Hi,

I got in a car accident yesterday during stop and go traffic. I am retarded and I don't have collision insurance so I have to get rid of my car somehow. I want to get some decent money back for it but don't know where to turn or how much to ask for it.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I am located in San Francisco.

Please Help!!!

Sorry to hear that man.

Whats the mileage and condition of the car?

The car is in great condition otherwise. The interior is very very nice and all of the dents all around the car were fixed by me when I got it. Original transmission was rebuilt and runs great.

I posted on a couple of places on the internet and I already got people asking me about it, what is a good price to sell it at?

UPDATE: I just received an offer for it for $2,000. This is a guy from a salvage yard who knows someone who wants it up in Redding CA.

Does that sound like a good price? Anyone else want to look into it?

sorry about your accident.
there has been a few c43 accidents in short period of time .
salvage man wants to rip you off with his 2000 dollar CHECK, he can sell the parts for more money!!
don't sell the car, try to fix it yourself.

happy new year

I wouldnt sell it for 2k as is....hell no.

Why not sell it for that much? I am not able to fix it myself and I was told that it is too expensive to fix. What else would you suggest?

try to source used parts at junkyards yourself or part it out yourself if you don't wanna keep her?
do NOT sell it for 2 grand to salvage man, he will smirk all the way to the bank with your parts money

The car doesn't run, how am I going to go around selling parts? I know the parts on the car are worth a lot, but I'm not very knowledgable about how to source parts or even where to store my car in the meantime.

picture shows damage on front bumper, hood, headlights and grille, can you get these for cheap at junkyard, there are lots of white color w202's in USA?

can you get the car towed on a flatbet to your home or to your best buddy if he has a garage where you can strip her down?

if you want to sell the car you can get more money if you strip her down yourself.

What exactly are you going to do with 2 grand? probably nothing..

The damage to your car looks very minimal, meaning that you can fix it yourself if you are willing to have a little patience and put a little elbow grease into it. If you aren't willing to put in the time or effort then yeah let it go for whatever, but I'll tell you now that is the wrong decision to make.

Your car needs a new hood, lights, and bumper, you can source these parts out on ebay or at a local salvage yard for less than $1000 and labor wont cost you a dime if you do it yourself. You can buy all the tools you need to replace those parts for less than $100. Afterwards, you can have it sprayed to match for as little as $150-$300.

If your car won't start, it's probably a minor mechanical issue that you can sort out yourself or get a shop to fix for $500 or less.

I'm guessing it will be less than $2000 to fix your car and if you add $2000 repair with $2000 sale, you only get $4000, which is less than what your car is worth. So keep it if you like your car, if you don't like your car, then I suggest you fix it anyway and sell it for closer to 5500-6000, still netting you a few thousand over the $2000 price the junker is looking to give you.

BTW... How many miles are on the clock? Are those chrome 18s? and how did you lower the car, what parts did you use on the suspension?

Yep fix it man. Hood is less than 200. Headlights can be bought for 100-200 for both and you can get a bumper for like 150 off a regular c class for now. White is a common color too so it should be easy to find. To replace all those parts you wont need more then a few hand tools that you already have. If you were local id seriously come and help you. Ive replaced parts lime that on w202s a lot and its pretty simple

Your car can look normal and in one peace in no time.

Ya those are chrome 18s. I bought the car lowered, I don't think it has special suspension, I think it was cut down or something. There's about 132,000 on the odometer.

That is not much damage at all. if you want new, genuine parts, genuinemercedesparts.com is the cheapest. I purchased a brand new nose clip from Germany through them and it was only $762 USD. The hood can be from any W202 model as well as the grille. Don't let it go to a poacher from a salvage yard. He will fetch $1500-$2K for just the engine. The airbox along with engine cover sells for $400 alone from a salvage yard and can be purchased new for less at the website I listed. Good Luck!



