Oh deer...

Last night Laurie hit a deer when driving back to the house from dropping the girls off at dance class. She was driving the 2009 Mercedes GL550. She is fine other than being a bit shaken by it.

I called my insurance company this morning. We've been with this company since moving to Kansas so it's been a few years, although this will be the first claim. We'll see how this goes.

The damage doesn't look bad at first glance, however there are a lot of plastic bits that are damaged, I see one metal support that's pushed back a bit, the fender/hood alignment is off, things like that. Given that this is a Mercedes my thoughts on what the vehicle is worth it won't surprise me if they want to total the thing, or give me the option to repair or total. This is not something I've dealt with before. I've had to make insurance claims before, but it's only been for things that were either clearly repair or some sort of comprehensive where we get cut a check of some sort.

I'm a bit conflicted on whether I'd want to total it, or how to negotiate if it comes up. This isn't a new car and not super low miles (has around 130k on it). It has some issues that I need to address on it. Laurie really likes driving it and while it's had its issues, we've had it for about 2.5 years and it's been reliable overall.

Any tips or thoughts from people who've been down this road before? I'd rather be prepared before the insurance rep comes to me with the decision.

Sounds like it’s still drivable. If they wanna give you a ‘total’ check for it’s value, take it and keep driving it. Buy something cool with the money. Happened to me once. $600. Yeah it was that long ago. Had to get a hammer and beat on a fender so it wouldn’t scrape the tire and get the headlight aligned. Drove it for a few months then sold it wholesale to a dealer for $300.
 
I hit 3 deer over the years, mostly midsize or large solid vehicles. I was also able to slow to <40 mph on two.

In my 3 instances I never involved insurance or a repair shop. All vehicles were at 90k+ miles, damage was modest. Just an option if mostly plastic & dented metal. Even a headlight housing can cost a bundle.

The 1st questions are, do all the important lights work, is it mechanically sound? You can also go half way, have a shop fix only what needs fixing, possibly out of pocket.

I only shot two deer last Nov, doing my part though.
 
I haven't posted any pictures of the damage, but it's worth noting that the damage is significant enough that, while the car could be made driveable with not a ton of work, the headlight is broken on that side, the driving light fell out, the bumper has a giant chunk taken out of it, and the grille is broken (although that's less obvious immediately).

It's not something that we want to drive around as-is or fixed poorly/"rigged" to work.
 
So, I won't be seeing this on the way to work?

TapeHood.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ted
I haven't posted any pictures of the damage, but it's worth noting that the damage is significant enough that, while the car could be made driveable with not a ton of work, the headlight is broken on that side, the driving light fell out, the bumper has a giant chunk taken out of it, and the grille is broken (although that's less obvious immediately).

It's not something that we want to drive around as-is or fixed poorly/"rigged" to work.

I got hit by a hit and run driver just before Christmas. Damage was limited to the headlamp assembly, a little paint and a couple broken plastic mounting brackets for the parking sensors on my 2011 BMW 535. $3K just for that. USAA treated it as uninsured motorist so at least was only a $250 deductible but I'm under no illusion than with 145K on the odometer that it wouldn't take much for them to total this car (which I still love!)
 
Dropped off the Mercedes at the body shop this morning. This is a shop whose primary work is fixing European luxury cars, so they know what they're doing and will fix it right. Also have heard from multiple sources (including the insurance company) that they're good to work with.

Not surprisingly, they had found issues with the insurance appraiser's quote right from the get-go. So we'll see how this goes. I'll probably have to get involved at some point but so far it seems like they'll take care of it.

We'll see how long it takes to repair.
 
Sounds like it’s still drivable. If they wanna give you a ‘total’ check for it’s value, take it and keep driving it. Buy something cool with the money. Happened to me once. $600. Yeah it was that long ago. Had to get a hammer and beat on a fender so it wouldn’t scrape the tire and get the headlight aligned. Drove it for a few months then sold it wholesale to a dealer for $300.

If they give you a check to 'total' a car, the vehicle is theirs to keep. For any higher value cars, that's what they do. You surrender the car and they sell it at auction to the dismantlers that feed the used parts market. For a $500 car, the cost is higher than what the auction will bring and they may not want the vehicle.
 
If they give you a check to 'total' a car, the vehicle is theirs to keep. For any higher value cars, that's what they do. You surrender the car and they sell it at auction to the dismantlers that feed the used parts market. For a $500 car, the cost is higher than what the auction will bring and they may not want the vehicle.

This happened in California in 1971. I think it was State Farm. Not my insurance, I didn’t have any. The other driver was at fault, it was his insurance. The adjuster got out a Blue Book, or their version of it, pulled a Checkbook out of his desk and wrote the check. I drove my now ‘totaled’ car to the bank and cashed it. I suppose things are different now.
 
This happened in California in 1971. I think it was State Farm. Not my insurance, I didn’t have any. The other driver was at fault, it was his insurance. The adjuster got out a Blue Book, or their version of it, pulled a Checkbook out of his desk and wrote the check. I drove my now ‘totaled’ car to the bank and cashed it. I suppose things are different now.

They’re not.

They can write a check and your vehicle switches to a salvage title in most states.

Beyond that they can even choose to continue to insure you with limits on what they’ll pay out for after they’ve already made you whole on a partial loss.

People do it with hail damage around here all the time. Take the check, keep driving it. Owner’s call as to whether to use the check to fix it.

All further weather damage claims are denied. Collision and such, still solidly in force.
 
I might have found another car for Laurie:

E63 AMG - mostly highway miles

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cu...ross-america-in-a-record-27-hours-25-minutes/

I read about this when it happened a few months ago. They did a great job planning and executing, although I think the use of an E63 uprated to 700 HP was a bit unnecessary and really just self-promotion for the guy doing the run since he had an affiliation with that kit maker. The stock E63 is fine - at that point the horsepower really only gets you more acceleration rather than a meaningfully higher top speed. While 100+ MPH is very doable with good safety margin on most interstate highways, 200+ is a lot harder.

The big thing about their run was the immense amount of support they had, having people doing cop spotting over a large portion of the trip so they knew exactly when to slow down. This is a huge change from the original Cannonball Runs that Brock Yates coordinated (and I also find it funny reading about a Cannonball Run record being broken on Road & Track, since Brock wrote for Car & Driver). Back then it was CBs, binoculars, not much else. Now they had every technological gadget under the sun. Times have changed.

...but speed limits haven't.
 
Called the body shop just now for an update, nothing good. As expected the used parts the insurance company wanted to use were junk and so they're having to order new. Of course, new parts are expensive being that this is a Mercedes and a less common one at that. They'd originally estimated it at $6,500. They didn't give me an amount, but said that with the new parts they'd already gotten up to that it was getting to where if they had to order a new headlight (which is likely) it would get to the total loss amount.

So that gets me back to thinking.
 
Thinking about visiting the body shop with a sledge and finding some ''new'' damage that was missed earlier.?? :nono: :lol::lol:

More just thinking about the if-then scenarios and what I want to ask for or do if it gets to that point.

We weren't planning on replacing this vehicle yet and it really is in good condition overall, even though it does have 130k on it. Most importantly, my wife likes it as-is.

If they total it I have ideas of what to replace it with (and no, not related to the "thinking about" thread I'm about to start...)
 
Back
Top