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My wife was going to round a sharp curve at about 45-50mph with our '85 240GL wagon (212K mi.) on her normal daily commute and all of the sudden lost control of the steering and bounced the right corner of the front bumper against a guard rail and went over into the other lane and hit a concrete barrier. It had to be towed to a shop after not starting.
Warning: after an accident, please do not rush too quickly in the repair:
(1) make sure the mechanic *totally* looks over the car to get a good
perspective, and (2) insist in advance on the prices of parts. I did not do
that, and what happened? They told me that since it did not start and
several things were tried, that the next logical candidate was replacing
the fuel pump. I said go ahead, and they did. Only later on did I find out
that it cost $395! But to compound it, they later realized after jacking it
up other problems: the motor mounts broke, resulting (?) power steering
system problems, right bumper shifted down a bit, disconnected muffler,
etc. Lesson: please insist on a complete damage report before anything is
fixed to decide if it is worth it.
Now, two questions:
What could have resulted in the loss of control around the curve? My wife
tells me that about a mile before the accident, she felt a couple of
swivels a couple of minutes apart. The mechanics think that the motor
mounts failed beforehand and ended up destabilizing the car, leading to the
accident.
We ended up spending $500 total to get the car driving again. With 212K
miles, is it worth it to dump another $500 into it to fix motor mounts,
muffler, etc.? The engine & auto trans. still sound great. Cosmetic damage
is irrelevant to us. Is this still a reliable car?
Thank you for your kind consideration.
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