I think what SL 320 is getting at is that the impact speed was considerably below 30 mph. I was the front car in a four car accident about a month ago. The truck that rear ended me was down to about 10 mph when he hit me. It bent the decklid and pretty thoroughly crushed a quarter panel and the rear body panel. He was in turn rear ended by another truck going considerably faster. Based on some rough calculations I just did based on the length of the skid marks his rear tires left, I believe the third vehicle would have scrubbed off about 24 mph from brake application to impact. Just before the incident, traffic was flowing at about 45 mph, so it's reasonable to assume the impact speed was about 21 mph. This mangled everything forward of the B-pillar on the third vehicle and caused considerable damage to the rear of the second vehicle.

How did you get insurance to pay that much on such an old car? My junk is totalled and I'm getting a bit over two grand and keeping the car. With a paint job included, it looks like my bill will be nearly as big as yours.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.