Has anyone heard of this? a E300TD being totaled by Insurance Co due to computer fail
 

Has anyone heard of this? a 1999 E300TD being totaled by Insurance Co due to computer failure? I was speaking to a seller who said this occurred to his car because of the failure of the computers on his car?

Isnt there only one main computer on these cars and doesnt this sound ludicrous that this would happen? The car had 185K on it and the body was in very good condition. Something does not sound right? What am I missing here?
Thanks

Get the right mercedes dealer giving a quote might easily be enough to do it. What gets my attention is how does an electronic failure gets to be an insurance issue?

His car may have been submerged in water or something. If so it is easily understood any insurance company is going to limit their liability by writting it off in my opinion. If it was salt water especially.

Depends on repair cost and car value. I know of an Audi A4 that was totaled because water ran off a roof and messes up the computer. Repair using new parts + labor was more than the car was worth. The owner filed under his home owner's policy & had it covered less the deductible.

185K miles to us is low. 185K miles to an insurance company is junkyard fodder.

Bet they called the dealership, said, "What's a computer cost", got some ridiculous answer, and said "Hmm, $5K repair, 185K miles, the car is already 12 years old when most people trade at 3-5 and "any" car is old after 7-10"... I can easily see the computer saying "not worth it."

We are all making a LOT of exceptions for Mercedes that an insurance computer wouldn't know. 185K miles on any car except a Mercedes diesel is almost twice again worn out. 12 years on any car except a Mercedes is getting on into the "Next time something expensive breaks, I'm parking it" territory. We all (somewhat) know what we're doing, and we all know that the mechanical limits are nowhere near as early or as fragile as the "Mainstream" assumes, but nonetheless, the insurance system is configured for the mainstream.

Im confounded also and wanted to get a little feedback before questioning the seller. I would love to purchase the car but........ his answer regarding computer failures worries me. He stated that because of this the car now has a COD title and cannot be put back on the road? THat also sounds questionable.

He probably forgot to tell you it was parked under 6ft of water for a bit.

insurance companies also total cars easily so they can then reuse the parts for their repairs of other customers cars. i see it all the time..cars getting totalled over a scratch on the bumper.

There's about 8 computers on this car. Depending on how many have failed, retail would be quiet expensive.

[QUOTE=jmbeam;2665878]Has anyone heard of this? a 1999 E300TD being totaled by Insurance Co due to computer failure? I was speaking to a seller who said this occurred to his car because of the failure of the computers on his car?

Isnt there only one main computer on these cars and doesnt this sound ludicrous that this would happen? The car had 185K on it and the body was in very good condition. Something does not sound right? What am I missing here?
Thanks[/QU

I wonder what happened in the first place that made this an insurance issue?

I'm with everybody else.
HOW did an insurance claim get made on this vehicle... EMP strike? sideswipe car, but scared the computer dead? More information is needed.
seller is holding back some information.

No, but conceivably it could happen. The replacement cost of computer failure from the authorized MB dealer here was quoted at $7K +/- in about 2001 on my friend's bought new '99 300 ETD. There was no charge since the car was under 100% factory warranty. Why the computer failed was unknown. There was no evidence of damage done to the car when it failed.

Absolutely!