C43SM

Hello ,

new to this forum. Going to be picking up my 18’ c43 in a couple of weeks. The vehicle has very low km and I managed to get a pretty good price on it. There is one issue, it has been in one accident . The dealer said it was very minor, one owner, he hit something in his garage reversing, tail light needed to be replaced and bumper needed to be repainted, total cost was around 4K for repairs. Dealer said all repairs were done at MB and used OEM parts. Now I have ocd and I am very much a perfectionist. I haven’t seen the car in person yet but to the naked eye, can anyone see that the passenger side tail light looks slightly lighter in colour than the left, or is this normal that the colour would be slightly off since one of the lights is new and one is from one year prior when vehicle was new. Maybe I am driving myself crazy and maybe it’s the lighting. Well, I guess I will have to see in person. Is it possible that it could be after market tail light if the colour isn’t a perfect match? Just wanted to see what others thought. Thanks!

AMGiggity

There is no way to tell unless you are looking at at in person. Having said that, if repairs were done by a MB approved shop and OEM parts were used you shouldn't have any problems. There may be slight color difference due to oxidization but over time they'll start looking same. just make sure you use this accident to get a great discount; there are plenty of these cars with perfect history sitting on dealers lots.

C43SM

Thanks brother . For sure it was a great deal I couldn’t pass up. I’m in Canada and they are not that easy to come by, with low mileage at least. Brand new wasn’t in the funds this year so I had to find one with low mileage and scored here. I’m wondering how I can fully find out if the repairs were done by mb using oem.

AMGiggity

if I am buying from authorized MB dealer then I'd just trust them, but if you can always dig deeper and contact the shop that fixed it. maybe get their contact from Carfax. Just make sure it is not frame damaged. These damages can show up later after you buy the car and kill the resale value. I'd get a written statement or something from the dealer telling you they have inspected it thoroughly ...
frankly, this is why I stay from expensive cars with blemished history. If it was a 10 year old car at a good deal it would be ok but this is fairly new AMG...

C43SM

thanks man, yeah I got the car fax but it doesn’t say where it got fixed. Do you know of a way I can find that out through car fax? Or would I have to ask the dealer. Don’t want it to seem like I think he’s lying to me lol

Tirgoman

What the previous posters said is correct, if it was only a garage bump as they said I find it hard to believe that it would be $4000 but maybe. As long as the metal bumper bar under the fascia was not damage then I wouldn't be too concerned. If it was then you need to start looking for frame damage. If the repair was at a MB dealer then the car is still in warranty and so is the repair. If at an outside shop then you need to check out real carefully and as said get some sort of guarantee letter from the dealer that it was repaired up to MB specs. As for the taillight assembly just open the trunk and pull back the liner and see if it has MB part numbers on it, or ask the dealer to show you the repair ticket so you can actually see what they did and what parts. It is strange that the repair did not show up on the Carfax but maybe the dealer did it in house or something so it didn't show up. You have to go see the car yourself and yes, you might be just a little too worried.

C43SM

Very good points, thanks a lot. The repair does show up on the car fax report as rear damage centre. But it only says the city it was repaired in, it doesn’t say any shop name. As for the 4000$ repair, he said it was because of the sensors and such in the tail light, as well as painting the bumper, labour and a rental. I will def ask for the repair estimate to see what was actually done. Thanks again

ntwillie1

My gle43 was hit by a deer a few months back and caused over 10k of damage. No structural frame damage, just cosmetic. So seeing a $4k bill on a benz for some cosmetic damage isn’t really all that concerning. The thing came flying out of nowhere and hit the front passenger side causing the bumper to break, the sensors to break, The camera to point in a weird direction, and the hood shifting a few mm. Mercedes recommended a shop and they used OEM parts. When I got the car back it looked just like new again minus the swirl marks they installed from the car wash they gave it.

To answer your question, since you mentioned it it does look slightly off but the best way to tell will be in person. If you hadn’t mentioned it I probably wouldn’t have noticed or think it. Good luck w your purchase.

C43SM

hey, that’s what I figured as well, the damage cost wasn’t what concerned me at all. Wow, that’s crazy. I work in insurance and I see those deer claims all the time, scary. Glad you are ok and it was all fixed up. Ya, to the naked eye you can’t really notice a different in the lights, I will wait to see in person. As for oem and using an mb cert repair shop, im pretty sure most Benz owners would want it done there, and not some unknown shop that uses aftermarket parts, considering all the sensors and just how you want your car to be up to Mb standard, I don’t see someone getting it fixed somewhere cheap to save a couple of bucks, but again.. you never know anymore.