My E300 hacked lease is no more. The car was declared a loss by the insurance company today due to the crazy rain we had here in DC on Monday. It needed a new engine, which would have been do-able for them (ins company) but they were scared of all the electrical issues the car could have down the road (yay German cars?). Loved the car to death and can’t beat the payment. Brought my newborn in it from the hospital two days after i got it so it holds a place in my heart… who knew a leased car could do that??
I want another E300 (or perhaps a 530/540) so the hunt is on! Won’t get as good of a deal with the current RV on the E. But there is a bit of a savior…
Good news is that the appraised value / payout to MB financial is more than the buy out price by over $4k. I was a bit shocked but perhaps that’s due to getting such a big discount off MSRP for being a loaner plus i was a bit under miles? Having said that, anyone have tips for handling getting the positive equity? The insurance agent made it seem easy (they cut a check to MB financial for the buyout amount and cut a check to me for the difference). Anything I should look out for or be careful? Appreciate anyone’s advice as I continue my sad face for the loss of the car.
As an aside… does PenFed stack with MB incentives? MB has 3k lease cash currently but I’m thinking that wont stack with my penfed?
Before anyone asks - I did not attempt to drive through the gushing water. Literally was a flash flood.
One of my buddy sells for arbonne company he’s searching for Mercedes Benz and said he gets a $3,500 fleet discount for being just a consultant I don’t know how much it would cost to become a consultant could always look into it
Wow sorry to hear about your loss. But glad you are ok.
It’s crazy that my friend hit something on the fwy and needed a new engine on his c300. The insurance company declared it as total loss.
Sorry to hear that, man! I’m from there too (living in SoCal now), and I feel your pain. The family’s house took a serious beating and my sister’s car was declared a loss, too. She had a Ford, and she’s looking to replace it now.
You must be skipping over the multitude of threads were LH members are selling their hacked cars and getting more than payoff. Just look at the “sold one to carvana” thread. And that is many sales on just one of the threads.
Do you know if fleet stacks with lease cash? I know on the E class they have $3k this month. Wondering if that stacks with my PenFed fleet/ control number. Trying to arm myself before getting into the search!
Good point. There are a lot of those posts. I just know how MB inflates residuals on their leases. Coupled with a model known to depreciate like a tank I didn’t expect it to be valued any bit higher than the payoff.
@susie - good to know. Hope my process is similar. Thanks!
@Positiveions - Thanks. There was a 2019 C300 that also had it’s engine hydrolocked while i was at the dealer. 5xxx miles and it was also declared as a loss. Crazy!
Fleet does not stack with incentives folks. For any model, if the fleet incentive is bigger than the regular MB incentive, you will stack the difference as Calvin noted.
FWIW, it’s not just Mercedes Benz cars that get totaled after floods due to electrical issues.
Flooded cars of any marque aren’t worth messing with. The problems are so weird, and often manifest themselves years later. Corrosion of some contact somewhere never expected to get wet makes some intermittent problem really hard to track down.
Totaling one–new engine or not–is absolutely the right decision.
It’s $3.5/$10k. The current incentives are $3k for the 450 and $10k for the 560 so fleet is only adding $500 more. I wouldn’t jump through hoops to get it unless you already qualify and the dealer can add it.
… and I just watched the action live online for the car at copart. Sold for $19,100 vs appraised value of $40,632. Has a salvage title now and needs a new engine so it will be interesting to see where it pops up for sale in a few months after being repaired and for how much!
I wasted an hour looking up random cars on copart. Some interesting stuff on there that makes you wonder where they will end up after being repaired and, frankly, how one can even possibly repair some of them.
I’m secretly hoping a tree falls on my 2012 Volt (preferably without me inside it) and I’m almost certain the insurance payout would be higher than any trade in value I could get for it.
thanks for this