This reminds me of my crash in October (mine was worse ---). Some bozo wasn't paying attention and ran a traffic light on a divided highway and hit me, crossing on a green, full in the driver's door running about 60 mph in a heavy Chevy 3500 work van, fully loaded (I'd guess 7000 lbs, or so). I don't know how much he slowed down, I wasn't really interested in much of anything but getting down to the hospital for getting sewn up and xrayed as I got one hell of a kick in the ribs and some cuts with glass stuffed in them -- it was still short sleeve weather here.

The driver's door got shoved in at least a foot, and the front doorpost below the windshield is pushed in at least 18", the roof is bent over on the passenger side, climate control section of the dash is flat, even the dash vent on the passenger side is busted, so is the glove box.

I couldn't shut it off (it was my 300D) because the keys were too far inside the dash to get hold of, although it did stop when someone found some pliers and got in there.

I stayed strapped in, didn't hit my head on anything (like the front of a van!), just poked it in park, climbed out, opened the trunk for some paper towels to stop the bleeding, and sat on a pickup truck tailgate waiting for the ambulance. All three other doors work, even with a bent in center doorpost on the driver's side.

No broken bones, just bruised ribs and now a partially frozen shoulder from being unable to move it much, plus surgery to fish out the busted glass that didn't come out on it's own.

A family friend was in the same type of accident a week later, and after five weeks in the hopsital, he died -- busted ribs and broken hip, never repaired as he was never in good enough shape for surgery, got pneumonia and a MRSA infection, kidney failure, diabetes went nuts, awful.

I don't intend to ever drive anything but a Benz, I'm quite convinced being in one saved my life.

That recent a purchase, you should get full replacement value, which means everything you spent. The insurance (not mine!) offered me $1600 for mine, but I'd just bought another one (nowhere near as good, I got ripped) for $4850 -- they eventually paid the whole amount. Look it up on Kelly or NADA, and yours is definitely on the top end of the scale, you may even get more than you paid. An 87 300D ranged from $3000 to $8000.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!