Hello friends:

You have all been so good to me, and have given me such good feedback in the past. I really need some help here and am really not sure what to do. I apologize for the long post, but hopefully it will be self-explanatory.

1. On 12/29/02, I was involved in a pretty serious accident with my 1993 190e 2.6 I did $7,000 worth of damage to the car and pretty much destroyed the radiator. The car spent about 1.5 months in the body shop, and I got it back in early February.

2. Last week, I started experencing problems with my transmission. It was shifting in strange places, and it wouldn't go into the last gear. See http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=59754 for my post on the specific problems I was having.

3. Before the accident, I had NO problems with the transmission at all - no slipping, no problems shifting, everything was fine.

4. I took the car to the dealership on Friday, and they said that the fluid level was too high and adjusted it. I drove it home, and as I was driving, it popped out of 4th gear, and would not go back in.

5. After inspecting it, the dealership told me that the clutches on the transmission are worn and are starting to deteriorate. They basically said that I need a new transmission.

6. The dealership said that a MB remanufactured transmission is $2,460.00, with about 8 hours worth of labor, to bring the total cost to $3,100.00

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Is this the right price?? PLEASE tell me that I can do better than this, because I surely do not have $3,000.00 to spend on a transmission right now with being in school and not making exorbitant amounts of money. I have put a call into the insurance company, and they are going to send someone to the dealership to inspect the car. I suppose I can hope that the insurance will pay for it, but I think that's pretty much a losing battle. The only hope is that my service manager said that there might have been coolant that got into the transmission area and diluted the fluid (the mechanic said that it had a different tinge to it than normal transmission fluid did). That would be the only hope I would have, but I'm sure it's a snowball's chance.

Can someone give me some advice here? I just don't know what to do. I'm wondering if I should just sell it and part with my losses. It would surely be a disappointment though - after $7,500 in repairs.

Do I keep the car, or do I sell it? Can I find a better price on the replacement of the transmission, or is $3k going to do it?

Thanks for any help you can give me friends.

Peace-
Michael.