When I was in a wreck with my 300CD a number of years ago, the other guys insurance rep wanted to total it and I told him that he could do that if he would find and pay for an identical car to mine. He said he wasn't obligated to do that, so I told him, in that case I was going to get one of those lawyers that advertise in the TV guide , "I'm Jim Adler, they call me the Hammer" types and get what I wanted which was actually for him to not salvage my car, just pay me the $$ that he was going to for totaling it out, then get out of my life and I would figure out how to fix it. The damage to mine was to the front end, so I found a donor car for $500, the body shop swapped the front end, etc and I actually came out about $1,000 to the good and that including having the whole car repainted at the same time.

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Houston, Texas
1984 300CD 235K miles, Elvira, one owner
1987 300TD 180K miles
1974 TR6 78K miles Sarah Jane, one owner
OBK #27