[Gunit]

so this weekend i get a letter from the friendly homeowners association telling me i cannot park my cars on the driveway in front of my townhouse, they must be parked in the garage or behind my townhouse. they dont want out townhouses looking like a "used car lot"... i personally think my car adds to the beauty of the neighborhood. anyway, problem is, the garage is full with my other cars, as is the two spots behind my townhouse. so that doesnt really work. my only option is to park my car in a little turnaround driveway, surrounded by trees.
last night i pull in, park in the front, decide to be a good neighbor and park in the back. while im backing into this turnaround im thinking, "hey the guy at chickfila didnt give me my coke..." BAM! Slammed into a tree, pretty hard to because i have to accelerate uphill.
damage was pretty bad. needless to say, tire cover mutilated. theres a complete imprint of the tree, and the chrome sorrounding is twisted. the tire pushed back into the door... dented into the door, knocked the door out of line. dented my bumper and took off some peices. Dented the panal that goes up the side by the window. i cried. a lot.
got the estimate today. theres a bodyshop that did extremely good work when the dealer hit the "dear" a few months ago. they do the best job, but probably not the cheapest.
obviously they're going to have to replace pretty much everything. so im getting a new tire carrier (which is a few parts... adds up to around 1500... anyone know the difference between the carrier ($1000) and the cover ($500)?). also getting a new bumper and new door. they werent sure if they could transfer the glass from my old door to the new because they might need to cut the molding... and the only way to get a new molding would be with new glass. total cost is going to be $7,000 minimum. any guesses on how long parts will take from your experience? they have no idea. i hate trees...[]
anyways, figured id share my pain!

 

[BrentG500]

Sorry to hear about your G500. How fast were you going? Mercedes Dealership parts shop is probably the best place to get all the replacement parts you need. You probably already know this, but by the time your parts come in, you'll have to wait for your shop to finish all the work. It could take anywhere from two weeks to two months, depending on how busy the body shop is.

If you want to purchase a different bumper, ORC has a nice one:

I'm not sure about the price. Now $1,000.00 for the tire carrier and $500 for the cover seems a bit high. You can get a nice, plain cover with a Mercedes (or any custom) logo for roughly $50. However, if you want the stainless steel one that came with you vehicle, it's probably going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-$400. Check with Ewalberg because his G500 has actually been rear-ended before.

 

[Braingears]

OT: Awsome Truck

BrentG500 - 4/7/2005 10:35 PM

If you want to purchase a different bumper, ORC has a nice one:

I love the ORC truck with Unimog axles!
Do you have any more pictures?

Chuck

 

[BrentG500]

These pics are from their site. Enjoy!

 

[500]

Gunit: Sorry to hear about your truck..DO YOUR HOMEWORK..!! Go online and check out places that sell parts for wrecked or damaged Mercedes Benz procucts..!! There is nothing wrong with this option.

We have a 95 LWB Range Rover in the family and we have gotten parts from a great company in Tampa. We have been nothing but happy. There are MB parts places, just keep looking. Check the back of Autoweek magazine too..! Good luck in your search, I am sure you will save money and speed up your repair by doing it this way.

500.

 

[ewalberg]

body shops hate used parts...

body shops are often required by the insurance companies to employ used parts where they can find them, with allstate they have to show evidence they tried to find used parts, but they don't like them because they're often little hidden damages to them, or they just don't make as much money becuase the mark-up on a used part is less. In short, a body shop wont appreciate your work, in fact they might begrudge it. Plus, with the G, there's so few to begin with that there are almost no scrap g's around yet. One of the bigger scrap yards in the bay area had never seen one. If they have to pull the whole back of the truck apart figure on at least 2 weeks of body work plus painting. Figure 3 weeks for parts. I put it at 1.5 month minimum.

 

[DUTCH]

Body Shops Also Don't Like Customer Supplied Parts

If the body shop he'll be using is the one I think it is, they won't touch a job with customer supplied parts. (Ask me how I know!) They make some of their profit on the markup, too.

 

[brabus g36]

If you had a back up camera or parktronic it would never happened. I'm looking for some info about those 2 possible solutions on my G. But people give me more moral speeches than usefull info.[!]

 

[mb230s]

brabus g36 - 4/8/2005 9:31 AM

If you had a back up camera or parktronic it would never happened. I'm looking for some info about those 2 possible solutions on my G. But people give me more moral speeches than usefull info.[!]

B/c we all know that the electronics are better than the human brain - especially the crap Mercedes puts into cars.

