Commerce insurance company is taking me to the cleaners.

I was hit by a reckless kid - tossed into another car and my car was totaled.

1994 E500 Black Pearl, Black interior, with 25K miles Starmarked. I am 38 with a clean driving record- step 11- he is a 21 year old with 35 points on his license.

I am, of course distraught, and feel like the Curator of a Museum that has been vandalized.

The car was perfect. I bought it in January from Foreign Motors West In Natick Mass. It had 23,500 miles on it. I drove it 1500 miles- but the car was in the shop for most of the time I owned it because they scuffed up the trunk doing an oil change (and couldn't fix the damage correctly even the 4th time).

I got the car back on Friday- and everything was done- the delivery was done- the rocker panels were replaced with new ones without any stone chips etc.

I flew back home from California and was driving home Monday might and was hit from behind in the rear driver quarter panel.

The car saved my life. Those extra welds done by hand gave me enough time to move as the car body deformed. I sustained only a back and neck injury. I was going 30mph through Harvard Square. the kid must have been doing 60 at 1:30 in the morning.

My financee was hit by (3) 16 year old girls in a Jeep with the radio blaring last month. Her ML 320 wrecked. It has been a bad year for the both of us.

Anyhow the Insurance company is trying to make me take 39k for a car I paid $48 k (after incidentals starmark etc...it is 52 K).

How can I tell the insurance company that I can not replace the car for 39K? How can I establish the replacement value of the car? I'm not sure any appraiser knows the true value of these cars and would just assume it was a bigger 400E.

This could happen to anyone of us. It is a horrible thing to have to deal with.

Please feel free to offer your advice at e500mercedes@yahoo.com

I want to buy another car- but with this settlement I won't be able to. I'll lose over 10k for a car I drove 1500 miles.

I would appreciate any help from people this holiday season.

a saddened owner of the finest automobile in the world,


John Haines