the same.

He is adamant that he wants to keep it and it repair it, and gleefully shows me that he has already ordered all the obvious parts that are required, 90% brand new from BMW, 10% used but OEM.

Now bare in mind that at this stage without him even having looked under the car or put it on a ramp, the obvious parts are already an entire front end all the way to and including the rad pack, seatbelts, airbags, dashboard and a set of rims and tyres.
Also a rear door that we thought was damaged prior to the write off. (More on that later)

I advised him that once the garage start stripping back the car it is highly likely that it will be full of hidden, unpleasant and expensive surprises and advise him that he can sell it with the parts he has ordered and he will not loose any money. If anything he will be up.

He is adamant he wants to see it through, he tells me he is not doing it to make any money on the car and he intends to have it as a weekend toy for many years to come which he already has future projects planned for and asks me again to project manage it for him.

I reluctantly took the project on and got it done for him within two months. (It would have been quicker but some parts took ages to arrive.)

It was not cheap. In fact even with todays inflated used car prices, it got to the point where he could have almost got a straight car for his money.
If I had actually charged him a fee he would have been at that point.

Got the car recovered (another one of those costs he forgot to factor in) to the garage that I had marked for the mechanical work who stripped it back and gave me the full break down.

In their opinion the car had spun (so that explained the out of place damage on the rear door) and they showed me it also had suspension damage on one side at the front.
Thankfully there was no chassis damage, but the hidden surprises didn’t end there though.
There were also two broken engine mounts, and broken inlet manifolds.

I got priced up what was needed from BMW and asked him repeatedly if he was sure he wanted to carry on with it to which he insisted he was. So on I cracked.

If enough of you are interested in the hundreds of part numbers involved in this project, I have copy’s of all of the invoices that I can scan and upload.

Now bare in mind that there are loads of bits of plastic, nuts and bolts and bits of trim that I can’t remember off the top of my head but the gist of it was:

Entire front end all the way to and including the rad packs
Front and feet airbags
Side curtain airbags
Roof lining
Seatbelts
Dashboard
Windscreen
Rear door
Engine mounts
Inlet manifolds
Full suspension arm, hub and all associated legs
Driveshaft
Wheel bearings
Pads and discs
Brake calliper
Wheels and tyres
Full major service
KDS
Coding

There was also the cost of recovering it to the body shop and their cost for painting and alignment of the panels.

I am pleased to say he was delighted with the job.

Now if any of you are thinking about buying a salvage F90, the advice I would give you is that unless it is really light damage, you should probably walk away from it.
To repair these cars to a decent standard can very quickly become uneconomical.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Absolutely incredible you did all this! I'm going to be the first to ask you a couple questions everyone is going to want the answers to. What was the car's year and mileage? And how much was the car purchased for and how much was spent on parts, and how many hours of labor did you expend on a project of this magnitude?

Quite an impressive feat!

[Greer]

Wow, the car looks great again. Magnificent.

[Alberta]

What a job!

Pretty incredible...

[Jakerx]

Excellent work. I am impressed. That is absolutely amazing. Glad it worked out.

[23109VC]

Originally Posted by Jakerx

Excellent work. I am impressed. That is absolutely amazing. Glad it worked out.

How much "cheaper" was buying this and fixing it vs just buying a nice CPO?

[aj_g80]

Very few people know what they are actually looking at when buying a crashed car. They "think" they do.

Props to him for sticking with it and finishing the build, however!

[Holset]

Nice job getting it fixed!

[Neptune7]

Reminds me of these guys - well done in giving the car a new lease on life!

[Aronis]

nice work. photos make me have flashbacks......

Mike

[dougpaper]

I can see why he wrecked, he was sitting on the wrong side of the car driving at probably ludicrous speeds

[Ominous]

impressive skills and dedication to doing it correctly

[Jakerx]

Originally Posted by 23109VC

How much "cheaper" was buying this and fixing it vs just buying a nice CPO?

