sherypeter

Hi Guys,

Yesterday me and my wife had an accident. Thankfully we both walked from the accident with minor bruises. Car has been towed to tow yard because it was undrivable and both passenger & driver airbags deployed.
I guess we were doing 40-45 mph going past a green signal when some guy took the yield left signal and came and hit us from the front.
Obiously he did not yeild and its completely his fault. Thats the way police report has been written i guess. The officer said he was charged with a ticket.

I called my insurance company(21st cent) and reported the incident.They did not provide us a rental since our insurance dont have rental coverage.
The latest adjuster can come and check the car is after 6days , looks like he is all booked till then. Not sure if thats true or not.

If adjuster comes and decided to repair the damages and not total the car i would end up with a car with accident damage, I would imagine that would bring down the value of my car atleast by 5k.

KBB value of my 2010 c300 with 40k miles, prem1 package with nav and multimedia package is arnd 24k.

Looking at the damages what you guys think? How much will be the repair costs?

1) Winshsheild - 800$
2) front bumper - 1k
3) front headlight assembly - 800?
4) front fender ?
5) bonet have bent and gaps are not even anymore.
6) both front airbags?
7) airbag sensors?

am thinking around 10k? i have no idea how much the air bags replacemnt costs?
if its arnd 10k i imagaine they will not total it.

Is there any chance for the electronics to get scrwed up in the crash?
The crash was at arnd 40-45mph.

Picasa link to pictures
https://plus.google.com/photos/111217958923097357347/albums/6024943536546676737?authkey=CLL78buN_8b3oQE

Thanks guys for all your support.

BenzManNy

I think can be repaired.

fani_l

Sorry to hear that.
Don't forget labour and painting.
Can you ask for dominishing value?
Ask for compensation for Diminishing Value.

Drazil

that looks like a repair job for sure. bummer. your insurance doesn't sound that comprehensive, do they get to choose where to get it repaired? if it's up to you then insist on a MB specialist shop if you can.

amdeutsch

If the driver that hit you got a ticket he is most likely considered at fault. Therefore his insurance company is paying for it and has to provide you an equivalent loaner vehicle, not yours. Unless the at fault doesn't have insurance.

sherypeter

Thank You guys for all ur advise.

Yes 21stcentury does allow me to choose the bodyshop which i want.
I called merc service centre and they said they dont have a bodyshop , they did recommend one for me and thats where am going to tell insurance guys to take it to.
Also am going to ask for OEM parts , but not sure if they obliged?
I think any comparable parts can be used to fix it with.

Monday am going to ask for a rental car and his insurance should be covering that since it was his fault.
Thankfully his insurance is USAA ,which is good from what i heard.

Regarding the diminishing value am going to ask that too.
Anyone have experience with this point of the claim?

My wife is developing a back pain and i have to take her to check up in few days

Thanks again guys..will keep you all posted as this progress.

EvolutionDrock

From the pictures it doesn't look bad however few months ago I got into a similar accident in my 2008 c300. Lady failed to stop at a stop sign and she t bone me. I had similar damage to the left front end minus the windshield, and the airbags never deployed. From my perspective it look repairable with no problems. Mostly cosmetic damage. Took my car do mercedes benz body specialist. Next day I received the call from the claim adjuster that the car was total lost. I was in disbelief. I asked why? The reason behind it was the frame shifted and repair bill estimate came out to be almost 16k more that 50% of what the car was worth on the current market. Just word of advice be prepared for the worst case scenario.

spyked

I was successful with a DV claim once (against at-fault driver's insurance), but my car was literally a few days old. Not sure how successful the claims are on older cars. Can't hurt to try.

Akhafeez

same thing happened to my w203, i totaled it. But since this is a much newer car I think repairing it would be more feasible

tofu-

if the bags went off it might be a total loss. you're in the grey area right now depending on if the collision shop wants to be good guys or if they want to profit off of this repair. talk it out with the shop. if you throw some money their way, they will find more damage.

and i'm not saying they'll break more parts. i'm saying there are ways to dig for more damage to drive up the bill.

300c4

you could ask for oem parts but most insurance companies, give you aftermarket parts if your car is more than 2yr/24000mi old...

usually when airbag goes off, its minimum $10k + damage...your electronics like CD player, hard drive(disk type),LCD screen could go wrong after accident due to the impact.

getting totaled by insurance will be the best choice because the car might not be the same and car's value will go down, and most insurance companies wont pay for diminished value of your car.

GL

KyngArthur

From what I have seen is when the airbags come out, they most likely will total it. Glad to hear you guys are okay.

JPc300

I used to own an avalanche and covered by Geico. They replaced front end damage with aftermarket parts and I did not like the results. Things didn't line up, so I kept telling them I don't want the truck back until it looks like it was before the accident. The original assessment of the damage was $3400 and $4000 was total loss in their book. Once I got done with them Geico ended up paying a little over $9000. I love Geico. Their policy states is that they want you happy when you get your car back. (not exactly in those words) So basically once they were knee deep in the repair they couldn't go back so they spent all this money on a truck they originally felt over $4000 was total loss. I got all original GM parts. Good insurance is they way to go.


P.s. Both my airbags blew and it was a 2002 Avalanche . So hopefully I answered 2 of your questions.

sherypeter

Thanks guys for all your valuable comments and tremendous support.
The Police case came out as expected ,other driver is at fault ,so his insurance company , usaa should be covering for the costs.
Am trying to get hold of the usaa guys , my insurance company said i need to handle this directly with usaa.
i got an estimate of 10 to 12k for fixing the car at johnson bodyworks (recommended bodyshop my merc)
2010 rwd c300 with 40k miles and with nav,multimedia package and prem-1 pack.
KBB value is showing around 21k for selling to pvt party.
So that turns out 50% or more cost to fix the car.

I will talk to the shop and see if they can be more accurate on the cost to fix than a round figure.
Would hate to see my car going , but maybe thats for the better.

SoCal208

The car does not look bad after the accident, but trying to get USAA total your car & get another one (even newer one), the car will never be the same no matter how good they fixed it (both air bags deployed is a strong reason to get it totaled). Best luck to you.

sherypeter

Hi Again,
Just wanted to come back and update you all.


The car was totalled since the repair bill came out as 19k.Looks like the airbags are costly & Merc recommends to replace the steering column as well after such a front end collision. So I had the car estimated by Johnson Collision which is the Merc recommended bodyshop in wakeforest , NC. I worked with a guy "Tony" and have to say he is a pleasure to work with. He took the ownership of the whole process going back & forth with adjuster/USAA and did a great job. USAA was also easy to work with in general. Looks like a good company.


Moved on to a new Audi a6. ( code name C7) with a 3.0tfsi supercharged V6.
Will come back when I get my next Merc soon
Thanks everyone for the excellent support & knowledge base we have here.


I still have my C class navigation CD which I bought for 300$ from the dealership in june of this year. Going to post in classifieds.