My wife was rear ended last week on the left rear quarter of our SLK230. The inpact was deep enough to fold in the left rear wheel several inches. Our Merc dealer's body shop is evaluating whether it can be repaired or totalled. The concern is that if the roof mechanism is damaged, it can't be repaired satisfactorily.

Anyone have a similar experience with good/bad repair?

Don't be surprised if it turns out totalled - bad area to be hit.

Well, it turns out it is not totalled. The repair estimate is $12-15,000. The roof is ok, otherwise that would be about $10K to start. Also the roof hydraulics are on the right side and it was hit on the left. But the left rear suspension is toast as well as a lot of left rear body damage.

So, we will see how the repair goes. I plan to cycle the roof about a dozen times before I accept the car. Any other ideas?

my 320 was rear ended on the left 3 months ago... it's now fixed but the experience just to get it right was terrifying...
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/foru...98879&posts=21
Few things to considered:

-make sure they inspected the roof hinges and etc. are not bent.
(The body shop I went to, ahhem, EMC Auto Collision Center, Fremont, CA, assured me that no damage was done to the roof, few weeks later, the roof mechanism snapped. I took it to another dealer and it turned out all the hinges on the roof were BENT.)

-make sure the trunk hydralic hinges are not broken, meaning it is easy to open and close. After my car was rear ended, the trunk hydralic hinges were broken but it went undetected by the mechanic.

-if there's a slight wind noise, that means something is misaligned, insist to get it fixed.

Sorry for your damage, just so you know, the final cost of the fix was 17,000.

I think it's time for a new car.