So I got in my first accident after 14 years of driving on Saturday night. And it wasn't with another car, but a stupid deer that ran out into the road. I was visiting a friend in Cleveland, and driving to another friends house, and my Garmin took me on a country 2 lane road in the middle of nowhere, when it should have taken me on the highway. I was going about 40 mph, and a deer runs out onto the road. I slammed on my brakes, but wasn't able to avoid it. I hit it smack center with the front end, but luckily it went over my hood diagnally and didn't go through my windshield.

My local MB dealer's collision center quoted $7,200, and my insurance adjuster estimated $5,200. Parts came out to $3,300 and labor/paint was $1,900. $1,750 was for one Bi-Xenon headlight replacement, and other parts were hood, grille, hood emblem, safety catch, upper tie bar, air baffle, horn and supercharger intercooler.

I was really surprised at how much damage there was under the hood when considering I hit a deer at about 30mph, while most of the impact of the force probably would have been on the deers legs initially. I remember reading an article about a year ago on Yahoo News about the 5 most expensive cars to repair in low speed collisions. The C Class was at the top of the list. They weren't lying.

If anyone has an OEM grille off a 2005+ Sport model, or a set of Bi-Xenon's (or just the passenger side headlight) for sale, let me know!

 

sorry to hear. but i have to say i'm digging the starless hood ornament. good luck with the repairs.

 

sorry to hear that..
btw those quotes are ridiculously expensive, but it depends on the damage under the hood.....
check the classified section someone was selling bix for 900-1000 both sides if im not wrong....

 

The dealership quote was high, as their hourly body labor rate is $55. My insurance adjuster's quote was pretty much what any body shop would charge, and they already cut me a check for $5,200. If you take out the $1,750 for the 1 headlight, then the other repair work came out to $3,450. The hood alone was $660, grille was $219, and the supercharger intercooler was $419. There isn't a good aftermarket option for the hood as there are no CAPA certified ones. I found some aftermarket hoods online for $100-200, but I'm sure they are junk. Labor/paint was about $1,900, which includes painting hood, repainting bumper, fixing and repainting the right fender (one of the deer's hooves put a dent in the fender), and blending both fenders and both doors. They also need to replace upper tie rod, air baffle and supercharger intercooler. I'm sure I will have money left over, as the worst case scenario to replace the right headlight will be a new OEM one I found online for $890.

I looked in the classifieds, but didn't see any Bi-X for sale. Can you give me the link?

 

100$ hoods are certainly junk, maybe a CF hood for 800$ ?
for the grill check https://mbworld.org/forums/exterior-...ood-stars.html
and for the bix https://mbworld.org/forums/exterior-...enons-oem.html

 

Sad news

Maybe you can source a functioning BIX for lots less on ebay/craigslist?

I think you can grab a VIS CF hood for roughly the same price as a stock hood (and have it color matched).

Ya have any pictures of the damage UNDER the hood?

Hope this all gets resolved soon. (you can always look at this as an chance to mod )

 

Is that how insurance works in the USA?

In Canada, we can take our car to a shop of our choosing (including dealers) and the insurance company will pay it (less your deductible), unless the repair estimate is > than the book value of the car.

 

sad day , truly sorry to hear that. i saw the pics and i thought how much it would suck if that happened to me. but i did see some one on the classifieds selling the both headlights for $900 or so, idk if its still there though. good luck on everything

 

Mystery, some insurance works like that in the USA. State Farm will pay the shop or pay you.

Looks like neither BI-X is hurt, but one did stop working? I've hit a deer before in a Nissan Altima, no fun. I feel your pain.

 

Good luck witht he repairs.

Can you provide more info on the damage? Why are you going out of your way to find cheaper parts? You do have insurance don't you? If it's one thing I know it's insurance companies.

Get a report.
Tow it to body shop of your choice (preferably dealer).
Call up insurance and say that you took it to the body shop.
Have them work on the car.
Insurance company will pay the body shop (don't worry what they quoted you let them deal witht he body shop).

