this is going to sound as crazy and ridiculous as it seems, but last night I was invited over to my Mom and sister's place for dinner. My parents are divorced/seperated, so I try to go over and visit a couple times a week to keep in touch with them.
I ended up staying kinda late, and when I showed up that night I forgot to park my car in the garage and just left it in the driveway behind my mom's car parked outside, not thinking much of it. I ended up spending the night in my old room because I was tired.
Well, to my horror I guess my sister stressed out my mom enough that she was late for work...and my mom just threw it into reverse at about 5-10 miles an hour and slammed right into my front-end.....
At first I was furious, and my mom for about an hour after she got home tried to blame it on me for parkin g behind her, but long story short she has agreed to pay outof pocket for new parts. At this point, I realize some aftermarket options may be cheaper for the following parts I need, but here's a list of the stuff that needs repaired that I want and ca. buy right now if forum members have them:
Budget is open as well.
1.) OEM or aftermarket/carbon fiber hood. I know VIS makes a head for our cars so that may be an option. My hood has a huge dent in it and has been severely bowed in several places, so it's non repairable.
2.) An aggressive but tasteful-looking duraflex or similar fronf bumper....preferrably similar or avaliable equivelant to the brabus front bumper like Christopher has that I could put some big foglights in.
3.) New AMG/Avantgarde style simple front grille with bezel surround. Mine has been completely smashed in and the bezel surround is bent as well.
Help me out guys, I need to get vixen back on the road. I have such in hand and am ready to hear offers.
Last edited by vixen_w202; 01-08-2013 at 10:50 AM.
if you take some pics and show us the damage, we can tell ya what to get.
buying a rieger front spoiler will give your car a more modern agressive look.
standard factory front bumper was a huge design flaw made by Mercedes.
never liked non AMG front bumpers on w202!
buy rieger or something else.
getting an avantgarde grill is also a good idea
looked at pricing for the rieger front bumper via my phone, It's just way too expensive. I mean I'm all for taking advantage or getting some nicer body parts for my car, but only if they are realistic in price. My mom is paying for the damages, so she's the last person I want rip off.
400 max is what I think I present to her as far as the bumper. u can suggest something that looks similar and is reasonably priced, send me a link on here with pics.
check this front bumper out....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FRP-94-00-Me...6b2266&vxp=mtr
or this one...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MERCEDES-BEN...ceaf30&vxp=mtr
Last edited by jc1kz; 01-08-2013 at 03:56 PM.
I actually like that second one...Originally Posted by jc1kz
For front bumper you could also go with the "CR-S" bumper which I think is supposed to look like a brabus. Those could be had for between $200-300 plus paint. Cheapest CF hood is the one by carbon creations for about $500.
If you want to do your mom a favor, you should just visit a scrapyard and buy a cheap OEM front bumper, hood, and grille because all that could probably be purchased for under $400, maybe even in the right color...
I agree with MikeD just go and check out your local auto wreckers and pick up parts there. I get parts at the scrapyard near my house ALL the time. It has never let me down once.
Pick n pull in Rancho Cordova, Sacramento CA area has a handful of 202's with factory mint condition headlights, hood. CF hoods are a pain in the ass fitment and same as a cheap (yet expensive) front bumper.
Anyone in the SoCal area know of any junkyard/pick n' pull yards that have 202's in them with useable front end parts I can pull? Getting some resistance from my Mom to pay.....this might be coming out of my pocket as sh*tty as this looks
96 Black C280 (Black Vixen) - Sold/Retired 10/13
I no longer own a w202 and I kick myself in the head every day for it...
you just have to keep visiting them junkyards waiting for a 202 to show up. W202s are becoming more popular at the junkyards. thought most of them are early years.
You could always go through insurance, no?
taking a break from teh 202 ->
alpha, I would file a claim through my insurance, but what makes such a mess/headache was when I bought my 202 I was living full time at my Mother's house. My parents have been in the process of an ongoing, nasty and brutal divorce that was being dragged out to the bitter end since 2009. However, sadly to say kids get involved whether they want to or not in a divorce, and I got randomly accused one night by my Mom and her attorney of siding with my dad on some legal matters and had me evicted that very night with a police escort, literally with the clothes on my back and barely able to drive off with my car. My life has been somewhat unstable with my living arrangements since this happened in October, and I guess changing my insurance to my dad's address where I am temporarily living for right now until I can find a place of my own didn't cross mind after I got the boot. Didn't think my mom was going to hit my car of all people.
