My First AMG - ridiculously excited !!

[juice]

So I'm booked in on friday for an X-Pipe

Resonator delete + X-Pipe 250
^^ + Secondary cat removal 350

WWYD ? I'm hesitant to get rid of the secondary cats due to potential Mot issues..

[juice]

Think I'm leaning to removing the secondary cats after watching loads of videos of the difference.

Can't wait !

I want to get it remapped too but I'm not sure on DMS or MSL in Birmingham (who also Dyno it)...More investigation needed...

I think after that lot (I have K&N Filters on it already - thank you previous owner !) I should get to about 385-390 ish ?

[juice]

SiT said:

This was always going to happen!!! Look forward to seeing it soon....

Si

Well, would be rude not to !

I think after the remap I'll almost be done. After reading the SWRP article on the W124, they're only a few miles away so I will get it booked in for treatment, especially as the subframe on these is a bit of a known issue, then just concentrate on enjoying it..

I have my 20th anniversary in Sept so am thinking of a road trip with the missus somewhere in it... "Oh look there's the signs for the Nurburgring...would be rude not too while we're here"

[juice]

Oooohhh, that was well worth it ! It sounds lovely now

Here's a quick (and crap) video. I will have make a better one....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIhbVP0h9ww

Edited by juice on Friday 7th February 12:38

[juice]

No Goodwood for me.

On my way to a meeting with my Big Boss in Emborough, a woman pulled out of a juntion on the right and T-Boned me at Chilcompton...Here

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Radstock+Co-op...

I was travelling towards the Co-op and she pulled out of Bakers lane, I tried to swerve and hit the horn but to no avail, she just kept coming...
Thankfully a couple witnessed it and I have their details, they've agreed to be witnesses thankfully !!

Gutted....Admiral, to be fair have been superb and all the mods have already been declared, including the X-pipe (which incidently cost me the princly sum of £12.58 - joys of being an old git !)

Their claims handlers don't have a merc specialist repairer, but if I pay the excess I can pick my own garage. Excess is £350 so..decisions...I think I'd rather get a Merc repairer than just a generic. They were most surprised when I said I didn't need a hire car (As I have the Jazz to use).

Hopefully it's not too painful a repair, but I don't like the look of the wheel

[juice]

It's with IRG in Bristol now. MB Bristol use them (as do MB Bath sometimes) so that gives me a bit of comfort...Must admit I didn;t sleep that great overnight, kept replaying the accident and wondering if I could have done anything different. It's the 1st accident I've been involved in since 1996 !

Edited by juice on Thursday 20th February 15:04

[juice]

So I just called for an update on the repair only to be told they are writing the car off as a Cat N ? (That didn't make sense as there's definitely structural damage !)

Currently repair costs stand at just over 7K but they think there may be damage to the diff as well.

They will take no account of any mods (like the carbon interior, splitter etc) so I'll get mkt value for a std car, which doesn't seem very fair..esp as they were all declared.

To say I'm gutted is an understatement.

[juice]

So I found out the reason behind them writing the car off, they value it at 12K according to their guide, so 7K estimated repair costs would make it uneconomic to repair.
Problem is, you cannot buy an SLK55 with 40K mileage on it for 12K, they simply don't exist.

So I've pushed back now. To be fair the guy from Admiral understood my point that, through no fault of my own I'm hit and not only don't have a car but am seriously out of pocket to boot, which doesn;t seem very equitable.
I suggested they take a look at the cars currently for sale and he did admit that the cheapest is at least 15K, but with mileage approaching 60K not mine with 40K on it.

So, they've commisioned an independent assessor to look at the car and also to come up with a fair market value for it. I'm hoping that they value the car significantly more than the 12K they have suggested and with the increased value, making it then economic to repair.

All in all, I just want to be made whole again either with my car back (#1 preference) or not being out of pocket and able to replace my car with one of similar age and mileage (but then this will be a bit of an unknown car without all the work I had done on mine).

Seriously pissed off with the whole thing now...but hopeful I may get a positive result.

[juice]

595Heaven said:

When I was searching for mine last Summer, I kept a log of all the cars for sale across Autotrader and the like. Plotting mileage against price gave me this scatter chart:



I can send you the file if you want - I've not updated since I bought mine though...

Yeah that would be great, thanks !

[juice]

I just quickly googled scatter charts and knocked these 2 up from autotrader and ebay listings...I don't know about you but based on the below, a valuation of 12K seems very low !

[juice]

I just spoke to Steve at Avantgarde after sending over the estimate from IRG and the photos, he definitely didn't think it would be a write off based on what he's seen...He's sending over an estimate, which I'm hoping is going to be less than IRG.

