Grey market MB values?

[fz500sel]

About 2 months ago, I had my 1984 500SEL Euro stolen. The car was never recovered. I finally just settled with my insurance company after arguing with them for about 2 weeks.

Their contention was that since it was a grey market vehicle, it was not worth that much. NADA said that it was worth around $7800, but that was for a US version. They actually called a previous owner (a friend said that they would NEVER invade someone's privacy like that) and apparently he told them that the car was never brought up to Us safety standards (at least by him).

Other than emissions concerns, what else needs to be done to the vehicles to bring them up to US standards? What are your opinions about grey market MB's?

I saw a guy trying to sell his 1985 500SEC Euro here and he ended up getting just $3500 for it, after having apparently little or no interest whatsoever for it.

What are your thoughts?