My S500 Wrecked

[Nirmal]

My beautiful 2002 which I won in the Dubai Duty Free raffle was wrecked. This weekend by this crazy woman who claimed she fell asleep at the wheel at 3.30pm ( I think she was intoxicated). She rammed into my car which was parked outside my home. My car was in excellent condition and it had been carefully maintained and has done about 150000 kms.

I am thinking of repairing it (my wife thinks its our lucky car) although I am sure the insurance company would prefer to take as a writeoff. I may have to pay an addition of about $5000 from my pocket after arm twisting the insurance company.


The chassis would also need to be repaired.

Any thoughts.

[Ulf]

Ouch, glad it was parked and nobody was in it - it doesn't take much to turn even a Merc into scrap these days, think the insurance companies have a certain percentage to judge from. If the repair costs more than xx% of the cars agreed value, it's a goner. And even if you do manage to save it, it might not be the exact same car afterwards depending on the quality of the repair :-(

Good luck

Ulf

[stickandrudderman]

Everything is reparable, it's the cost and quality of those repairs that will have to be examined carefully.
A 220 is a fairly common car and I would suggest that you're better off replacing it than repairing it.

[Nirmal]

It is a S500 not A220 and is in excellent condition aside from the rear end damage. We have found a S500 in the scrap yard which has extensive front end damage and looking at the feasibility
of using parts to repair my car. Keeping fingers crossed. I paid $125 for the Dubai Duty Free raffle ticket in which I won this car so have no qualms to spend some money to restore this my lucky car

Nirmal
1969 280 SL
1953 MG TD

[enochbell]

Nirmal,

Use lots of caution here.  A 220 (W220) is not a rare car and it is very, very expensive to repair down the road.  Impact like that which was sustained by yours may, imo, haunt you down the road even if you get the car back to looking perfect.  There are control modules for control modules for control modules that have undergone shock they were never designed to sustain.  Every fastener from the rear bumper to the front has been subject to stress that can surface, down the road, in squeaks and rattles.

For my money I would move on and up.  If you are bent on driving a W220 or W211 my suggestion would be look for a pristine example and spend the "premium" you would have to pay to keep your wrecked car on one that has not been damaged.

Just my $.02

g

[Nirmal]

Will get more details and a damage report in the next few days after the insurance survey. Thanks for your thoughts  and views.

Nirmal
1969 280 SL
1953 MG TD

[gerster]

Very sorry about your car, I should look for another fine example without damage.

Good luck.

Greetings Ger.

[GGR]

By looking at it, I'm not sure it's a very lucky car. Everything is relative of course, I guess it all depends on whatever other disasters happened recently in your life (did a plane crash on your home lately?). At least I see the Adenauer in the background seems to have survived the event unscratched. That would be a lucky car!

By looking at the bent roof and C pillar, I would say your car really suffered extensive damage. It would need a big section of the other car to be cut out and welded to yours. This means stripping both cars and have the job done by qualified people. Then paint it and put it back together. That's a lot of labor time. I guess feasibility depends on how much you love the car, how qualified are the body shops in your area and how much they charge for labor. Not sure that repairing the car will be an economically sound decision, but if you are attached to that car in particular, you can turn it into quite a project!

Good luck!

[hauser]

Here's my take.

Don't get emotional about cars.  Especially a daily driver!  It will cost you less money to turn it loose than trying to hold on to it.

[Flyair]

Gentlemen,
the question is not about whether it is a lucky car or not or whether it is worth repairing... Nirmal wrote that his wife believes it is a lucky car, and I would better fix it regardless of the common sense, if you see what I mean

[jpinet]

At what speed was this woman driving on what seems to be a residential street? This is serious damage! I'm sure that with a lot of money (a skilled people), you could repair this car, but it's not a rare car. I read you loved it, but the message may be to let it go. And just make sure your next car is even luckier than this one!

[Rodolfo]

The days of being lucky of this particular car are past in my opinion. I had once a S320 cdi like this. I would buy the next model S 500 second hand, still cheaper then repairing the older one. And a better drive.

[Flyair]

Nirmal
and what finally is the outcome of that mishap?

[Nirmal]

Still waiting for response from Insurance company

Nirmal
1969 280sl
1953 MG td

[Nirmal]

Finally got a settlement. Cost of repairs approx $12000. Insurance is covering half of that. Car had been under repair for the last one month and should be ready in the next two weeks. Will also have to change the tires which will cost an additional $1200.

Nirmal
1969 white 280 sl
1953 MG TD
2012 Jaguar XJ

[JamesL]

Sort of a result. Your car now cost you $7325!

Pictures please!

[scoot]

Well, certainly not what I would have done, but I hope that the luck returns to the car and to you.

[Nirmal]

Well the insurance company wanted to pay about $ 10000 and write off the car. I had used the car sparingly and had maintained it immaculately. Will send pictures as soon as I get the car.

Nirmal
1969 280 white sl
1953 MG TD
2012 Jaguar XJ

[Nirmal]

I finally got to test drive my car. It got a complete body repair and paint restoration and seats reupholstered. It drives like new. We managed to get quite a few parts from some wrecked (front damaged) S500 and S600s which is what kept the repair cost in control. Still need to get  some electronics to be attended to. My mechanic works on this in his spare time and I am not in a hurry.
Will post pictures soon

Nirmal
Dubai