I'll bundle all this up (along with the evidence + my last 3K bill) and send it to the insurers. I'm hoping they will relent based on the value and authorize the repair...that's all I really want.

[juice]

Well I just got back from the dentist after 5 injections and I now have an (albeit lopsided) smile on my face.

I got the quote through from Avantgarde....Steve recommended not faffing about and just replacing the whole axle, plus all suspension parts (control rods, shocks, track arms etc) plus the bodywork is way cheaper.

His estimate comes out at 4.6K (3.8K minus the VAT) so I'm hoping that, even at Admiral's ludicrously low valuation this meets the criteria for now becoming an economic repair...fingers crossed gents !!

[juice]

595Heaven said:

Any news?

I spoke to them yesterday, they've had the preliminary report in from the independent assessor. They said they found water in the boot (there was none when I checked the day after the accident ?) so they want to take the drive shaft off to see if there's any hidden damage...but, subject to that all being OK then they will transport the car to Avantgarde and will pay for the repairs and also remove the current cat 'N' marker on the car.

Fingers crossed, I should know something next week.

[juice]

Well, great news ! I got the assessors report through and he's inspected the car and provided a valuation on it. They state that it's underpriced compared to the trade guides, placing a value of 17K on the car and provided the opinion that repairs should proceed

Also - I got a call out of the blue from Covea insurance (the 3rd parties insurers) and she's admitted fault so they will cover all costs which is great as I now don't have to stump up 350 excess.
I've sent them the report which their engineers will look at but, fingers crossed by next week it should hopefully be at Avantgarde getting repaired.

Talk about a rollercoaster !

[juice]

595Heaven said:

Yessss! Great result - very pleased for you!

Drove mine for the first time in over a month today. About 100 yards.

Our village garage is just over the road, and it was booked in for MoT. It passed

Thanks all ! I'm cautiously happy - In the shirt and on the pitch and all that..

So you got the CPS sorted then, how much of a ball-ache was it ?

[juice]

Got a call today that repairs have finally been authorised !

Admiral are having a phone melt down and I can't get through to them in order to get the car to Avantgarde, so I've had to let IRG proceed with repairing the car.
The water in the boot was the roof seal (another known issue) so they are replacing the seals too which I'm well happy with.

They found a small area of previous damage where some filler had cracked on the rear quarter, so they're replacing the whole rear panel

With that and all the replacement rear sub-frame/suspension I may have to rename this car Steve Austin as it had that many new parts !

[juice]

Well lockdown has meant the parts were delayed being shipped from Germany, plus IRG Closed down for a while...but, I checked today and the repairs have started !

There's a couple of sticking points.

The AMG V-Spoke wheels are NLA... Not sure what will happen in regards to this. It may be a good point in time to get some different alloys ? (There's some OZ Ultraleggeras I have my eye on)

The boot seal is on back-order. Not sure on the ETA

But...after having the accident in Feb, hopefully I may get it back before too long...

Edited by juice on Friday 5th June 16:28

[juice]

Medic-one said:

Great car, and what a rollercoaster of emotions! I felt them just reading the whole thread, I can't imagine how you must have been feeling.

Hope it's back on the road soon!

Thanks ! It's certainly been a series of highs and lows and back to highs again.

I honestly can't wait to get it back, hopefully in time for some good weather.

I suppose that every cloud has a silver lining in that pretty much everything will be brand new, including the weak points (Roof seal, rear sub-frame and the unknown to me previous accident damage) so, fingers crossed, I'll have many more years with it. Plus I've not put many miles on it this year

That will definitely change when I get it back though, I'll probably book a day off and go for a mahoosive

[juice]

Finally got a decision. The wheel can't be repaired and Admiral have given me 350 quid for the wheel as cash, so I needed to find a replacement set.

After much umming and ahhing (I really wanted the brabus monoblock F, but couldn't justify the price).

I've always loved these as a wheel so eventually I went for some BBS CH-R's in satin anthracite. They're being shipped straight to IRG for fitment and hopefully I should have the car back 1st week of July, just in time for it to piss down for 3 months..

Should look something like this, these are 19's but I went for 18's to keep my existing tyres, which are basically brand new (6mm all round + a new one)

I'll be collecting the other 3 old wheels, think they'd be worth much on ebay ? Just wondering if I could possibly recoup some of the cost.

Edited by juice on Thursday 25th June 16:42

[juice]

595Heaven said:

Is it home yet?

No not yet, was supposed to be last tuesday but at a late stage they found out that the sealtbelt was throwing an error so they had to order a new one from Germany. It was fitted yesterday and with a bit of luck I should pick it up on monday...Will be 5 months tomorrow (19th) since the accident !