[Crim427]

Hey I'm pretty new to this forum kinda. I love mercedes and have since I started getting into cars at 17 after watching them during a gran touring race on SPEED. Well just recently my car (Which I put 4 grand into last year alone, as well as at least a thousand every year prior.) failed emissions and I'd have to spend 2 grand to get it to pass. So I decided to get a new car. I knew I wanted a Mercedes and found the one below online via mbusa, then spent the next 2 days (since it was later on a Saturday) looking up everything I could about the car and any common issues with them that would need fixing and everything I should look for when I go to check it out.

Lo and behold I found this at a local dealership:
CARFAX Vehicle History Report on WDBHA29G3XA749700

Looking over the carfax it looked like this guy loved his car and got it serviced often as well as a few problem areas replaced. So I headed to the dealership, checked out the car and it was in really good condition minus a chip in the paint that they said they would touch up and detail it before handing it over.

I went in this morning and test drove the car, ran like a champ, and fell in love with it like I knew I would. So we get the price to 7,3xx Tax, Title, License included and as I'm waiting for the paperwork and they are taking the car to fill up the tank and to their body shop just down the road (They didn't have one in the dealer) the kid driving it hits some minivan literally 50 feet from the exit of the dealer.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/2607/dscn0785h.jpg

There is the picture of the damage, I checked it out and it seems the frame isn't damaged and the dealership is now going to replace all the affected panels and strip the whole car to bare metal and repaint it. Luckily I hadn't paid for it yet so the cost of all this goes to the dealer.

I'm going to head in Saturday to test drive it, and I mean really test drive it to make sure the force from the impact didn't affect the rest of the car in any way.

Sorry for the long post but its been an emotional rollercoaster of a day and I'm hoping I'll be joining you guys for good here soon.

 

[livegood]

WTF! I was gonna go check that car out at naperville benz too!!!! Holy smokes. I used to work as a porter there. OH man this is crazy.

Honestly though keep in mind a couple things.
#1 if they go through the dealers insurance which indeed they will, your carfax will now always show a front end collision which will really hamper resale value.
#2 considering this, I would suspect that they should lower the price of the car a bit because other than you who knows this situation, any other potential buyers would go there and see that it has a front end collision on the carfax and likely be a lot less interested in the car.

 

[Crim427]

Yeah I'm not really planning on selling the car ever. Gonna keep it around and hand it down if its still running. I'm also gonna try to get that price lowered down a bit but it all depends on if everything still drives the way it did before.

If it doesn't I may check out that c36 I posted in your thread if its still around by that time.

How would you rate the dealership though? I've had a fairly good experience with them (apart from the kid crashing my car) Salesman wasn't pushy at all and was really helpful. I'm hoping they really put effort into fixing it up too.

 

[bmeister]

You need to have them give you some type of extended warranty at this point including codes cleared from computer SRS, ABS, possible condenser/radiator damage. Whoever drove the car really had ramming speed or lost it on the ice. You need some additional compensation/assurance for what happened even though they have not been "pushy" it may be soon yours. B

 

[livegood]

were you buying it from Elmis? On cars.com I saw that same car and if you mentioned their cars.com ad and ask for Elmis he'd give you an extra $100 off.

The dealership is good. Not sure if you do any work on cars. I'm a technician now although I ended up going down to work in Virginia and now I'm a tech for an Audi dealer.

The technicians at that dealership are awesome. Ed in the service department was always a nice guy too-he's a service writer.

Anyways. I almost died when I read this as soon as I saw that naperville benz plate I knew it was the one that I was gonna go check out today at the dealer! wow.

Work them down on price now. Even though you don't intend to ever sell it.... they don't need to know that. So play up the whole resale value is affected by a dirty carfax now to work them down because $7k out the door for an accident involved c280 is too much IMO. If i liked that car I would've offered 6k out the door. Research NADA.com as well as Kelly Blue book.

 

[Crim427]

Yea I was buying it from Elmis he already brought it down about 500 since it was listed at 7k. I told him right as I entered I only had about 5.5k to spend and we worked on it. I'm planning to get less for it and get a warranty on the work, but this all depends on the 2nd test drive (The second I walked in I had Elmis print out a complete copy of the actual individual service records so I'll be sure to get these too). There is no way I'm going to buy the car if it doesn't ride the same as it did today. Its reassuring to know they have a good service team there, I talked to Ed briefly and he seems like a good guy. Thanks for the advice bmeister.

One thing I'm having issues with is I keep reading conflicting information on this car. Nada said its a V6 while Carfax says its an L6. Anyone have pictures of the 2 different engines? Because when I looked at it it looked like a L6.

 

[Pringles21]

Damn what a day you must of had. Anyways 1998- 2000 c280's had a v-6 the M112. The I6 looks just like this except that this is an AMG I6 which has an AMG cover.

 

[livegood]

that 99 would definitely have the v6, the M112 motor. The inline 6 motors were in the 202's from 94 to 97. All 98's to 2000's had the M112 motor (v6) or the M111 (supercharged 4 cylinder). You definitely want a 98-2000 though IMO. Don't have to worry about the engine wiring harness cracking on those years as you did earlier models, plus the 98's on all were ran with synthetic oil which again much better IMO. Ontop of that 98's on were CAN network wired vehicles so less wiring which to me means less wires to go bad and cause issues.

 

[Crim427]

Alright that's what I thought thanks. I was 90% sure it was a V6 and was hoping it was. There was just a lot of conflicting information.

 

[xvvvz]

I would definitely try to get them down quite a bit. Short-term, they can get everything feeling OK. Long-term is where the problems can start cropping up. As others have said, value has now dropped just because of the accident. I would want at least another grand off plus a warranty on the work they do.

 

[Crim427]

How long of a warranty are we talking? I was thinking 2 year?

EDIT: Turns out the dealer is going to total it. Such a shame. It was a really nice car and in awesome condition as well as a nice color + interior.

 

[livegood]

sucks they totaled it but I guess its for the best.

FYI, all mb dealers offer a 1yr parts warranty on replacement parts/work they do on cars. Labor warranty's differ and are treated as goodwill on a person to person basis.