rwel

All opinions welcomed. I'm considering a 2015 C4S, one owner 18,000 miles with clean Carfax with notable exception of repaired side-swipe damage to the driver's side. I'm a long time BMW owner looking to get first Porsche. The car is very well optioned, and the damage history appears to be factored into the independent dealer price.

Should I just forget this car, or could it be OK provided it gets a clean bill of health from Porsche dealer PPI? Assuming the repair was properly done by a Porsche sanctioned shop, is there a good way of judging the diminished value to me and to a buyer one day when I sell?

Thanks for your inputs.

STG

It's never a good idea ....

Price would have to be VERY right. That's a $10K ding right there in value. Accidents on a 911 are a huge black cloud.

Plenty of cars out there for sale without accidents.

What are they asking?? What's is the MSRP?

TorqueChap

First off, welcome! First: Who did the repair? Was it done to a budget (eg, by the dealer) or was a caring body shop involved?

Second: What's the discount off a car fax clean version are you getting? Someone on this forum should be able to comment as to whether the discount is appropriate.

Third: To my untrained but OCD eyes, the panel gap by the repair looks a tad wider than usual but it could simply be lighting or suggestion bias. Good luck with the hunt no matter what you do! These Pcars are incredible.

dflowerz

I would pass. I found a perfect 991.1 CPO car but it had a Carfax issue. I passed. I want to avoid making the problem my own problem. Do not want to have to deal with trying to trade in or sell a car with an issue.

I traded in a Buick Rendezvous some years ago and discovered only at trade-in that it had a Carfax issue flagged for a bumper repair. Not a big deal for that car since it was about worthless anyway But for a 911 will be a significant price hit and future headache.

LexVan

"with clean CarFax"

That's funny right there.

Churchill

The answer to your question depends entirely on the price of the car (and its specs). Since you don't provide any of that information, there's no way for anyone to help you.

plenum

I would only entertain a "marked" car like that if the price was very right, and I wasn't going to worry about selling down the road. Any record of damage is a kiss of death to value of the car no matter how well it was repaired in 99.99% of cases. Since you mention reselling I would say this is not the car for you....

Hurricane

I would rather pick up a cheaper '14 or a '13 or even a 2012.5 before buying one that had damaged.

Of course, we have no idea what kind of a discount you are talking about here...

NoGaBiker

For 10k off market price I'd take it in a heartbeat, assuming it's the car I wanted otherwise. You'll never know it was hit, so your experience won't be any different. When you go to sell, because of price compression as the cars get older, you likely won't experience even a 10k hit vs. what you would get if it were unmarked.

What I mean by price compression is this. Say the car today was a 90k car with clean car fax and you could get it for 80k. Then, taking it to an extreme, imagine that 10 years from now a clean car like yours was a 35k car; it's doubtful yours would be a 25k car. Why? Because:
1) both cars will likely have some incidental nicks and chips to the paint, so neither will be perfect.
2) if the "percent discount for accident repair" remains constant, then the 12% discount you got when you buy will only translate into a $4200 discount when you sell.
3) the repairs will be old enough that if there was going to be a problem it would have long-since surfaced.

Now, you may very well not keep it for 10 years, but it's not like the value gap closes on year 10; there should be a fairly linear closing between today and year 10, for all the reasons above.

That said, I'd be shocked if you actually got a 10k reduction today. 5 would be more like it, IMO. And I'd also bet that the asking price from an indy car lot doesn't reflect that 5k discount, because they're hoping to sell to a BMW guy who takes it off their hands for a lot more than it's really worth.

Mumbles

The price would have to reflect the diminished value you would get upon re-sale

For me............NO

rwel

Thanks for all the responses. Lex, I did say clean Carfax with notable exception, which is of course the reason I posted.

MSRP was $142,500. The dealer's ask is $78,000. It was a pretty fully optioned C4S. That's a pretty good discount off a flawless car, probably 10k or so. I have asked them for all details on the accident and repair, and if I remain interested, would have the Porsche dealer up the street do the PPI.

I only mention resale because, inevitably, at some point it'll get sold. I've got a 2000 BMW I bought new, so I keep the ones I love...but I don't want to buy someone else's problems either. Also, first owner had to put 2 new tires on it at 10k miles. Is that typical, or indicative of abuse?

I'll likely pass on this one. 911's are not rare. But I don't want to ignore a "good deal" if in fact it was one.

rwel

BTW it has PDCC, PASM, PDK, sport exhaust, dynamic lighting plus, park assist, sport chrono, 18-way seats, premium plus, Bose audio, full leather. Misc others cats and dogs. Fairly expensive MSRP I thought.

Driven991

If this was my choice and I really loved the color and options and planned long term ownership I would buy it if the price reflected a downward adjustment for the previous damage and it checked out cosmetically and mechanically. I would take it to a Porsche mechanic and have it thoroughly inspected and drive it looking for anything unusual.

If you are a guy that likes to flip cars and plan short term ownership I would not buy it because you will deal with the hassle of trying to sell it to people who want it to be perfect.

Dewinator

Great analysis from NoGaBiker. Personally if this were the only one available with the options I wanted, I'd get it checked out and expect a good price but wouldn't second guess buying it. The discount in itself wouldn't draw me to this particular example though, if there were others that fit my criteria I'd probably end up with one of them.

Scorponok

Why? No.