Don't go out of your way.

My friend hit a tire on the freeway. The key word it "A tire on the freeway flew and it hit my car" NOT "I hit a tire on the freeway".

Insurance company believes if you saw it you could have avoided it. But if a tire flew onto your car out of nowhere then you couldn't have avoided it.

The only reason insurance goes up is if you are a unsafe driver (your fault) NOT if it wasn't you fault.
Since the deer jumped out of no where this isn't your fault. So you should only pay deductable and not have any points and INSURANCE SHOULDN'T GO UP. MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T GO UP. THE MAX I'VE SEEN AN INSURANCE GO UP IS MAX 10-20 BUCKS A MONTH. IT SHOULDN'T SKY ROCKET IN PRICE (like it happens if accident is your fault).

If you saw the deer and hit it your insurance will go up. If the deer came out of no where and instantly you hit it your insurance won't go up.

It doesn't matter what the insurance company quoted (they will always quote lower).

You take the car to a hole in the wall body shop and they can repair it for way cheaper but you want quality. I don't know if it is tooo late but take it to the dealer let them repair it.

 

I forgot to say "hopefully this is your first and last accident"

 

Sorry to hear about this, especially sad to see the damage...hope you get it back to 100% without too much trouble.

 

someone hit my car backing up in the driver's side. not a real bad one but the repair was 2600. luckily the guy paid all. i think it was too much $$ but the repair is superb.

 

I will try to take some pictures tomorrow and post them. There is some damage under the hood, which is why my repair came out to so much.

The RH side Bi-Xenon is cracked badly on top and on the back of the housing. It isn't visible from the outside, and the headlight is way beyond repair. The light still works, but won't last long due to huge holes in the back of the housing from the cracks.

I found a brand new OEM American Lighting headlight (Magneti Marelli owns American Lighting now) for $894 from Parts Geek. Apparently Bosch sold American Lighting to Magneti Marelli (huge Italian OEM parts manufacturer)

There is another brand, "Action Crash Parts", headlight listed for $686 on Parts Geek. It looks like an OEM replacement from the picture, and it is described as "HEAD LMP ASM RH BI-XENON C-CLS SEDAN/WAGON". It comes with bulbs and ballast, and I can't imagine any company making an aftermarket fully functioning Bi-Xenon replacement. My thoughts are that this might be a "private label" Bosch (AL) piece. I might take a gamble and order these as I am really curious. If these end up being OEM, then that would mean everyone could order a brand new set of OEM Bi-Xenon's for $1,372. My curiosity on these would be worth eating a 15% restocking fee. They just better not be the new Depo OEM Bi-Xenon replacement housings, which take D2S bulbs and have a slot in the bottom for the OEM ballasts!

I don't find this statement to be necessarily true, and probably depends on the insurance company. My dad had an at fault minor accident recently, and he got 2 quotes from reputable well known pricier body shops. The adjuster actually estimated higher than one, and just below the second one. We took it to a different reputable body shop and he ended up pocketing $1,000.

My insurance already cut me a check for $5,100. They counted this as a Comprehensive claim, in which I had a $100 deductible. My insurance company has provided me with surprisingly excellent and hassle free service. The adjuster came out the day after I called to make a claim and cut me a check on the spot. They took the dealer's estimate, and adjusted down for over-inflated labor rates & paint material costs. They paid for all OEM replacement parts. They also arranged a rental car to be directly billed to them for me. I picked up my 2009 Volvo S60 today from Enterprise, and it is pretty nice! I am glad my insurance coverage is $60/day for rental so I don't have to drive a Ford Taurus for the next 2 weeks.

