If you want another 300CE, Gerry at European Motor Cars Ltd. in Ft. Worth may be able to find you one ..... give him a call on his Toll Free number: 1-877827-0360 and tell him Ben Carter referred you to him. I bought my 300CE from him over a year ago and just love the car. (He is in the process of sellling my 420SEL right now for me and is a great car dealer to work with.) Ben Carter

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Ben Harrison Carter
1999 Mercedes ML320 87K
1992 Mercedes 300CE 89K
1995 Corvette 29K -- Sold Dec 09
1989 Mercedes 420SEL 99K -- (Sold 4/08)
1968 Mercedes 230S (106K) (Sold 9/06))
1976 Mercedes 450SEL 130K (Just sold - 06)
1961 Mercedes 220Sb (sold years ago)

You ought to be able to get more than 3k for the wreck. It's worth what it's worth. You paid 6 in an arms length transaction. It's worth 6K. Try and dig up comp sales in your area to establish value. BTW, who is your insurance company.

Glad you and the family are ok. Cars are things. Things can be replaced. People can't. Have a safe and Happy New Year.

Uh,,,, IMHO the car is junk. Definately not an easy fix.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

I am glad you are fine.... those roofs are reinforced because there is no window pillar.

Don't fix it... if the insurance company low balls you... get a lawyer...

You should be able to get 6k for it... plus half of what you put into it..if you have the receipts.

I would buy another CE if that happened to ours. That's why I have my son in a 300e and not a Honda or Toyota.

It is a shame the car is so far away.... since there are valuable parts.

Good luck

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1989 300ce 129k
( facelifted front,updated tail lights, lowered suspension,bilstein sports, lorinser front spoiler, MOMO steering wheel, remus exhaust,stainless steel brake lines). (Gone)

1997 s320 154k (what a ride). Sold with 179k miles. Replaced with Hyundai Equus

1994 e320 Cabriolet 108k



1972 280se 4.5 153k Owned for 12 yrs, sorry I sold it


[/SIGPIC]

I have no estimate what it costs to restore it to the previous glory, but not long ago, I wanted to have my Accord repainted without any body work and the dealer estimate was over 4K alone.

Just checked that Kelley Bluebook value dealer price is $4,885. Maybe that is the basic of discussion for my insurance, which is AAA.

Again we are glad not to suffer any serious injury, although still feeling sore all over.

Thanks for all the asking.

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1996 E320 since 1/16/08, 171K miles as of Feb 2011

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1989 300CE - R.I.P. Dec 29 2007
Other MBs (sold): 1992 300E-24 - 1979 350SLC - 1984 230E - 1990 300CE

Glad no one was seriously hurt. The roll looks relatively light, but they will most likely total out only because the parts are so valuable. You might consider buying the car back if they'll let you...

-GH

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For Now:
1992 Mercedes Benz 500SL
1998 BMW 528i
2003 Honda Element
2002 CBR600F4i
1977 Coachmen Motor Home

89 would be air bag - singular. It's really nice to know the coupe doors works that well. I think it very fortunate you all stayed in the car, quite amazing really. With a big door like that in a pillarless coupe you always wonder if the doors are as safe as a sedan.

Just got a preliminary estimate from the bodyshop, which is coincidentally also the towing company. Over $14K .


PARTS 7900.20
BODY LABOR 71.0 HRS @$ 42.00/HR 2982.00
PAINT LABOR 28.5 HRS @$ 42.00/HR 1197.00
MECHANICAL LABOR 6.8 HRS @$ 70.00/HR 476.00
FRAME LABOR 6.0 HRS @$ 48.00/HR 288.00
PAINT SUPPLIES 550.00
SUBLET/MISC. 75.00
OTHER CHARGES 305.77
----------------------------------------------------
SUBTOTAL $13773.97
SALES TAX $ 8125.20 @ 8.2500% 670.33
----------------------------------------------------
GRAND TOTAL $14444.30

ADJUSTMENTS:
DEDUCTIBLE 0.00
----------------------------------------------------
CUSTOMER PAY $ 0.00
INSURANCE PAY $14444.30

A repair at Mercedes Dealership would probably go up to 20K easily I guess.


