Dear Diesel Fiends:

Back in January I posted here about an accident I had in my ’83 300D. To recap: a teenager made a left in front of me – failing to yield - and I hit the right rear quarter panel of her Isuzu Rodeo. Here’s a picture of the damage to my car:

The first thing I did, after screaming and yelling, was ask you good people for advice on what it might cost to fix and whether it was worth it. I got lots of different opinions, some folks saying “Get it fixed, it shouldn’t cost that much” to “Forget about it – get another car.” Estimates offered here ranged from $2000 to $5000. There was also some discussion about how to handle the insurance claim. I’m writing to update everyone on how it all turned out.

The other driver’s insurance company (Liberty Mutual) initially came at me with an offer of roughly $2400, minus the 20% liability they felt I should accept. I spoke to a friend who works at an insurance company as an adjuster and she advised me to write a letter to Liberty Mutual explaining why I felt they were undervaluing my car and to ask what method they used to come up with a price for my car. Some background: I paid $3000 for the car in July 2003, it had 189K miles and the previous owner had taken excellent care of it - everything worked but the cruise control. I wrote to Liberty Mutual, making the points my friend had suggested, and they told me they used something called “Autosource” to value my car. “What the HELL is Autosource?” I asked, when the Liberty Mutual adjuster contacted me. “Why don’t you use an industry standard, like Kelly or the NADA guide?” Long story short: they went back and re-worked the numbers, coming back with an offer around $5400 – substantially higher. I also got them down to 15% on my liability and had them sell me my car back as salvage for $163. I spent many hours agonizing over whether to get it fixed of sell it for parts. The turning point for me was when I frantically drove a rental car to Brooklyn to check out a “low mileage” (139K) ’82 300D being sold on eBay that turned out to be a piece of junk, a fact not at all reflected in the listing. Even though it had a nice new paintjob, it was obvious the car had been in a front-end accident. Inside, a lower dash panel was hanging down and the smell of antifreeze was prevalent. The engine compartment looked like it had been submerged in salt water for a year. The worst moment was when the brakes went out as I returned from a quick test-drive on the Belt Parkway. We limped the car home and I got out of there as fast as I could, thinking, “I’d rather have my car back – at least I know what’s wrong with IT.” Call it the “Devil You Know” theory.

Now here’s the best part: my mechanic turned me on to a local autobody guy who was willing to do the job with used sheet metal and used parts. After much apprehension about how the whole thing might turn out, I got my 300D back on Saturday, after 60 days of hoofing it (which was okay with me because the winter around here was terrible and I didn’t have to deal with digging my car out). I’ll post some pictures here when I can but the car looks pretty damn good. They matched the paint exactly and even replaced the pinstripe. Total price: $1800. The rest of the money? I got myself a new big-screen TV, paid some bills and put the rest in the bank as a “maintenance fund” for the car.

The weirdest part of all this, for me, is driving my car again after seeing the shape it was in. It’s like it came back from the dead! And the lessons learned? Fight for what you think is fair value on your car - never accept the first “offer” from an insurance company - think seriously about getting your own car fixed.

Thanks for all the support from this site.

All best,

Diesel Fitter

Does it have a salvage title now? Did you have to get it inspected by the state before it could be registered again?

I haven't had any contact from the state DMV regarding salvage title so I didn't seek one. If they contact me and it becomes a problem, I will.

DieselFitter

It's nice to hear a happy ending! Good luck with it.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200