Looks like my time on the W212 forum has come to a close. A lot of people on this site that know a whole lot about these cars and it has been very helpful. We've been out of town and our son drove the car to put some drive time on it. He was driving the E350 across the Roebling Bridge and a couple of heroine addicts slammed into him head on. Steering wheel and side curtain air bags deployed, front end heavily damaged, fenders and hood buckled, led headlights that retail for $2600 each gone. Insurance will undoubtedly deem it a total loss. The women driving the other car jumped out and left the scene. Left several needles and heroine in the car. Our son has a broken foot from trying to jamb the brakes on during the impact. Fortunate that was his only injury. I'm still out of town so I can't see the car in person, but from the photos it took a hell of a hit and provided the protection one would expect. The addicts were apparently traveling at about 50 mph and never hit their brakes.

 

Damn! Really glad your son is ok, most important, glad the E kept him safe! When other ask me why I drive a Benz, I usually lead with Princess Dianna's driver hit a bridge abutment at over 80 and walked away. Again glad your son is ok, now we can mourn the car loss...

I moved from forum to forum as my cars changed, they are all different demographically, but I found interesting people in all of them who truly helped out, I would never have been able to keep my 220 for 12 years without those guys on the 220 forum, I know he won't see this, but thanks a million WallyP !!!!!

 

Mother BIT$H!! Sorry to hear this and glad the boy IS OKAY!! I hope they find said H heads and bust their asses!!! Good luck to you all!

 

I’m very happy to hear that your w212 did what it does best: keeping your loved ones safe

I hope you get the justice you deserve, good luck!

 

Well you could always get a 2016 model and stay here.

 

it was her bodyguard and he spent several months in hospital but he did survive. The others were not wearing seatbelts and all three died.

im so glad your son is ok. That’s one of the many reasons I drive a Mercedes Benz

 

No one in Diana's car was belted. It was reported (incorrectly) so much that Trevor Reese-Jones was wearing his that it is just ingrained now, but it was never true. He was so obviously, horrifically injured that their focus was on him initially as Diana did not appear seriously injured. I was always fascinated by Diana.. so I've done a lot of in depth research over the years when the anniversary comes around and sparks my interest again. I just read the entire Operation Paget a few years ago which was when I discovered that about the seatbelts. Until then I also believed he was buckled.


OP - let me also say I am happy to hear your son is fine with minor injuries. These cars are stout.

 

Thank you! I did not know that there were 4 occupants, I had always heard that the driver had his belt on, According to LB that's not the case, I guess we can only imagine what the difference would have been had he had it on.

I guess the real point is if you were going down the highway at over 80 and about to hit a bridge abutment, I don't believe anyone would say, " I wish I was in a KIA right now instead of this S Class...

 

I think she was murdered personally....she was a 'bad girl' in the eyes of the devil queen.

 

No.. just no. lol

The Mercedes accelerated down Cours La Reine anywhere from 90-110mph. At the entrance of the tunnel, the road has a sharp dip followed immediately by this sort of off-camber turn. The Benz was going too fast and that dip/corner combined with needing to swerve to avoid slower moving traffic.. the car was out of control basically upon entering the tunnel. It clipped a car and slammed into the 13th pillar at 65mph (a lot of people remember this being reported as much faster, but forensic reconstruction confirms 65mph maximum). I don't think that the driver had any chance, seatbelt or not, based on the structural damage of the car. But the science says that Diana and Dodi would likely have walked away had they been wearing seatbelts. The Mercedes held up really well - it looked mangled after they cut Trevor free, but right after the accident the rear glass was all intact, the doors opened, even the puddle lamps were on. Trevor in the front passenger seat was saved by the airbag, but without the seatbelt this was not enough to stop him from hitting the mangled windshield and cutting his jaw almost completely off of his face.

Trying to orchestrate this would have been impossible.

 

I do see you are well briefed on the matter and I will reverse my claim......I just always thought it was a set up. I KNOW the Crown (tv show) was over dramatized, but if Charles really treated her that way then what a damned shame! That show portrayed him as such a HUGE WIMP it's so funny! Thank you for helping/educating me on this matter

She was riding with her boyfriend that's true? I don't feel the need to read up on it but you certainly have and mentioned that in another post as well that I saw in this thread.
Thanx again!

 

Glad to hear the W212 did it's job and the OP's son is ok. Occasionally drive across that bridge, lucky not have any such encounters.

Regarding Diana, at the end of the day it was the driver's fault. He was intoxicated.

