Our '85 300SD while parked was hit but a drunk and stoned driver. Which forum section can I post to get some ideas and advice on repairs, dealing with insurance, etc?

TIA,
Greg

For insurance, search the diesel and tech threads.

For body repair, try Body Repair - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum

For older daily driver type cars value is usually low enough that the retail cost of repairs exceeds "market value" is the insurance co will try to list the car as a total loss. I{f you have comprehensive insurance, you will be dealing with your co, if you have just laibility, you will be dealing with the other guys if he has any.

Pictures would be helpful in assessing the level of damage.

1985 300SD, blue leather interior. 406k, motor replace at 372k. Been in family since 1990, purchased for 24k then with less than 60k.

I have full coverage on the car. We were told the offender has insurance but we are unable to get the police report yet so if he has insurance we have no clue on his coverage. In Oklahoma, the minimum liability is 20k.

This happened Tuesday morning at 9:30AM. Pretty early to be drunk and high. He was arrested.

Since I do have comprehensive, am I better off dealing with my insurance?

I'm not knowledgeable about the insurance stuff so I wonder what my options are.

I would really like for it to be repaired.

Car is in good shape. No repaint, never had body work done on it. I regularly drive it to TX which is 500 miles one-way for me. Only issue I know of is the AC system is out. I just figure I am going to get low-balled and end up getting very little out of it.

Although I have never parted out a car, this car:
$400 brand new MB driver's seat controller (located under the seat).
The replacement motor I think was about 5k + 2k to install (dad paid for it since he still owned it)
I recently pulled off the driver's seat sheepskins that fell apart. The leather seat looks brand new. One bad spring underneath it.

It has always been regularly maintained by a shop or DIY.

My son had the car out-of-town so I have not been able to take a close look. He says the rear axle is "bent", not sure if it is bent or dislodged or what.

Pics on Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3YResBhqUTGM2M5bEs2NTE2QmM

I appreciate you reply and anybody who can recommend what to do or what to consider.

You will need an old skool body man to fix that. There is a crumple zone in the back that will be messed up. The rear part of the unibody equivalent to the frame will be bent.

All insurance carriers will total it because they use new MB parts for the estimate because there are few aftermarket parts. It is a no-fault accident. Start looking for sales prices of similar vehicles near you.

I was easily offered $3,000 for mine with no AC in need of paint, nice interior and most other mechanical in good working order and documented. $5,000 will be difficult but try for that.

State laws vary. Talk to your agent. He wil help if he's a competent agent that's been in business for a while. Find another if he isn't.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Looking at your pictures, I suspect some serious (possibly repairable) damage. This picture is the important one, in my opinion:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3YResBhqUTGRXQtUC1ZeHExeFFqYWE0Y3E5TDNvM0htTUxJ

If you zoom in under the car, you can see that the axle shaft has been pulled out of the differential. That axle should be clipped inside the differential. It shouldn't be possible for it to pull out like that without opening the differential cover and removing the circlip. The axle shaft may be trashed. I'd be concerned about damage to the differential. I wouldn't even guess at it. I'd replace it to be sure.

In order for that to happen, I also suspect that your control arm on that side got mangled and also will need to be replaced. I'd also be worried about damage to the shock tower, spring, and shock absorber.

If the control arm is that badly damaged, I'd also wonder if the rear subframe got mashed up, too.

The good news is that aside from the possible damage to the shock tower, everything I listed above is a bolt-on part. Best of luck resolving this.

I think it is likely the rusty part in front of the rear wheel has probably gone (!)

It looks like the trailing arm has been pushed inwards and has twisted round on the sub frame. The sub frame is probably damaged. To knacker that the front mounting points are probably toast too. Look under the rear seat to see if you can see any distortion. If there isn't any there take a picture of the area in front of the rear wheel and compare what you see with the other side.

If my imagination is correct and the damage I expect to see is there I would expect every insurance company on the planet to say "dead" - there's probably one heck of a lot of work to do to get that to be a safe vehicle again.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

The insurance companies job is to buy the car from you at market value milliseconds before a crash. High miles is going to hurt value, what the car cost 26 years ago won't be considered nor will " in the family".


Yes, deal with your ins co. For the most part, what will happen is they will assess the damage, value the car and make an offer. If you accept, they will go after the other guys insurance to be reimbursed.

I don't carry comp on any of my cars, even the then 4 year old one I bought for Mom back in 1995. Having generic comp on a car more than 7 years old is generally a losing proposition. There are comp policies where the owner and ins co come to an agreement as to what the car is worth and the ins co will pay out to that limit but be careful of the wording. Some use the upper limit as a not to exceed $$ or the value of the car what ever is lower.


One way to decide on value is: What would you pay for a 406 K mile car sitting on a car lot? I realize that the car has more value to you. Some of my cars won't bring any $ if sold but I can't duplicate them for the money I have in them. ( RE: the cars are good in the right places. )






Someone please post a few pics in this thread, I can see them.

Certainly after the fact but here's my two cents; if you have a house with either a driveway or garage, best to park the car OFF the street. WAY too many out of control morons driving around looking to RAM into your nice Mercedes. At least with the car OFF the street, you have lessened that possibility........

We have had some jerk offs in my neighborhood breaking into cars parked on the street during the middle of the night.

1.Liability and Etc.,Etc. through either USAA or Amica.

2."Stated Valuation" of the Mercedes through an amenable SECOND insurer
Hagerty's , Grundy , Condon Skelly , LLoyd's

Then Everybody's happy.

__________________
'84 300SD sold
124.128

Ask the Judge in the case to make the Offender personally responsible for your
MB's Restoration.

__________________
'84 300SD sold
124.128

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3YResBhqUTGM2M5bEs2NTE2QmM

__________________
'84 300SD sold
124.128

Yep, going through a specialty insurer is about the only way to to make this work. Just be sure there are not any mileage limitations, some specialty insurers also require the car to be garaged.

My internet connection is too slow for G drive to work.

If the car is as bent as described another shell may be a better route.

If you are going to fix, there also comes a point where " clipping " the car is less work / better result than rebuilding floors / rear panels. ( RE getting a bunch of loose parts to fit together is more difficult than installing a prewelded chunk. )

The car would be cut across the rear pillars ( between the rear door and rear window. ) and a zig zag pattern across the rear floor / rockers. This zig zag pattern would be cutting the car apart where the factory seams are not an actual ZZ across a flat surface. If a factory seam can't be located an overlap weld is a must.

Clipping a car is a fair amount of work but not impossible to do with good results, you just need to decide if you really want this particular car to go again.

Insurance says... $938 Value, $120 Salvage. Repairs $9k+ ...according to the Chevrolet dealer...

I am currently trying to figure out if I have the vehicle brought back to my house (it is 120 miles away), how can I get it up my driveway into the garage?

A report stated the vehicle had high mileage, 407k, 13.5k miles per year. I wonder what the "high mileage" definition is?

I don't think my insurer is much different from the others. I just don't have the correct type of insurance.

Thanks for the replies. Some good ideas I am going to look into.

Want to buy a white 1984 SD tail clip? No rust, Tennessee, SC car. I'll throw in the rear seats, blue leather.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

You need to move them up. Do you have any repairs documented to show that the car is worth more? I got $3k without any effort. That was likely more than the car could be sold for. The adjuster did not look at things like rust hole under the window seal. I said "the car has been in the family since new, had recently done all of the front end bushings, new shocks, brakes, engine ran fine and I was getting ready for paint. I paid a few 100 to buy the car back.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.