Bye bye my baby benz

__________________
1996 E320 since 1/16/08, 171K miles as of Feb 2011

---------------------------------------------------------
1989 300CE - R.I.P. Dec 29 2007
Other MBs (sold): 1992 300E-24 - 1979 350SLC - 1984 230E - 1990 300CE

search ebay for prime examples that have gone for 7-8K... you can get that out of them... Benz LGB's CE was wrecked and he got another one out of the insurance co

Totaled...sorry about that.

Give some thought to buying it from the insurance company for the deductable. Then part it out or sell the wreck. The sum of the parts is worth way more than the whole.

How much is the daily storage fee? Is the towing company a salvage yard also? Maybe they would give you more than the deductable for the wreck. Might make a few more dollars that way. Something to consider.


Good luck.

Sorry for your loss! But most importantly everyone was all right! Cars can be replaced, people cannot!


My uncle has pictures of a new POS GM Trailblazer thing that was in a very similer accident in FL last year. The whole front roof crushed right down on whoever was in front! MB knows how to build a passanger cage!

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Tex - Glad to hear your and your family came out of it OK. Can you describe the scenario in a little bit more detail? Perhaps we can all learn to be safer.

That's the black one that was owned by the newspaper publisher, right? I actually brought that car home and had Autoscope run a PPI. It had been hit hard in the back, and has been repainted from about the sunroof on back. The trunk didn't seal completely and there was rust forming inside. Though it sure drove nice.

- JimY

Glad to hear you & family are OK. I too see little damage in the photos, considering what happened. I think you are correct in that survivability in other than MBZ would have been less. One thing that caught my eye in your discription was the insurance stuff. This sort of "totaling" goes on all the time. It makes one wonder why we buy insurance to begin with, doesn't it?

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Don't Chrome them; polish them

Insurance is based on the rather obvious and mundane notion that it doesn't make sense to pay $14k to repair a car when it will be worth only $6k after the repair, or that it can be replaced with a comparable car for $6k. Insurance contracts are based on this concept, i.e. that the insurance company's exposure is limited to replacement value or fair market value, and the rates that one pays reflect this limitation to the insurance company's exposure. I guess it's still possible to get "stated value" policies on rare collector cars, and the rates reflect the agreed upon value. But insurance companies don't seem to like it much because it's a breeding ground for insurance fraud.

Hi JimY,

Thanks for asking.
We were on the Hwy 190 (Texas 21) eastbound to I45. About 21 miles to I45 where there is only one lane for each direction. Allowed speed was 65, the road was straight, weather fine with dry road.
Ahead of me were two cars, a truck with a trailer and at safe distance a pick-up, both cars with almost same speed.

The middle yellow line dividing the two lanes was broken and I was passing the trailer, was on the opposite lane with no car coming from opposite direction and just about to get to the right lane as the pickup slow down a lot giving me no room to realign. I sped up to pass him as he turned left cutting off right in front of me, although at that time the yellow line was already solid at our direction.

I desperately swiveled to the right lane, barely missed his car's tail, my car was about to land in the right ditch, which is deep, another correction manoeuver of mine made the car swiveled to the left, crossing the opposite lane (thank god still no coming car from there) and landed in the hilly shoulder, 10 yard after another deeper ditch.
The left wheel hit a concrete slab, which made the car flip over twice.

After the accident the pick-up driver gave to report that he was looking for his wife with a broken down car on the other side and as he saw her at a facility (no intersection) he signalled short and turned left.

I think either he was only making sure that no car coming from opposite direction but not paying attention to passing car from the same direction or I was in his blind spot in that split second.

My lession: expect the unpredictable and never pass on one lane road.

__________________
1996 E320 since 1/16/08, 171K miles as of Feb 2011

---------------------------------------------------------
1989 300CE - R.I.P. Dec 29 2007
Other MBs (sold): 1992 300E-24 - 1979 350SLC - 1984 230E - 1990 300CE