I have the bumper support bar if you need it. It is the part that the bumper attaches to. You are free to have it if you want to pay the shipping. I can ship it out from Washington.

for vehicles which have a large user base (or low numbers yet desirable) the
sum of the parts usually are worth more than vehicle as a whole. be clear that
you'll need to spend TIME in the administrative needs in parting out the vehicle.
you take photos, write description, posting on forums or web sites (marketing),
answering questions from prospective buyers, deal with them *****ing about
the condition after the sale, claiming they never received the part, etc. so there
are trade offs.

case in point: i have a 25 yr old motorcycle which I parted out and so far
have collected roughly $3500 which otherwise would have called for $500
in blue book value.

in the end, it depends on your level of skill, time, and patience

Thanks everyone for your responses. You have inspired me to try to fix my car. I will keep you all updated.

Happy new year!

Xenons: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac...816225384.html

I don't mean to throw cold water on the party - but. I've dealt with several W202's with this sort of damage. It is definitely not fatal, but there is likely damage to the upper crossmember/radiator support - it is fairly easy to replace though; there are bolts at each end and in the middle. Trouble is it tends to push outward on the front corners. I can usually pull them it with some basic tools and grunt work. Much more difficult to repair is likely damage to the bumper bar behind the plastic bumper cover. it is likely pushed back and with the very tight clearance to the front of the engine on the C43 (and inline 6 C280 for that matter) it will have to be pulled forward. That is going to mean a body shop with a frame machine to anchor the car to while the bar is pulled forward. You might be able to tow the car to a shop and have them do just that part of the work for a nominal charge. Also, the auxiliary cooling fans often suffer damage in this sort of accident. So, it can be fixed. But if this is your first try at this type of work find a buddy or a shop that knows something and get them onboard for the repairs. In my case I work with an independent body guy who does Mercedes and we work out a deal where I do most of the work and he provides services I am not equipped for.

+1 a inspection of where the upper core support meets the fenders will give you a little bit of an indication of how much the front is pushed in as well as the marks on the radiator core from the fan clutch.

Fix it!

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Sounds and looks all to familiar.

https://mbworld.org/forums/c36-amg-c...d-crusher.html

The damage looks very similar. I was able to get mine back on the road for very little. The difficulty in your case will be locating a C43 bumper. Good Luck.

This is the same exact damage I had on mine. Dealership quote for full repair: ~$11.8k. I got it done by sourcing my own parts and having a body shop do it for ~$6.8k.

Thing is, I took the last new OEM bumper in North America.

If you have 2-tone seats, they are worth 2k for the set.

The only part that you'll have trouble replacing is the front bumper. The rest of that is SUPER cheap and readily available.

My god, if I had the parts I could have that thing completely fixed in 6 hours, and I don't even have a shop to work in.

And it's WHITE! MY FAVORITE C43 EVER!

EDIT:
I totaled my C43. 40mph grazing blow against a huge SUV.

Control arm, fender, inner fenders, bumper, headlight, corner light, bumper support, radiator support, side skirt = $4900 at a shop, and I overpayed.

Saw the invoice. $250 to buy a used fender that's the wrong color? That doesn't include labor and painting it. I could've found one in salvage that day for $50. Body shops will go a really long way to screw you, no matter what. Source: father in law has run one for a decade.

In my case I had my stock C280 bumpers but I did get the car back on the road for under $1000. To be fair I still have to have the hood painted (trying to decide if I should put the C36 stuff back which would require more painting).

I purchased everything used except for a headlight lens which was a dealer only item (xenon lens). Replaced parts are as follows

-Center radiator suport (section with the hood latch)
-Hood
-Grill
-Fan clutch
-Fan clutch bearing bracket
-serpentine belt
-belt idler
-radiator
-power steering oil cooler
-AC o-ring at the condenser
-AC recharge

It took about two weeks to do the work as I was waiting for parts as I also changed the waterpump while I had everything apart.