Bad News -- Bad Luck
To Simplify Matter's I'm reposting this as a new thread with my original post and the two responses by C43AMG and Techbike below:
Well, to update my C43 experience. I picked the 1999 C43 AMG from Benz this Friday at 4:50 pm. They had changed all the fluides, brakes, etc and hired a fanatic to detail it inside and out including the engine; they put new Conti's on it. It was beautiful -- very tasteful, shiny black exterior, all black leather seats, dark burl walnut trim, brand new Alpine/MB fiber optics cd changer, and 8 speaker Bose audio system (seperates up front)(two midrange rear doors and two subwoofer rear deck). It sounded as good or better than my full alpine MB Quart competition (sperates) system with a Kenwood EQ in my former 300E.
I drove it out of the NY dealer's psyched. I was off to pick up my girlfriend up in CT. Exactly one hour later eastbound on I-84, 2 miles from the CT border with NY, driving in bumper to bumper traffic at 10 to 20 miles per hour, a red, 2000, Dodge Stratus plowed into my rear at about 40 mph. The impact totaled his front end and so crumpled the rear of my trunk that the spare could not be wedged out nor could the trunk be closed. The impact also pushed the driver's side rear wheel forward about 2 inches and pushed the S.S. exhaust into that rear wheel. After the impact, the car started fine, but would not shift into Drive; it would only shift into neutral.
So I had it flat bedded to the autobody shop that my local benz dealer uses and the Benz dealer said he would visit the shop on Monday and organize the repairs.
Clearly, the other guy is at fault -- cops said so and all -- but he comes from PA and has Prudential Insurance. Thankfully, no one was physically injured in the least.
Any advice, thoughts or commisseration would be greatly appreciated. My main concerns are: 1) if the driver's side rear wheel is pushed forward two inches, is the frame necessarily bent? or is it just that half of the rear suspension that needs to be replaced? and 2) given that the transmission wouldn't shift into drive, only neutral, does this mean that the rear differential or, worse, that the transmission is seriously damaged?
If the accident were just cosmetic, the car looks ok and could be fixed perfectly in no time. But with the above, I am concerned, and without my C43 for at least 3 weeks and forced to drive a Plymoth, Alero (to the Hamptons no less) -- the horror ...
Thanks,
Marc
C43 AMG (for 1 hour)
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06-23-2002 09:21 AM
techbike
MBaddict
Registered: Mar 2002
Location: LI, New York
Posts: 40
Bummer!
Marc, sorry to hear about your accident. Glad nobody was hurt. Your neck must've hurt...
IMHO, if the insurance company will do it, I'd ask for a total. When you get hit like that and the trunk crumples, you'll need a pretty good and competent body shop with the right frame alignment jigs to make sure it runs straight. When they do the estimate, make sure replacement costs are for dealer-new parts, not refurbished like tranny, diff. case, axles, fuel tank assys., etc. When they add it up, it may be better for them to get you a new car. What does YOUR insurance co. say? You should be handling this through them, then let the insurance adjusters work it out between themselves.
Man, makes me stop being too anal about door dings. I really feel bad about your car...just don't compromise.
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Techbike
'02 CLK55AMGcab(2600mi.), '02 E430SE (1330mi.)
'00 ML430 (37K)retired, '89 560SL (56K)sold
'93 400E (84K)sold, '90 300E (57K)sold
'01Calfee All Carbon bicycle (15lbs/2850mi.)
06-24-2002 05:48 AM
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c43amg
Senior Member
Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 159
Marc: Wow -- what a disaster and disappointment!
I would concur with techbike as to (a) get your insurance involved and make sure you have no fault attaching to you (get the highway patrol report ASAP) -- you may nonetheless end up with an insurance hike, and (b) insist that the dealer give you the part numbers and full retail prices for the OEM AMG parts -- the AMG exhaust and transmission alone will be substantial -- and use this as ammunition in the fight to have the car totaled -- no matter how good the body shop, it may well never be the same if there is frame damage and any resale will be adversely affected.
Prepare for a battle with respect to getting your full value, esp for the Starmark expense (the fact that you just bought the car and have an indubitable purchase price amount will be helpful) -- see
http://www.peachparts.com/shopfor...threadid=28398.
Hopefully you won't need your three years of law school in this matter, but treat it like you would a client case and leave nothing to chance. You should let everyone know at the opening that you are an attorney experienced in bringing these sort of actions and will not hesitate to do so if you don't get full satisfaction.
You might see if the dealer can get you another Starmarked '99 -- the only C43s currently on the Starmark National Inventory with under 50,000 miles are in Falmouth, Maine at Performance Motors for $41M with 36,000 miles; Ellisville, Missouri at Tri-Star for $43M with only 8,000; Bakersfield, California at M-B of Bakersfied for $40M with 29, 900; Portoland, Oregon at M-B of Portland for $45M with only 15,000. See
http://www.mbusa.com/brand/containe...rmark/index.jsp
These may also be helpful in establishing value -- get a printout of each car from the M-B Starmark website (or have the dealer do it for you -- they may be able to do an easier search as the consumer is limited to 10 pages at a time and you can't just search by C43 but rather have to get all C class cars) -- I got these by playing around with separate search for different zip codes around the country.
Amother idea would be to see if the dealer would do you a favor and work with you to let you find a private sale and run it through the dealer to get the car Starmarked -- i.e., if you paid the dealer, say $5,000 or so for the turnaround (with no carrying cost or inventory issues for the dealer) everyone would come out ahead if you could find a car for $30,000 or so -- see Autotrader and do a search for a C43: The dealer run through would act as an enhanced inspection.
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'98 C43 AMG
'88 420SEL
'93 190E Limited Edition (including factory Sportline package)
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Thanks
Marc C43AMG(for 1 Hour)
MMCLaw@Optonline.net