PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

sunnyintx · #46 01-19-2008, 01:41 PM

I hope you and your family are doing better and recovering well. Thank God for Mecedes Benz. Like everyone else, I am CERTAIN you did all your could, and the wisdom of your choice of car was demonstrated when your family was able to walk away from what might well have been fatal in something less substantial. A near-fatal accident is part of what brought us to these cars some years back.

While I may be too late -- I've been involved in my own bad "carma" of late and just found this thread! -- I need to chime in on the insurance.

Just two years ago, I negotiated a settlement with an insurance company whereby they tripled their original settlement offer on my car, well over high Blue Book.

This may not work for you, since you'll be arguing about "fault" and dealing with your own insurance co. rather that the "other guy's", but if they're going to raise your rates anyway, you might as well try to get all you can for your lost baby.

Ingrid (our 1985 maroon 300D) made "sincere contact" with the idiot's car, all down my driver's side and the POS American mid-sized sedan's passenger side. His doors were never opened again without the Jaws of Life -- Mercedes-1, American POS-0! He called a wrecker, I drove home, and on into Dallas the next morning.

The American POS left a trail of rubber down Ingrid's side, broke the side mirror, and left a couple of small creases that would be bad parking lot dings on a lighter-weight car. Three days later, when the adjuster came to look at her, the American's rubber was hanging like streamer strips off our car. I made SURE the adjuster (who was an independent) saw every repair and improvement we'd made to the car, and told him about those that weren't readily demonstrable. Made him look closely under the hood, etc. -- with a tone of showing off my girl and lamenting the stupidity of the idiot who'd bruised her up.

The insurance company tried to total her for $1,300. I told them that was unacceptable -- that I'd been in the process of restoring the car when their idiot insured had made an illegal turn across oncoming traffic, and they could NOT steal my car for that price, since I could sell it as it was for twice that. The insurance guy was a little surprised, but I pushed on and told him they obviously weren't familiar with this era of Benz, and that's I'd provide him with some written documentation.

I sent him the reviews of the mid-1980s 300D from several sources, I found and provided links to closed auctions on eBay from the previous 30 days showing 6 comparable cars going for $4k to $6k, and a couple of beaters going for $2k (I had to search pretty hard for them, but they're there). I sent a list of things I'd done towards restoring the car, and provided copies of a few receipts, offering to produce the rest if they were needed, but pointing out that the adjuster they'd hired could vouch for what I'd shown him.

They sent me a check for $3,900 ($4,400 less the $500 they thought they could've sold her for) and called it a "total" on their records. After my insurance company and the tax office assured me that the "total" was just a paperwork term internal to the other guy's insurance company, and wouldn't affect my title, I endorsed that check before they could change their minds. I had WAY less than that in her!

As for parting out your baby, isn't there anyone on the forum down in central Texas that could work with you on that? You might do a search of the member list using Bryan, College Station, Calvert -- any of the towns down there. It would be sad to see her crushed without taking the good bits to keep her siblings on the road.

Again, congratulations on walking away safe, and I'm very sorry for your loss. She was a gorgeous car.