jonmartin

So I let my cousin drive me home cause I was feeling Ill and he wrecked my car. To me it looks like it's in bad shape and my insurance adjuster thinks it might be reparied because he estimated on $20K in damage (since it hasn't been torn down and inspected at a shop) Now I personally think it should be totalled because I seriously doubt it will ever function/perform the same. What are your thoughts? BTW both curtain airbags deployed and both front air bags.

raycanales

OMFG I think I would kill someone if that happened to my car .. what did you hit ?

try like hell to get it totaled .. thats what I would do .. but them insurance guys they can fix anything ..

idrive

Try and get it totaled.

But it isn't bad enough... IMO

Let us know what happens...

blackdeek2006

Thats some pretty rough stuff there. My cousin works for BWM and he said that everytime the airbag needs to be replaced (he had a customer who had trouble driving obviously) it cost 3500 because they needed to replace everything that was remotely connected to the air bag system because they're only meant to work once. based on your damage, and it being a higher end car, you gotta be looking at at least 20K for just the air bag replacement, not to mention the body work, wheel, frame, etc. It will be hard but have other appraisers look at it from different shops. they might be in agreement with you. good luck. and sorry for your loss

John59

Sorry for your loss, as far as it being totalled it doesn't look like it to me, I owned a bodyshop, and think that it could be fixed for less than 80% of what its worth,although I don't know the year, guessing 03. In addition according to your insurance co.'s policies, because its a used car, some carriers are not obligated to using new factory parts for your repair, which means they can use salvage parts or aftermarket parts to fix your vehicle,which obviosly saves the insurance co. money. Ask and see what they say.

John

apdesign

John is right...don't know if you remeber mine when it got into an accident. They will use refurbuished, salvage and aftermarket parts to fix your car. Luckily my bodyshop worked very very hard for me to get all brand new parts. There might be a slight chance that they might total you car since most of the airbags deployed, but your right habd side still looks intack. Good luck and let us know the outcome.

adam76

force them to total it if possilbe. it probably will never be the same, and think about when u go to sell, and someone pulls a carfax report on it. it already looks like the W215 resale is tanking, and that coupled with a wreck, will kill you. im assuming you are like a lot of benz owners, and go through benzes like women do shoes ; ) just dont let your cosuin where your shoes again!

GordonTse

unbelievable!! your cousin crashed your car!! tell him to buy u a new cl!!

ten2 four

wow you have some bad luck with cars.
sorry.
Nathan

jsloan01

that SUCKS! hope your cousin understands the severity of his foul up.

jonmartin

My adjuster called today and said the inital estimate was $46,000.00 in damages and thats not everything since the car hasn't been torn down yet. Apparently she thinks they might total it because they don't want to deal with hidden problems after the repair which I hope is the case.But I won't find out till around wednsday because it needs to be approved by two different managers, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best outcome for me. Thanks for all that replied.

-J

v8plus4

I would imagine that it's at least that much. It isn't inexpensive to repair these aluminum unibody components, and not just any shop can do it. If I recall correctly, when the 215 CL first came out, there were only 3 or 4 shops in the US that were authorized by MB to do such repairs.

In addition, you could argue that in today's market, 46k is around 100% of the value of the car (assuming it's an 03).

I predict they'll total it. Time to start shopping for a new sled.

razorfish228

Wow, check out the wheel damage on how the lip got peeled off. Thats a really expensive car.

Carl Lassiter

JonMartin, sorry to this man. Was a beautiful 55. Good luck getting it totaled, i'm sure that's what will happen

Highend

I always thought the rule of thumb for a totaled car was this. I could be wrong but it has worked everytime i used it so...until proven wrong.

1. Floorboards are bent
2. Lines on the car are no longer staright, ex. trunk line is off ex. hood line is off

Bigdot

the key for a MBZ, is that if the airbags go off, then its done. my friend hit a tree at 10mph, airbags went off, airbags were 8K w/o sensors, searing wheel, or install. so right away they cut him a check. but for a car that is worth about 90K, IDK if they will total it.

jonmartin

I got word from my Ins adjuster folks and the final answer is they are totalling it.... I can breath now.. Sad to see her go but maybe now I can get one of those $80K Cl65's I'm reading about in the other thread lol... I just wanted to keep all who cared in the know thanks for the replies folks.

medici78

Good to hear!! Enjoy your Cl65

Highend

maybe on your new cl65 u wont put copies on either =)

jonmartin

Ya it came that way I'll be sure to tell the dealer to shove it up their ***!!

HouTxCLS55

Glad to hear it worked out! Please let us see the pictures of the CL65 when you get it.

jangy

Glad it worked out. You can get a CL65 for 100Kish out the door if you can still find a new one.

What did you do to the cousin?

sdsilverm3

The accident does not show on Carfax unless the car is considered a total loss resulting in a DMV transaction. If the insurance chooses to fix the car then the accident would not show up on Carfax. That's why it's so important to have the car inspected when car shopping and to not solely rely on Carfax alone.

pmb600

That isn't correct. When I bought my car, the original car I had a deposit on showed up on car fax that it was in a fender bender. Since the people decided to call the police and get a police report, it was on record with the DMV and therefore on the Carfax. The Carfax saved me in this case.

sdsilverm3

Glad to see that some things have changed since 2003. Based on a conversation I had with a Carfax rep, he stated they only reported "major" events such as floods, total loss, salvaged titles, etc. Carfax is still pretty much hit and miss with these reportings.