Good luck with your repair, hope it comes out okay.
[}]

 

[Kerr]

I would tell them when they start making your house payment they can tell you where to park... glad i have my own house, still hate my neighbors though

 

[MarcO]

Backup Camera

www.navtv.com

good work and high prices.

no moral judgments.

 

[idu]

What is the name of that place in Tampa? If you have the number that would be great.

Thanks,
Sal
727-544-6499
[email protected]

 

[MBZ933]

Sucky neighbors

I know how it it to have asshole neighbors...all I heard throughout winter is " why don't you do your driveway"...My answer was 1. I make the payments 2. you dont need to look if you dont want to and 3. I got me a G-wagen!

 

[DUTCH]

Homeowner's Associations =

Covenants and Restrictions; and when you've signed on the bottom line at the time of purchase, they're the boss. You're at their mercy. [xx(]

 

[BrentG500]

RE: Homeowner's Associations =

DUTCH - 4/9/2005 5:06 PM

Covenants and Restrictions; and when you've signed on the bottom line at the time of purchase, they're the boss. You're at their mercy. [xx(]

You can always go to the owner's association to seek covenant/restriction changes. If not, you can always present your case before a judge and settle for his ruling. Lenders don't give loans out when restrictions/covenants are too restrictive or too few.

Before aquiring the property, if you have a good realtor, he'll make sure you're aware of all the covenants and restrictions BEFORE closing.

 

[DUTCH]

RE: Homeowner's Associations =

BrentG500 - 4/9/2005 6:24 PM



You can always go to the owner's association to seek covenant/restriction changes. If not, you can always present your case before a judge and settle for his ruling. Lenders don't give loans out when restrictions/covenants are too restrictive or too few.

Before aquiring the property, if you have a good realtor, he'll make sure you're aware of all the covenants and restrictions BEFORE closing.

Not in GA. It's take it or leave it at closing; and the judges don't get involved. The Homeowner's Board is judge, jury and executioner; as that right is given to them when you sign the contract. No contract? No house; and they can't build 'em fast enough to keep up with demand.

 

[BrentG500]

It varies from county to county, state to state. However, most of the time if you are not satisfied with the restrictive covenants, and the homeowner's association isn't willing to modify the restrictions/covenants, the buyer can refuse to sign the contract.

If he has already agreed to the contract (meaning the sale has gone through closing and is executed) and the homeowner's association is still refusing to change the covenants, the buyer is plain out of luck. He could sell his house and move to another area which has less restrictive covenants. Otherwise he has to stay put and obey the association.

In the case of townhomes, because there are areas of community interest, the restrictive covenants are usually more and stricter than single family, 1-4 residential homes.

 

[ewalberg]

next question...

what will they do if you keep parking your car in front of your house? If they tow it then don't bother, but if they fine you who cares, just pay the fine... consider it parking fees. You've clearly got enough money in the bank that a few monthly parking "fees" shouldn't bother you and then you get the satisfaction of ignoring their rules. Sure if it was a broken down ford escort with a flat tire i'd say it's bad leaving it out front, but a G? They should pay you to keep it out front... except for those tacky rims! (sorry man, i gotta tease you for those things)

 

[BrentG500]

speaking of rims...

Ewalberg, how are your new rims coming along?

 

[Gunit]

RE: next question...

ewalberg - 4/9/2005 10:20 PM

what will they do if you keep parking your car in front of your house? If they tow it then don't bother, but if they fine you who cares, just pay the fine... consider it parking fees. You've clearly got enough money in the bank that a few monthly parking "fees" shouldn't bother you and then you get the satisfaction of ignoring their rules. Sure if it was a broken down ford escort with a flat tire i'd say it's bad leaving it out front, but a G? They should pay you to keep it out front... except for those tacky rims! (sorry man, i gotta tease you for those things)

it would be about $775 dollars a month ($25 fine per violation... i wonder if they would charge me everytime i left, or just each night?) to park out front. unfortunatly, its already cost 7 grand to park in back! if i had stayed out front, it would be like 9 months of free parking!


got a call from the body shop. they said all the parts are available and should be in by wednesday... which is a pleasant surprise.

i finally managed to get my spare cover off too. the accident had really bent it out of shape and i couldnt unlatch the lock at first, but i tapped it out with a baseball bat. first time ive taken it off. i actually sort of like the look. i was thinking about getting another tacky wheel and putting that on the back instead of putting a new painted carrier on. if i did that, would it be easy to put the chrome wheel on the back, or would i have to buy some mounts for it?