WPOZZZ

How are you feeling?

Kevinmacd

Here in Florida you are entitled to a like car as long as it goes thru the other parties insurance company! You do not have a contract with the at fault insurance company.
My recent rear bumper mishap I did not take a rental, because the shop my car is in, shows an estimate discrepancy between the shop and the insurance companies estimate, it reside in the rates and time to repair ( rates are a little higher because of Porsche, Bentley, and Audi certifications). So if I have to, I can use the non acceptance of the rental as leverage to pay the entire bill as the shop estimated. Still waiting to hear the direction that this is going to take! In Florida insurance companies have to reimburse you for time of loss of use. One way they do it is provide a rental.
Hope you are feeling okay and this goes well for you!

Macster

The mechanic's opinion is at this time just a guess.

Briefly, the proper procedure is to remove the car's running gear and get it on a Celette bench and check all of the body/chassis hard points for proper location.

If any are out of place -- and they are -- they need to be brought back into place by pulling, jacking, whatever techniques the body shop has available to it.

My guess is one possible both quarter panels will need to be removed -- cut away -- and replaced.

These are not just bolt on items, like the front fenders, but are part of the car's tub/chassis.

This is a big repair and the shop doing this had better have done this before, a number of times.

I do not know what the procedure is for assessing what if any damage the engine/transmission sustained.

It could be also to properly check the car out on the bench the engine and transmission will need to be dropped.

It is very important this Celette bench step not be skipped.

A Porsche Certified Collision repair shop has a thick list of steps/procedures to follow to ensure the extent of the damage accurately determined and the proper repairs made.

You want the car returned to its pre-collision condition as best as humanly possible.

This does not mean the fenders can can hammered into shape, bondo'd all Hell and some paint slathered on.

This car might be repairable but it is going to take a top notch shop with essentially a blank check to do it.

Thus I suspect the car will be totaled. As I touched upon in a previous post were I in your shoes that would be my desire.

Oh, when my 2008 Cayman was hit it took 3 adjusters from the other driver's insurance company to arrive at what my body shop buddy took just 5 minutes to determine: the car was totaled. The last adjuster was an "exotic car" adjuster. He stopped tallying the damage when the total reached $45K.

Bates

"Is that the little one?" - LOL.

Please keep us updated Baumer1.

Thomas42

Your turbo is in good hands with Chance.

kalyan

Yes... got the accumulator changed. Love the clutch feel now.... it was extremely hard before.

Hope you are not having any pains/aches...

powdrhound

Since you're in Denver I would talk to Dave Imes at Apex. They are absolute magicians when it comes to repairing these cars and bringing them to concourse condition. Daves guys have done work for me along with just about every Porsche fanatic in Denver, from Cup cars, RSRs, $1,000,000+ RSs, and others. A few months back they did a $300,000 repair on a local F40 that hit a median in the road.

Baumer1

Well, not much new to update but I have learned a bit about auto insurance claims.

The body shop owner looked at the car on Friday. He clearly knows what he is doing. Based on the damage he could see (and the inability to open up the rear deck lid) he didn't bother preparing an estimate. He said there will be no way to accurately assess the damage without dismantling the car. Macster- he also detailed how they use their Cellete bench in preparing the estimate and performing the repairs- they've done this type quarter panel repair on 911's in the past and have experience fortunately.

He is going to let the insurance company's adjuster look at the car and prepare their estimate first. He said the insurance company also won't dismantle the car in preparing their estimate and they will know that their initial estimate won't be accurate. Once the estimate is prepared, the body shop can start to dismantle the car on the insurance company's dime.

Once the car is apart, the body shop will prepare their own estimate that will likely be a multiple of what the insurance company came up with initially. Once that is submitted, the insurance company will send out an adjuster again that will evaluate the new estimate with the car apart. To my surprise, he said the insurance company will almost always agree with the body shop's estimate within a hundred dollars or so.

Unfortunately, he said this process will probably take a couple of weeks and we won't know until then whether the car is totaled. Worse, he said that from today until the time the car would be repaired (if that is the route we go) would probably be close to...three months.

02996ttx50- If it was going to be a close call, I thought I was going to be too attached to the car to total it. Now hearing my best case is scenario is getting the car back sometime in August, I think I may be able to cut my emotional ties a bit more easily.

powdrhound- Thanks for the referral. Since Stuttgart is one of the two Porsche certified repair shops in town, I think that if I use them, the insurance company might have a harder time arguing with their estimate...I hope.

WPOZZ- Thanks for asking- unfortunately I'm still dealing with a sore neck and headache. A lot of Advil keeps it manageable. Going to follow up with the doctor on Monday...

WPOZZZ

Yes, please see your doc, and don't forget to ask about physical therapy. They will probably prescribe massage, heat packs and electric stim. PT helped me a lot when I got rear ended.

Macster

Took about 2 months to get my Turbo back after I smacked a mule deer with the car. The body parts take time to come in from the factory and paint prep and what you have takes time, too.

The weather seals were tied back to taped back.

The insurance company of course balked on some items. A new headlight was needed and it was very expensive and the ins. company wanted the shop to use a used one. The shop "tried" but the only one it could find the owner wanted the money before he'd ship and the body shop owner said he doesn't do business that way. So a new light was ordered. Took time.

The right front wheel was sent out to be refinished and the refinshing shop ruined the wheel and this had to be ordered.

The insurance adjuster was at the body shop a number of times going over, ok'ing adjustments (increases) in the repairs as the shop got into the car more.

Just takes time. The insurance company isn't there to make this quick, it is there to make sure it spends not one dime more than it can possibly get away with.

Oh, check the fair claim and settlement laws in your area. You may be entitled to compensation for the loss of the use of your car. Here in CA one can get up to $50/day for 30 days for this.

"02996ttx50

baumer, if "they" total it, you'll likely get more than you paid for it. at least i did. don't take less and there is probably no chance at a diminished value claim so if it is "more"?, my advice would be to take it, stay with therapy and get another one. best of luck to you. really.

they'll tell ou within one day if it's a total loss once hey begin adding up parts costs. it's going to be very close.

Kevinmacd

One good thing is you do not have a contract with the insurance company you are dealing with, so it gives you a little more leverage to request all new parts and Porsche parts at that. Do not let them take you down the non OEM parts route!

"02996ttx50

i don't think they will "try" that. i believe they are are obligated to repair with OEM, though i could well be wrong. i've never had an ins co try to give me aftermarket replacement parts that i was aware of. ??!

rmc1148

Years ago in Delaware my girlfriends newer Prelude got wacked and they put used parts on it, I tried everything and couldn't stop it.

Ck986

Geico says that their policy is to use equivalent parts to what was on the car at the time of the accident, Not necessarily new. They wanted to put a used transmission and steering rack in my sisters civic, but ended up totaling it. I'm not sure if all insurance companies do this, but I wouldn't be surprised.