Your car has a NADA retail of $17,250. It would take one heck of a hard hit to total it out. The adjuster will most likely want to repair your car with your described damage. Unless the damage is over about $12-13K, then the car will most likely be repaired. I'm just guessing your damage estimate could be about $5-6K.
Don't forget--you can always get your insurance company involved--then later--the two insurance companies will subrogate the claim and you may very well get your deductible back. The point being, your insurance company is MORE likely to treat you better as you are their customer.
Good Luck, and I am sorry for your loss. At this point, finding a GOOD shop is the most important thing next to dealing with the adjuster(s).
-GH
Quote:
Originally Posted by remotemark
Somebody crashed into the front of my 94 E500 this morning while we were sitting at a red light. Nobody got hurt, but the crashing car was a Toyota Sequoia urban assault vehicle and its bumper was higher than mine and ended up a foot or two into the hood. I can't open the hood at the moment and can't totally assess the damage, but I know the grill, lights, bumper, hood, at least one fender, radiator, fans, and probably the steering pump are trashed. My fear is the insurance people will offer me the KBB $6-7k range and total the car out and I won't be able to fix it for that.
I'm wondering if anybody out here has been in a similar situation with an older MB and had any luck bucking the KBB and Edmunds, et al valuation scales with a rarity/collectibility argument and how they went about demonstrating a higher value.
One professional/collector of 500Es has offered to talk to the adjusters, but I'm hopeful that I can find someone who has actually fought this fight and find out how it went.
Thanks,
Mark
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