Those of you who attended with our November GTG here in NE Texas will remember the gorgeous green SD we worked on -- installed a new interior, new shifter bushings, and completely rebuilt the front end. The one Hunter described as having "...such a sweet drivetrain."

She is no more. She gave her life for me and a few other folks, which is why we drive these wonderful cars, but....I'm SO sad to lose her.

Since the other guy's insurance will surely try to lowball her value, I'm doing all the standard stuff -- pulling together all my receipts, etc. (I've been to this fire once before). But I'm having a hard time finding comps for her. Three years ago, there were 30 or 40 closed eBay listings from which I could cherry-pick to establish the value of my lightly-damaged 300D. Now, there aren't hardly half a dozen, and most are appallingly low. Any ideas on where else I might look? I know a lot of sellers have gone to Craigslist, but like real estate, the adjuster will require "selling" prices, not "asking" prices.

For those who want to know what happened: There were many out-of-town and clueless folk in Dallas trying to get to the Ole Miss-Texas Tech game on Friday. Most of them seemed to be lost in Dallas' elevated downtown mixmaster, cutting in and out of traffic, slamming on brakes, etc. I seemed to be through the worst of it when someone a few cars ahead just stopped in the middle of the freeway, I guess to figure out where they were going. One pick-up and two cars in front of me panic-stopped as this idiot became visible (and, ultimately, mobile -- they drove off, blissfully unaware, probably causing another three or four pile-ups on their way to the game!).

The Green Girl was up to it -- stopped with an inch or two to spare. But she hadn't even sat back from her nose-down position when a big, TALL, loaded 2008 Silverado slammed into her from behind. The truck was almost immediately hit by someone else, who also drove away, though two cars behind that had a related encounter.

The Green Girl's rear end resisted being ridden over, took the weight of the truck, and under three impacts at some 35 to 40 mph, folded down and under. The bumper is now 90 degrees from what it was (pointed at the ground) and imbedded in the metal of the rear-end. The trunk lid, not surprisingly, is folded up about a foot or more, which allowed us to reach through the sides to retrieve our tool bag and other valuables from the trunk, since it will never open again. The trunk floor is buckled and within an inch of the rear tires. The rear window and the chrome surround is intact, though the body metal around it is rippled. Both back doors still open and close, and I drove her (very slowly!) off the elevated portion of the freeway to wait for the wrecker. Her front is still immaculate -- no damage except a tiny scrape on the bumper plastic.

I was surprised to see the Silverado in such good shape, but he took the hit 10% on his bumper and 90% on the below-the-bumper underbody. I expect he'll have some alignment problems in his near future....Nice kid, first accident, very decent, admitted straight-up to the cops that he'd been looking up at the signs and looked down too late to even brake. The three vehicles in front of me received parking-lot ding level damage -- with me standing on the brake with both feet, the SD took all the force, which was the cops' conclusion from looking at the damage.

The seatbelt locked during the panic stop, the headrest was adjusted properly, and the damage to me was minimal compared to the last time I was rear-ended with such speed and force. As I told one friend, "The difference between then and now is the Mercedes -- I'm walking and I'm not bleeding, and that's way ahead of where I was the last time."

I am shaken up, hit my head on something, have some pulled muscles in neck, shoulders, and back -- all the standard stuff -- but the cops were pretty amazed to see me moving around and making a fair amount of sense.

But I've lost my beautiful girl. Painful as it is to look at her, I will keep her for parts. If you guys can think of any places for me to look for comparable sales ('81 - '85 300SDs with lowish mileage), please let me know. And if you see another pretty blue-green w126 for sale, let me know! PM me or respond to this thread.

Thanks --

Sunny

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Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras