Deflated_97

I walked out of the grocery store and had the unfortunate front-row viewing of a lady in her 80s, ram her SUV into two parked cars and then reverse out into mine. The poor lady was trying to park her car into the space next to mine, but mistook her brake pedal for the gas. I got off lucky since she only scraped my car after reversing out of the two she already hit. The BMW and dodge in front of her got a new face lift.

The damage resulted in some passenger fender scrapes, a wheel face scraped, and the edge of the bumper losing some skin. The damage wasn't too bad compared to the others, but it was worse because now the car wouldn't start.

I put the key into the ignition and the car didn't recognize it. That's funny because the remote door locks work. Its almost as if I was using the key from another car it doesn't recognize.

So that meant steering was locked and the tow driver needed to get some dollies to move it out and turn it around.

I'm stumped by this because no internal damage occurred (no fluids leaking, the dents don't protrude into the engine bay. I think the car could have driven fine if it started. My suspicion is that the car recognized the movements while the security was armed, and therefore disabled the car. No alarms went off when it happened so maybe that might not be it. Perhaps it has something to do with a PreSafe mode? Does Mercedes lock-down the car in the event of something like this?

Also, does anyone have any experience with AAA in matters like this? The lady claimed fault to her insurance (AAA) so it's obvious who's fault it is. I'd prefer that the insurance will let me take it to an official dealer to make the repairs.

Thanks for the help

roadtalontsi

probably a bad steering lock, and somewhat unrelated to the accident. Although im sure the bump didnt help either.

newtrita

AAA is good, my girlfriend got rammed by a truck which had AAA, they cut her a check for the retail price of the car in 2 weeks. No hassle! Btw sucks to hear that happen... Also look into getting compensated for your cars loss of value after an accident. Good luck !

Deflated_97

Thanks for all the advice.

I'm still baffled by how such minor damage could completely incapacitate the car. I like Mercedes Benz engineering, but these rare incidents are frustrating. Why would the car systems disable itself even after something so minor?! The 2013 BMW 740i she hit was able to drive away just fine with a quarter of the bumper bent in.

I hope the other party's AAA will let me make repairs at the dealership. Considering that the fender/bumper is unique to the C63, parts will probably need to be ordered from Germany. I'd rather have complete component replacements rather than a mend and repair job.

Mort

You have the right to take the car to a repair shop of your choosing.