hecdog

Can you believe that? 10 days old and some jerk at a Target Parking lot hit my left rear fender. At least he was decent enough to leave a not, but he hasn't returned my call. The estimate I got this morning was for $1600!

Do you guys know after being repainted, the quality of the paint is lessened in that fender? will it wear differently than the rest of the paint?

I'm so bummed...

andaya

in the parking lot. Yeah I know it's a long walk but saves you from getting hit by 90 years old drivers. hee hee

Sorry about your bumper, track that dude down!

BklynBenz

sorry to hear that

00ML430 Bulldog

Same here. I have this ding in my door that some Jerk gave me. I am planning on getting it repaired. people just do not respect other peoples property nowadays.

About the paint job. Just use the shop that your dealer use and you should be ok.

saturnstyl

A: Be nice. He DID leave a note after all. Probably an honest mistake... Shtuff happens, other people have bad days too.
B: Take it to a GOOD shop. We have a few locally that can repair a car so well you will never even know it was hit, even if you look very carefully! Then again there are the other guys......
When its repaired properly, the paint will be perfect, everything will look the same as it did when it left the factory. Since I have seen some of these kinds of repairs made on cars I thought were totalled, it has changed my perception of the body shops.

00ML430 Bulldog

Yeah but he is not returning the calls.... So you think it's ok to trash peoples cars just because because you are having a bad day??

vraa

Oh man that's horrible!

Do a check on your door jam to see if your paint code is like

***C or just *** ...

* being a number

Mine is 040 which means I have black without ceramic clearcoat.

The ceramic clearcoat is going to be hard to paint, many shops don't do it yet.

saturnstyl

I didn't imply he trashed your car because he was having a bad day, I meant he accidently hit your car because he may have been having a bad day. Chill out, its just a car. They made hundreds of thousands just like yours. It will get fixed.... If it bothers you that much, your in luck as Mercedes is still making them.

hecdog

Well the guy called just about an hour ago and was shocked at the repair estimate after I faxed it. He's getting his insurance involved and things are moving along.


SATURNSTYL, you're right. It's just a car. But no one likes to be potentially stuck with a $1600 bill. Even if the insurance covers most of it, remember, three strikes and your out!

End thread.

mlmoose

Sorry to hear about your fender...hopefully it will get fixed correctly.

The parking lot at my office was huge, and the few cars in it parked near the building. There was an area a long ways off from the building that we called "new car parking", where anybody with a new car would park until they got tired of the walk - you know, avoiding all those (us) slobs with old cars. One day, a coworker bought a new pickup (with a manual transmission) and parked in new car parking and forgot to set the brake. Sometime during the day, his shiny pickup rolled backwards at a slight angle, gathered speed, and crunched into his boss' also-new car! Poor guy was pretty embarassed, but fortunately we can all laugh at it.

barkbark

consider yourself lucky (well, sort of)

I had the turn signal on my driver's side side mirror smashed (well more like a giant crack, but it's still in one piece, and now the whole piece does still work but minor contact would probably make the whole thing fall off)..

I sort of doubt someone smashed their door into it, more likely some bored kid decided to mess it up

perks of parking in an unmonitored crappy school parking lot

hecdog

By the way, you were responding here to "...bulldog", another user, not me, the guy whose ML350 got hit. I agree with you.

Anyway, I just got this car back from the shop today and the repair looks great...except now my rear driver side door doens't function properly. The handle doesn't work. I have to open it from the inside. And it doesn't close very well either. It pops open when I unlock the car with the remote. Also have a new scratch on my front bumper and under the rear tail lamp. I didn't notice them til the car got home, cause my wife picked it up. They're closed saturday so I'll have to wait til monday...what a pain...maybe they won't believe me...

Alias

File a claim with your insurance company. Then, take it to the best place within 100 miles of your home to have it repaired. You will only be responsible for your deductable, so get the best repair that you can find.

00ML430 Bulldog

It's just a car huh?? Now because this turd hit this guys ML he is now having all kinds of problems with the truck. Was it the dealer's body shop that repair the ML??. I only use the dealer recommended body shop for repairs. Hope they fix your truck right when you take it back.

saturnstyl

So lets just quit beating around the bush... Is this a personal attack on me?
His car was hit accidently, and you make it sound like the person who did it is the worst individual in the world. I wonder how YOU would react after you accidently did something wrong, and the recipient just decided to sue your *** off instead of dealing with it in a cool and professional manner. The person that hit him obviously is trying to make it right by him, otherwise he would never have left a note. We live in a world of challenges, its how you deal with them that shows your true character.

00ML430 Bulldog

No not a personal attack on u Dude..... I just do not agreee with your comments about about people hitting other peoples vehicles and my comments reflect this. Your comments make it seem like a simple thing when someone hits your car worst of all a ten day old Mercedes. It causes all kinds of problems.... like the loss of use of the car... the agony of dealing with the insurance company.... the body shop if they do not do a good job with the repairs, like the original poster is having.... and the decrease of the vehicle's value because of the "fender bender". It is not a simple thing like you are implying. Sorry if you are getting offended because I do not agree with your line of thinking. Incase you forget it is a forum and will continue to post my opinions just like everybody. We can always agree to disagree!!
Here is a pIC of my old ML when some woman ran a red light and destroyed my ML and almost killed me... Maybe she was having a bad day like you said.

saturnstyl

Well your comments indicated to me you were getting a little bent outta shape there.... Thats just how I took it. You are correct, we are going to just have to agree to disagree.

hecdog

It has indeed been a bit of a drag. I'm not happy about it, especially if I have to pay some sort of deductible to get it fixed. I'm gonna try and make my case with the body shop and have them repair the new damages. Its not the dealerships body shop, but they're supposed to be the best around. They deal with high end cars mostly.

By the way, don't EVER buya ford (Explorer to be exact). The rental they gave us was new and had nothing but problems. It would lunge when put into gear and would easily fall into a gear you didn't intend. It was wobbly and noisey and smelled of fermeldahyde (spelling?).

KILLERLEXUS

a fender bender is no walk in the park,,its the beginning of a long and fustrating process of getting ur car back to new, all because some guy was having a bad day,,and chances are he drives a hoopty, people who drive hooptys drive it like its stolen, who cares if u put a dent in a hoopty,, it will blend in with all the other dents it got all over it,

amb9800

I may be wrong, but I don't think any ML got the new clearcoat...

benzboy

It's one thing to be hit by accident but get this one...three years or so ago I had just gotten my new 2001 E320 (Black/Java/loaded). It has 235 miles on it. I parked in a WalMart lot to "run in for a couple of things". When I came out someone had kicked in my front passenger door, broken the side view mirror and spit all over the window! No doubt a "I'll fix this guy with his new MB!" move. This was no parking lot accident but rather a pissed off driver of some piece of junk with an attitude. The store survelence camers revealed nothing (picture so bad you could not make anything out). And of course no one saw anything! $1200 later I'm driving a repaired (good job though) E320 for the next two years. Now got my '03 E500 and guess what...no WalMart stops and I park in the next county at malls etc. (even in the rain).