Sorry for your loss.
"Totaling" a car simply means either the cost to repair the car is greater than either a) the value of the car once repaired, or b) the total value of the insured's coverage. I can very easily see this happening. On Thursday, I saw a C-Class on a frame rack at a local repair facility; it slid sideways and the front clipped a tree. The requisite body panels were off, and they told me the repair was going to be over $12,000 when completed. Didn't look like too much to me.
If one has a W113 daily driver, the values for these are all over the board, but generally below $30,000. Once you hit that $30K mark, the condition of the cars goes up of course, and the pristine cars are upwards from there.
I am not in the insurance business, but if you are making a claim against the insurance company, you should have your facts straight on what your car is worth, and how much coverage you have before or during your coverage; after the fact is a little late, and the ball is in their court so to speak.
This should be a wake up call to all of our members who don't have "collector car" insurance which is a different package altogether than conventional insurance for daily driving. Daily Drivers: Get a certified appraisal, and use this to get proper coverage BEFORE you have trouble.
With the recent sale of a 113 in London for $130,000, and fine examples fetching high prices, when my renewal came in the other day for collector car insurance (I'm not a daily driver) I bumped my coverage up by about 25%.
Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red 568G w/Black Leather (Restored)
President, International Stars Section
Mercedes-Benz Club of America