My relationship with my mother has been bad for at least 6 months prior to this, and it just got to the point where even though we lived in the same house she just ignored me and I did her so we wouldn't fight....
sad thing was, the night before the accident she invited me back to the house to end the not speaking to each other and to try and mend some issues we both had with things from the past, and we had gotten past some family issues.....until she hit my car and blamed it on me. That just reset everything back to right back in the crappy relationship we had before.
What makes this difficult and probably will have to go to court sadly is she and I at this time share the same insurance company, agent and location address. Because of this, insurance refuses to pay and I'm pretty much screwed unless I take my mother to court which would hurt me badly, or take it up the tailpipe and me have to pay for her error. To me this is emotionally upsetting because I'm not dealing with some random prick, I'm dealing with the Mom who gave birth to me despite a nonexistant relationship I still love very much.
And for the record? I'm not this messed up kid who wants to sue my mom, but she refuses to pay at this point and I just see no other option. I love her but at the same time I do not agree with her inaction. I don't have the cash to complete the repairs completely on my own, I dunno.....it's a huge mess
EDIT: And just just to give you guys a gauge of exactly how much damage she did to my car? She was backing out of the front driveway at about 10 MPH into the back of my car, completely destroying the front end. She did this in a 2003 Chevy Tahoe with trailer package, and her car had literally no damage except a scrape on the chrome part of the bumper. My mom gave me some false hope at first by asking me to get 3 estimates from body shops....but all 3 estimates averaged around $3,500+ in frontal damage. When she saw these she just stuck her head in the sand, yelled and cussed me out blaming me and offering no help.
The damages are more than the purchase value of my car (bought it for $2,500...full private party sale is about 2200 more if it had a clean title), which puts me in a precarious position too.
If anyone can help me come up with a peaceful way I can get my car repaired that is both economical and reasonable to both parties, I'd really be open right now.
Last edited by vixen_w202; 01-12-2013 at 10:15 PM.
....again, scrapyards. Cheap parts & DIY replacement= lots of money saved
post pics... let us look at the damage
I've got a looney mother also, there just is no way around this. Pay out of pocket, suck it up and move on. You are just wasting time arguing.
At the end of the day it is your mom. "Pick N Pull" the car back together and call it a day. BTW how bad is the front bumper? The pre facelift versions have a cover and a skeleton and you may only need one portion of it. I have seen grills and hoods at the San Jose Pick N Pulls lately so if you are patient you will get things sorted cheaply.
1994 C280
1996 C36
2005 C55
2013 Volvo XC60 R-Design
1999 Porsche 911
......dang now I know where all my money went.
Update:
Things work out I guess. My mother had some kindness on her son I guess, and agreed to mutually file a claim with her in error. Apparently, my insurance agent f*cked up really bad. I had forgotten about this, but when I moved in with my Dad he offered to put me under his insurance umbrella even though I was still paying for my own coverage. Being under him was a lot less than being on my own. However, the change of address and coverage change was all done over the phone....and the information was never sent to my agent. This made my agent think I was still living at my mother's, and why she claimed there was nothing she could do. But thankfully???? My address was under my dad's policy was able to successfully file a claim, get it processed and approved. I was able to drive it to a body shop I've dealt with in the past, even though probably driving it in it's damaged state was kinda lack of better judgement on my part. The owner of the body shop and I talked about my concern about replacing any damaged aftermarket parts with whatever equivelant he had access to, but it's ultimately up to an official adjuster that's looking at it at the shop (crosses fingers). There's also a possibility that even though I got a claim successfully processed, that insurance might total my car. I'm not sure how the process works....but I do know I got my 280 for 2.5k in June, and repair costs are 3500k+. I like my car a lot, so hopefully that won't happen but who knows.
I'm going to post an accident-related question in the body mods section. If you can help please answer it.
Oh! And my mom had rental car coverage, I took advantage of that. The owner of the body shop said if they do fix it it will take 9 working days to repair, so I arranged for a rental car through her coverage. It's a 2012 Chrysler 200....nothing fancy but it will get me around until I get my 202 back if all goes well!
Last edited by vixen_w202; 01-16-2013 at 07:34 PM.
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