tampa CLK

We were recently in an accident (not our fault) and our 99 CLK was totaled. The car was (is) financed through MB Credit. We are starting a new business and consiquently cant show an income on a credit application. We owned the car for @1 1/2 YEARS, never late, never missed a payment. My question is, are we able to do a change of collateral for another CLK or are we simply out of luck? We are able to buy anotherone outright but, we need to keep our cash in our account for our new business. That car was our marketing tool so we need another w208 CLK ( not to mention that car saved our lives). Please advise me of what our options, if any are.

You can e-mail me at :NTI@tampabay.rr.com

Thank you in advance for any insight you may have,

Craig

respdoc

I had no real inside knowledge in this field but would think just using common reasoning that, if you were not able to show an income source, that you would be denied even though you have a solid payment history with them.

What I might look into is if you say your car is a business tool can't you use the purchase as a sizeable deduction at tax time ?

Also you state the accident was not your fault so aren't you getting some money back from the others' insurance policy to pay for your car?

tampa CLK

Yes, we will be getting some money for the car if you want to call it that. They are baseing the value of the car off of the national average retail price. They are not shopping for a car like a consumer typically does let alone an enthusiast. We arent people that want a CLK to be able to say we have one. If that were the case, we would simply find the cheapest example we could find. ck the thread in the 208 forum under "my new grill" and you can plainly see the car was loved and very well maintained. So they are offering @20 for our car. A slap in the face IMO.

As for the tax break, yeah...Isuppose there would be. but by paying cash for a replacement, we ar etaking money away from our opperating capital.

The whole situation is so unfair, this kid in one moronic sweep, took so much from us and the only response we get is sorry? The insurance company wont cover the accessories because they are vanity items and they didnt ask us to install them ( a quote by the way). Well, we didn't ask for this jacka** to trash our near flawless car!

The frusteration only begins here but, for the sake of this thread I'll keep on topic.

Sorry to rant but, this situation just kills me!

respdoc

Sorry to hear that.....I have heard many times though that you can contest what the insurance company is offer you by comparing their offer to local private sale prices for cars of your type/year in your area...might be something you want to look into...also if you already don't have a lawyer on board I might suggested doing that if their insurance company doesn't want to pay you fair market value of your car.

tampa CLK

Thanks for the sugestions. Sometimes when things like this happen, you dont think thourghly or rationally. I find myself having to step beck and evaluate.

We have hired an attourney. Because of the loss of the car, we cant currently market our business so thats involved and whatnot. I didn't even think of arguing the local market value with the ins. co. thanks for the heads up. Little things like that help.

My main thing was getting a replacement though. I know common sense, I wouldnt write a note to an unemployed individual either. However, people loose their jobs everyday, and unless you were to call the finance co, they'd never know as long as the payments were being made. Kind of the same situation IMO. Since we are a start up co., we're in the same boat, temporary situation on paper. I mean, if the note is secured by a bank account or you were to even put 50% down, I personally don't see the issue Given our history with MB Credit. What about retired people that financed when MB offered 0%? They didn't technically have an income either.

I'm just trying to figure out a way to replace the CLK ASAP, and keep as much money in the bank. If we have to, we'll just buy another, just looking for alternitives, you know?

Thanks again for the sugestions!

LeaseCompare

Most of our lenders (non captives) will not allow substitution of collateral.

If your company generates income but shows a loss, as is the object, then providing tax returns and personally guaranteeing the lease may suffice.

tampa CLK

We were @ 2 weeks from opening our door as of the 20th. Now we are pushed back til who knows when so I guess we're up the creek. Will a lending institution take into consideration the situation or just follow their equations? I dont know if explaining would help.

I really cant believe this is how it all works. Speachless

Childish///AMG

Keep "Us" posted on how things finally pan out. Man, I miss Berns and Thee Doll House

tampa CLK

HEHHEHEH!!!!! Bern AND thee Doll House. Thats a hell of a night out huh? I will definatly post the outcome. I guess they made a offer on paying the car off....we'll see. Found a CLK 55 AMG that I'm seriously looking at. Tasty! Black designo....to be continued............