185K miles to us is low. 185K miles to an insurance company is junkyard fodder.

Bet they called the dealership, said, "What's a computer cost", got some ridiculous answer, and said "Hmm, $5K repair, 185K miles, the car is already 12 years old when most people trade at 3-5 and "any" car is old after 7-10"... I can easily see the computer saying "not worth it."

We are all making a LOT of exceptions for Mercedes that an insurance computer wouldn't know. 185K miles on any car except a Mercedes diesel is almost twice again worn out. 12 years on any car except a Mercedes is getting on into the "Next time something expensive breaks, I'm parking it" territory. We all (somewhat) know what we're doing, and we all know that the mechanical limits are nowhere near as early or as fragile as the "Mainstream" assumes, but nonetheless, the insurance system is configured for the mainstream.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL