at least the family is ok..... the car did it's job!

I'm so sorry to hear of the bad luck, Arnold. I wish you the best of luck getting everything sorted out with the insurance companies. Glad to hear the family is safe and sound.

Sorry to hear about it, glad the family is OK. Shows the car is safe.

Any decent insurance company would total it, that car is totally destroyed. Just take it to the most expensive place in town for repairs and make them undertstand that if they straighten the metal that has already been stretched and bent, the safety structure of the vehicle is compromised and that you would hold them liable if it's not built back to factory specs. Another similar accident after an improper repair could result in tragedy.

If all they do is fix it, trade it in, get rid of it, don't sell it to a private party, the liability risk is not worth it. Ask the insurance companny to pay the difference between what the dealer gives you in trade for a car that has an accident history to one without.

woah, my cousin also just got into an accident last week, his car was not as half as bad as yours, and it was considered total.

thank god your family is safe, and especially in this season! i hope your family gets better soon!






on a side note though, if you're ever gonna part out the exhaust or wheels let me know.

11k? a impact strip replacement with mnor repaint cost $1k. This should easily go more than $20k.

dammit!

Glad to hear everyone was ok

I think that the damage may buff out

+2

11k? Maybe if your mechanic is working for minimum wage...

My friend had a minor fender bender to the front of his Jetta, $6700... I had a rear-ender not even 1/100th the damage of that and it was just under $5000.

This car is going to be a write off. If it was a C55 it might be questionable, but whats a 2005 C230 worth right now? And whats 75% of that? I'd say it would cost easily $20k to fix this, if not more.

Its good that your family is ok. Everyone says thats the most important part, and its true, its definately the most important part. But dont let that allow you to loose sight of getting your car repaired properly. You want to know that you're car is just as safe if this was to happen again. Fight your insurance company, and if they dont give you a satisfactory settlement, get a lawyer. Cant stress it enough, get a lawyer, get a lawyer, get a lawyer.

wow i'm sorry to hear the bad news, i hope all works out well and glad to hear the loved ones are safe



ALi

First off I'm glad to see your family is okay, the post before mine about C230 values has a point. If they do decide to fix it, make sure you put in a claim for diminished value as now of course after a accident like that. of course your car is worth a lot less than (double ouch) Put in a claim after your car 's damamge gets evaluated. then compare it to a write off

glad your family is okay...

went through this same process last may.... big headache

i posted pictures and the process i went through... title of the post was something along the lines of "rear ended x2"

basically rear ended by a van after exiting the hi-way. i was at a full stop and a dude drove 30mph right into my ***.... i also had no airbag deployment

my rear end look like yours.....

the rear was my only damage and the insurance company totaled it out..

im going off memory here... but i believe the repairs estimate came out right around 15-16k after they tore down the car.

the other parties insurance company was giving me the run around and only wanted to pay 97-98% of the cars total value. i think at the time my car was valued right around 17k (02 c240).

the car totaled/as is was valued at like 2-3k bucks...

my insurance co would pay 100% of the value and would also let me keep all my mods. bi-xen... cd changer - euro-nav.. etc

what i did was retained ownership of the wrecked car. so my insurance company took the value of my car (17k) and subrated the totaled value of my car (2k) and wrote me a check in cash for the difference.

then with my totaled car i turned around and sold it to the body shop for 5k something.


then i debated on buying a new car or buying a used one... i ended up buying a used 01 c320 with a warranty for 16-17k. put all my mods on this car and half of my friend still havent realize that my current car is a different one.

-good luck
happy holidays

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice given to me. I certainly appreciate it, especially I don't even know you guys. I've been told by many who have seen the pics that it appears to be totaled. Car will never be the same...so I hope "totaled" will be the claim.

I'll take the wheels!

Sorry to see this...man that really sucks.

****************** UPDATE ***************************

Thank you everyone for all your thought, comments, and advice within the past month.

Car was claimed totaled. I was able to get $23,500, $400 courtesy claim, sales tax refund, licensing fees refund....
all for a total of about $26K. I'm in the process of getting a partial refund for the extended warranty paid too. The MB
finance person mentioned about $1100-1200.

I had to do a lot of negotiating, but the end result pretty good.

So what did I get? Well....last Wednesday, I picked up a 2006 E350. It has the 626 Premium Package with Pano Roof.
Color is Iridium Silver.

Even though I don't have a C anymore, I'll definitely still hang around the C Class forums. There are so many of you who have helped me learn so much about my first MB. Hope we can still stay in touch and someday meet up.


Here are some pics:

Nice upgrade

sweet upgrade!
i can see at least dozen mods to this car already...

glad to see everything worked out Arnold! nice E!

what's the plan for the E350?

glad to hear nobody is hurt. thats the most important thing!

nice, i love the black roof

nice pano roof!

Get out of here!!! This is a w203 section

Sorry to hear about the accident your wife & kids were in, glad that they were okay and that you got the result you wanted with the car being totalled. Nice upgrade btw, I love the W211 E with the Pano roof!

It probably won't be for awhile to do major mods. Current wheel setup is the 17" alloy wheels. I'll eventually replace those.

A few things I will probably be doing immediately (small stuff)....tinting windows on Saturday (50% all side windows & 35% on the rear)....get a flat badge hood emblem, euro covex from Steve of MBENZNL, replace door pins, light bulbs here and there, clear bra....and then bi-xenon lights someday. I had bi-xenon on my C230K and can't live without it. A quad exhaust with cutouts would be nice.

I'll have to be browsing the E-threads to see what others have done to mod their cars. I'm sure the mod list will grow.

It's only been a week of having the car. Definitely a different ride compared to the C230.

Where's the love Mikey? Aren't we a bunch of MB enthusiast regardless of class?

why didn't you go E55? prices are dropping...a lot.