Some guy dinged my front fender and the insurance adjuster offered me a new wheel because it may have been hit (it wasn't). After the body work, the body shop had my car aligned and told me the alignment was an extra $400 (maybe $500) because it needed a new camber kit. I drive my CLK 55 pretty hard, but I don't hit many potholes or curbs. With only 20,000 miles, I'd have to wonder if the dealer is putting one over on the insurance company. Any thoughts?

BTW, the dent was pretty much just a donkey kick just behind the front wheel and a very light scrape down the car. The cost is $3700 (so far) and it's been in the shop for 4 weeks.

Whew, that's a lot of money for an alignment!! An alignment at the dealer is less than $100. I don't know where they're getting an extra $300 from, certainly not from the offset bolt kit.

i think he is talking about alignment of the hood. If he's talking about steering wheel alignment, it's $94 at the dealer.

The $400 is for a "camber kit." The body shop rep said that "when a vehicle is hit, the energy passes to other areas." This is total BS because that wheel wasn't even hit in the accident and the dent certainly wouldn't knock out any wheel alignment. I'll grill the shop rep and see just what the heck they are pulling. I'd be mighty pissed to take a car with 20k mileage in for an alignment and get charged $500. I guess at least no one has had heard of such an expensive alignment at MB. Here's the dent.

That's it?? Looks like all you need is a fender. Your insurance company is getting flat-out raped by the body shop. You might want to ask for a more detailed explanation.

I've heard of this mysterious camber kit as well from my dealer, they told me the alignment would be $300....they ended up doing it free of charge because they had my car for 9 days without fixing anything, so I don't know how much it would actually be.