One of the premium Mercedes models that you can buy....is that 500 SL. It's a two-seater and offers the 4.7-liter (455-horsepower) engine (8-cylinder). Price range in Germany....if you got it fully loaded, with taxes included? It'd be in the 115,000 Euro (140,000 US dollars roughly). With the particular engine, it's a car that you can apply gas and get awful absolute power.
So yesterday around 4 PM in my village....I could hear the fire trucks crank up and drive up over the hill....toward Wiesbaden. Just over the hill, about a thousand feet (more or less), there lay a car.....a new Mercedes 500 SL laying in the ditch, and here unfolds a unique story.
"Huns" (best left with an anonymous name) is apparently doing well in business. We don't know his profession or income level, but he makes enough to go out and afford in some way (maybe a 40,000 Euro down-payment....maybe more) and he bought this brand new Mercedes 500 SL. My guess is that he even had to wait a couple of months before the company could manufacture it.
So on Saturday afternoon, the deal was finalized at the Mercedes dealer down in Wiesbaden, on Mainzer Strasse. "Huns" brought his friend along. They probably sat and sipped expresso....hyped up over the new car, and charmed by the show-room.
At some point in the mid-afternoon, the plates were put on and the dealer probably had the list of things to cover. My guess is that he might have mentioned the pick-up and go factor of the engine.
Then "Huns" and his friend got in the car and left. They drove a mile down the street and entered B455....the road leading to my village. From there, it's about five miles to the village. About three miles down, you'd leave the city limits and be in some semi-wooded area....clear of traffic. Here along this upward hill road..."Huns" apparently hit the gas pedal for full acceleration and the car took off...not under full control.
What happened in that brief three-to-five second period is that the car ended up with one wheel completely gone (still unexplained), spun a few times and fell into a v-shaped ditch (luckily only about eight feet deep). The friend of "Huns" somehow crawled out and was standing by the car as the fire-trucks arrived.
"Huns"? Well....he was pretty wedged in and against the deepest part of the ditch. They carried both guys off to the local hospital. My guess is that the friend got released by 6 PM, and "Huns" was going to spend a night in the hospital.
The car? The fire department folks, via the news summary said the car was pretty damaged. Based on the pictures at the local news site, I'd say it's good for parts, and will not be repaired. The cops? Well....they are investigating and trying to figure out how the front wheel came off (it wasn't there at the immediate area of the accident, which is weird). Assessing "Huns" for bad driving and giving him points? The cops might reach the point where they issue the ticket....or they might just feel sorry for the guy and let it go.
Mostly for "Huns", there is significant embarrassment now. He probably told everyone at work on Friday that he was picking up his new 500SL. The story will now be laid out that it was mostly destroyed in the first hour or two of operation.
The insurance guy? He's sitting there and probably trying to find some way not to pay the full absolute new value on the car....based on such limited mileage. But I would figure that "Huns" will be paid the absolute value of what he paid. It would be different if this were a month or two down the line and 3,000 kilometers on the car.
This was one of those cars that you'd buy....treasure....hold for 20 years (maybe only driving six months out of the year), and in seventy years, it'd still be around and have value. Today? Twenty-four hours after the purchase? It's junk-value.
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