 

She was riding with Dodi Al-Fayed. I would characterize him as more a man to make Dr. Khan jealous than a real BF, but yes. For all intents and purposes, her BF. Charles was a victim of the monarchy.. he was always in love with Camilla, but he was basically forced to marry Diana the virgin. It was inevitable what happened, all a shame.

 

cetialpha5 - I've looked around and don't see a car comparably equipped. 2014 E350 Sport, only had about 42k miles, leather, dynamic LED headlights, heated/cooled seats. I just put new tires and full brake overhaul on all corners. MB Cincinnati has some 2014 E350s but they're listing them at $33K+ w/o the options. I believe KBB retail is about $20K. Looked around at all the web sites for something within 100 miles, and nothing. It was my wife's car and she wants remote start on her next car.

 

$33,000 for a 2014 E350 with average options? That is nuts. Like $10,000 too high nuts.

 

You might want to expand your search. Here's a 2016 E-350 4matic with 41k for $25k. Has real leather, parktronic, only lane tracking package instead of driver assistance package, pano, dynamic LEDs, and keyless go with a few other minor goodies. I usually do a search in a 500 mile radius, last car I found over 200 miles away and took all day to get it back home. Cargurus is a good site because they tell you how long the car has been on the site. If they've been listed for more than a couple months, probably not there and they're just advertising it to bring in customers. But the ones that have only been there a few days tend to be the loaded ones and they don't stick around long.

https://www.volvocarsramsey.com/used...f21e4bbe5e.htm

 

I'll do that. Thanks. Insurance company hasn't made a determination yet but had us remove the license tag and gave us instructions for submitting the title and so on. Car is not critical right now. Looks like our son did not escape without fairly serious injury. He has to have surgery on his foot tomorrow to fix broken bones.

 

That's a big price, I know the used car market is up but I think my '13 4 matic with P2 is worth 14k at best, at least that's what I'm hearing at some local dealers, seems like a big jump, but it is a facelift in '14.
Wishing kp1's son a good outcome!

 

kp1, you need to widen your search area a big time if you want to find another Benz to drive. When I traded my 2011 E350 against the current 2010 E550 I had to do it 1170 miles away from my home in Arlington, VA. I drove there for 1 1/2 days and after the deal drove back the same 1 1/2 days. This trip was well worth it. The car had 14700 miles when I got it and now has 186000 miles still going strong.

The next car I got in San Antonio, TX only about half distance away so it was a day to get there and another day to get back. I did not trade anything this time when I got my 2013 S550.

You need to find the ride and when you find one you want you just go get it no matter how far it is if you really want the options you are after. A two or three days trip to get what you need does not weigh much at the end of it when you enjoy what you bought.

And remember, miles do not mean much for these cars other than the more miles makes it less expensive to buy. If you find a car with very many miles on it but is only 3-4 years old it is the best buy as these are mostly highway miles that count only 1/3 or even 1/4 compared to city driven car.

 

Sorry to hear that hope surgery goes well. Probably worth it to wait. Used car prices are way up right now. I think they're still about the same if not higher than they were last year. Once this pandemic is over, maybe the prices will drop some more. I think many people are driving to avoid public transportation so they bought cars and took them off the market. Maybe they'll come back once things are somewhat back to normal and they dump the cars afterwards.

 

Thanks. I have done that in the past. I flew to New Jersey and bought a car, then drove it home. Took me 4 hours to get across the GW Bridge. The most recent car I bought last year, I drove to several dealerships 6 hours away and at both dealers they would not honor the deal we had negotiated on line and over the phone. Had all the correspondence with the clearly stated price. Ended up buying one about 45 minutes away and payed a few hundred more. We don't need to replace it any time soon. My wife doesn't think she wants another sedan. She likes the convenience of my SUV, so she's thinking she night want a slightly smaller version. There is no urgency to replace it.

 

i ended up doing national search, and found my 2016 E350 wagon 'luxury' trim in New Mexico as a CPO car on MBUSA's site. cost $1000 to have it shipped here (normally we would have driven there and back but covid)

I was using craigslist for regional cars, cars.com for wider area and MBUSA.com to search for CPO cars. my wife was also using cargurus and some others, but I found more candidates on cars.com

there was literally only ONE 2016 E350 wagon for sale in Northern California, and it was black and 'sports', and had twice the mileage.

 

Kp1

This is one is in Indy. 2014 E3504matic 41k miles $19800



https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...code=undefined

 

Pretty much a base model car. No pano, no parktrnoic, no lighting package or lane tracking package. Keyless go though and low mileage.

 

Now that's a much more realistic price, their out there.