Insurance WILL NOT pay over $44 an hour for body labor and will not pay unreasonable charges. The dealer quote estimated $650 in paint materials to paint a hood, front bumper and blend in 2 fenders. I called 2 other body shops, and they said $350 max in paint materials, even if using the most expensive paint and most premium clear coat. While you can take your car to any body shop of your choice, the insurance does have a right to limit charges. What normally happens with insurance jobs at the dealership is the dealer will agree to fix the car for the insurance adjuster's estimated price (or negotiate an agreeable amount).

The reason I am going out of my way to save on parts is I have already been paid for the repair. Any money I save will pay for the next upgrade on my car.

 

Good luck. I've only had three accidents, but only one was actually my fault. It sucks to be there, especially when you did nothing wrong.

 

Sorry to hear the sad news, I had a similar damage to my wife's car when I rear ended into the car in front of me while the driver in that car suddenly stopped for a school bus. Anyway, the repair was done at a MB dealer for around 6k. The repair was done professionally and nicely. However, the hood/fenders now become chipped very easily when hit by rocks on the road.

Jason

 

*THREAD Hi-Jack!*

Okay, rather than starting a whole new thread, I figured I would add to this as I too have had a small incident with my car as well. Mine happened on October 21st. I was at a bar watching the Phillies in the playoffs (not a huge fan, but an excuse to go to the bar) and was out on the deck of a bar I go to a lot. Standing there, I could see my car parked off in the grass along the exit of the bar. Well, myself along with other bar patrons heard a "bang-crunch" sound and saw the back end of a pickup against the driver side front end of my car. The pickup was backing up to pull forward into a parking spot. Anyways, a couple of guys that saw it said to me "Ahh, I'm sure there's no damage, he didn't hit it that hard, don't worry about." To which I replied "BS!" So I went running out to see the driver of the truck walking in towards the bar (a elderly gentleman). I stopped him and told he that he backed into my car. He really seemed as though he had no idea he did, he even said that he wasn't sure if he had or not, but, I showed him the damage and how me along with others on the deck saw it all happen, so we exchanged insurance info. That night, I left a message and in the morning made another follow up call to his insurance agency. Well, looking at the pictures, it does not seem like much damage, however, the estimate was a little over $1,500. Enjoy.











*THREAD Hi-Jack Over!*

Xenon Benz, sorry to "thread-jack", but I just wanted to say sorry for your misfortune, it does suck, and there are things that we just can not help or avoid (as in your incident and mine). Hopefully your car will be repaired and back to as it was before contact with the deer.

 

PA_Pete time for bix lol

 

lol, I've got a grille. You can PM me

 

Ok so I went ahead and ordered the Bi-Xenon replacement headlight supplied by "Action Crash Parts"(owned by LKQ/Keystone) though Parts Geeks.com. Cost was $686 including ballast & bulb. It is supposed to be delievered on Wednesday.

No one could really figure out who the manufacturer of the headlight is. I called Action Crash Parts directly, and they said it was most likely Hella, but they weren't 100% sure who the manufacturer is. Parts Geek told me that Action Crash Parts actually manufactured the part, but Action Crash Parts told me that they do not make the part. So hopefully my original assumption turns out to be correct that the headlight will be one made by Bosch/American Lighting.

Picture of the part on Parts Geek

 

GL hope it is not depo.

 

The Benz Star

 

Me too! I actually asked Action Crash Parts if there was a possibility it was made by Depo, but they said it definately was not. The guy said they only get their German parts from OEM manufacturers like Hella & Bosch. I made sure that I would be able to return the part for a full refund in case I wasn't satisfied.

 

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but is your headlight damaged? It looks like maybe the headlight brackets were broken because the headlight looks like it was pushed inward.

This could be a good time to invest a little of your own money along with insurance money to get some Bi-Xenons!

If you want to get Bi-Xenon's, I can let you know in a few days if the one I ordered turns out to be genuine OEM.

 

So here's some pictures of the broken headlight. The top is cracked, the back is cracked, and the inner bracket is broken.

Back of Headlight


Top of Headlight


Broken inner bracket