Probably not cheaper, but more fun for sure. The joy from a project car can’t be quantified. But I’m not talking about the “builds” on this forum where guys slap some new wheels and some carbon fiber bits on their car and call it a build. Makes me laugh.

[Jazz_V]

totally amazing - looks like a new car.

[F30Andy]

Originally Posted by ResIpsaLoquitur

Absolutely incredible you did all this! I'm going to be the first to ask you a couple questions everyone is going to want the answers to. What was the car's year and mileage? And how much was the car purchased for and how much was spent on parts, and how many hours of labor did you expend on a project of this magnitude?

Quite an impressive feat!

Car is a 2019 with 23k on it and a decent spec too.

Car was purchased for just shy of £19k.
Parts and labor and all other associated costs came to just over £30k.

Two man dedicated team on mechanical took 18 hours (not a fixed price here due to the nature of the job so cost was based on people and hours.)
One man dedicated to body work 4.5 days at 8 to 9 hours a day. (Price for bodywork was fixed and agreed at start.)

So the car was circa £50k for him all in.

Bare in mind at the time in the UK, they were starting at £55k for a straight car.
Subsequently since then the market has cooled a bit and they are starting at around £48k now. (I don't see them dropping too much more any time soon, but who knows!)

[F30Andy]

Originally Posted by 23109VC

How much "cheaper" was buying this and fixing it vs just buying a nice CPO?

An AUC (approved used car) as we call them in the UK with the spec and mileage of this car would set you back at todays prices circa £55k to £60k.

As mentioned this was not a money saving project, more a labour of love.

It could have been done substantially cheaper by sourcing used OEM parts, but the problem is that in the UK and most of mainland europe used OEM parts for F90's are few and far between.

[F30Andy]

Originally Posted by aj_g80

Very few people know what they are actually looking at when buying a crashed car. They "think" they do.

Props to him for sticking with it and finishing the build, however!

I could not agree more.

This is even more true when someone actually wants the car as a keeper as oppose to a flip as they will look at it through rose tinted glasses and use man maths to justify it.

[F30Andy]

Originally Posted by Ominous

impressive skills and dedication to doing it correctly

Thank you.

Doing it correctly was the most important thing and using exclusivly OEM parts helped to ensure this.

Even using OEM parts, the bodyshop said the most difficult part of the job was ensuring correct alignment of panels.

[F30Andy]

Originally Posted by Jakerx

Probably not cheaper, but more fun for sure. The joy from a project car can’t be quantified. But I’m not talking about the “builds” on this forum where guys slap some new wheels and some carbon fiber bits on their car and call it a build. Makes me laugh.

Total agreement with you.
There is nothing quite like the satisfaction you get by saving a machine like this from the scrap heap.
The satisfaction is only further enhanced when you see the joy you have bought the owner.

Also total agreement with you on guys slapping on a few aftermarket parts and calling it a build

[Jakerx]

Originally Posted by F30Andy

An AUC (approved used car) as we call them in the UK with the spec and mileage of this car would set you back at todays prices circa £55k to £60k.

I’m surprised they are already that cheap, but I guess I haven’t really been looking up 2019 used F90 Comp prices. I would’ve expected maybe another 10-15K GBP.

[HerkHealer]

Originally Posted by Jakerx

I’m surprised they are already that cheap, but I guess I haven’t really been looking up 2019 used F90 Comp prices. I would’ve expected maybe another 10-15K GBP.

That's what I was thinking too. M5's must be a lot cheaper in the UK.
With the exchange rate difference that means a used 2019 M5 would be around $56k in the USA. Good luck finding one of those!

[Jakerx]

Originally Posted by HerkHealer

That's what I was thinking too. M5's must be a lot cheaper in the UK.
With the exchange rate difference that means a used 2019 M5 would be around $56k in the USA. Good luck finding one of those!

60K GBP is about $73K at today’s exchange rate.