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.

__________________
Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras

Thanks sunny!

I am still waiting for the insurance to conclude the case.
I really think that we walked away in one piece thank to the car.

__________________
1996 E320 since 1/16/08, 171K miles as of Feb 2011

---------------------------------------------------------
1989 300CE - R.I.P. Dec 29 2007
Other MBs (sold): 1992 300E-24 - 1979 350SLC - 1984 230E - 1990 300CE

Just make sure you don't take thier first offer -- be prepared with a counter.


I have no doubt whatsoever that you are absolutely right. I doubt you could have avoided hitting the other car if you'd been driving a rice burner or an American midsize, much less walked away.

I bless these cars every time I pass an accident site, every time I have a near miss, always. DH John drives 120 miles round trip to work every day. He's hit a deer and all we had to do was replace his grille on the 300D, while the same accident in a Ford Explorer found us needing a bunch of sheet metal.

Even when I cuss them for being such a PITA to fix sometimes (I'm chasing electrical gremlins this weekend, and that would drive me to distraction in ANY car!), I know we are so much safer in them than anything else we could drive short of a Sherman tank, and both TxDOT and DPS take a dim view of putting those on the public roadways....

__________________
Anthracite 1980 300D -- 64k original miles with a new engine, on the road again!
Silver 300D -- second owner, Sunny's old baby, Ilse, 210 miles,
Having to thin the herd….
Silver 1983 300SD -- second owner, 325k miles
Gold 1981 300D -- well-traveled, solid little car
Beige 1984 300D -- 292k miles, grease machine, parting out
Seafoam green 1981 300SD -- 250k, windshield frame damage
too many assorted w123 & w126 cars, parts cars, and extras

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

__________________
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!

Shocking to see this again, now that I have the e420!`

That car is the identical color inside and out as my Red Plum! 512 Almandine red/crème beige/mushroom interior



Good to know they are so safe. A big reason I bought one.

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

Laugh of the day ... above poster forgets and resuscitates thread that they were an original commenter on....more than six years ago.

[senility?]

Stalkers have a strange sense of humor.

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

OK, which name is it that I should be known as:

From Jim B.:

Totally unhinged troll?

Auto-sycophant?

Stalker?


From McClare:

*******? (plain and simple)

Douchewad ?

This exchange is violating the follow forum rule.

3. Ad-hominem arguments and personal attacks are not permitted. Criticize the idea, not the individual. An ad-hominem argument attacks an opponent's character rather than answering his argument. Users who verbally assault the character or person of other members on a regular basis will be banned. "You're wrong" is not a personal attack; "You're wrong because you are an idiot" is an example of a personal attack. Moderator's judgment will apply.

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".