Do you think there's any possibility that maybe they tried to jack the car up using a suspension part as a jack point? The guys at Discount Tire once ruined my steering damper by trying to use it as a jack point. I guess it would be easy enough to do a visual on it from underneath. Sometimes, I think they just shove the jack under there and keep trying until they feel they've hit something solid--like a lower control arm or some other jack point.

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1993 400E, 256,000 miles (totaled)
1994 E420, 200,000+ miles
1995 E420, 201,000 miles