B951S

Some *****r in a truck reversed into my ride. How much damage do you think this is in terms on $$$. His insurance assesor will be coming over soon and I want to make sure he does not low ball it. I reckon a complete back panel. I do NOT want them to pull/fill it. Would this be an opportunity to do a 968 rear end?

Cyrus951

What's up with everyone hitting 89 turbos??

PCinDC

I was rear ended by a truck in a similar fashion in my 944. The damage was significantly less than yours. The initial estimate was $1200, ended up getting $1800. Your damage, like I said is significantly worse than mine.

HTH, I know how it feels.

TT

My 944 got hit in the same spot but worse than that 12 years ago. Check underneath and make sure the spare tire well didn't hit the tranny. Mine did, shoved the engine forward breaking the fans assembly and knocking the radiator loose. We welded in a used center section, replaced the bumper and just painted that area. Still driving the car today.

If there is no suspension or major frame damage, I'd say your repairs should be in the $2-3K range. Hopefully they won't total it, they totalled mine even back then.

fast951

Davinder, Sorry to hear this.. You don't have to settle with the insurance guy till YOU are ready..
Go to the most exclusive shops in your area and get few estimates. Too soon to settle! If they want to total the car, you don't have to accept it.. Of course if the payoff is VERY high, you can settle as long as you can get the car back real cheap...

B951S

Good advice John, is the Porsche dealer considered as the best place to go for bodywork?

AlexE

Probably the best place to get the estimate (they will probably have the highest estimate)...........but not the best place to get it done. Most dealers have a shop they use if they don't do it themselves. Take it there.

In theory that car will be written off........

Trick is...........Find all the highest estimates you can. ITs a fine line between having it fixed and them wanting to write it off. Thankfully its a third party involved and not your own insurance.

Great time for a 968 conversion..........Get a few high estimates. Settle on a price. Take the payout.....You can tell them the work will get done when YOU are good and ready.

Find the 968 pieces you need.........and use the cash to acquire the pieces and get the work done at any shop of your choosing.

The estimates are only there to determine VALUE. Not to tell you where to go once its all settled.

.........and if you are lucky you have a few bucks left over to buy a Vitesse Stage 3.

B951S

You really think they will write it off?????

Problem is, if they write it off, they are not likely to pay out anywhere near what I paid for it and I end up with a car that's got a salvage title (i think.............would I?). I take it I am offered the right of first refusal on buyback and that the price to me will be trade / salvage price a slavage yard would give them, right?

I will make an appointment with the dealer for an estimate and start the ball rolling.

Also, If they don't write it off and pay for the repair, do I have to prove to them I eventually had it done or even that the money was used on the car?

josephsc

Seems like a bad season -- some guy backed into my turbo this weekend as well and put in a couple of large dents (I'm at the rate of one incident per month now...). As a another data point, I just got an estimate of $1300 to remove/straighten/repaint one fender and a door for my damage -- but yours look s little worse.

superloaf

You don't have to prove anything to them. Whether or not you have the work done, it's still a loss on your part (the car isn't worth as much with the damage.) You have the final say, unless they want to take it to court, which they probably don't. If you're having trouble with them, usually your own insurance company will deal with them.

I was hit in a NA 944 a few years ago. They ended up totalling the car AND I got to keep it. Not sure why, but I didn't argue. With that money and what I sold the damaged car for, I bought my present 951, so don't worry, it'll work out.

sayporsha

I'm sorry to hear it. I think being an 89 with so many mods makes the car far from a total.

If you decide to fix it with used parts, I have everything you need from my black 86 parts car.

Best of luck,

fast951

Start looking into establishing a high value for you car. Copies of advertised cars (Ebay, pano, excellence) go back as far as a year to establish a high value. Add to it all your receipts etc.. This will become handy when it's time to establish a settlment value (if car to be totaled).

If insurance decides to fix your car, make sure to add to the highest estimates a depreciation value for the car due to the damage a 10-15% of the actual car value not the estimate to repair.
When getting estimates, insist on new OEM parts. Yes Porsche only parts..

Of course keep rubbing your neck when talking to the insurance guy! LOL...

Oddjob

I was hit in the rear by a ford explorer, worse than what you have, but it was still just cosmetic. The insurance adjuster estimated it at $5000 grand which was way low. Once an adjuster makes an estimate, the insurance company would not look at estimates from body shops. I argued about it but the insurance company said if it ended up costing more to repair, the shop could bill them directly. That effectively kept me from taking the money and doing what I wanted with the car (fixing it myself, turning it into a race car, etc). I had to take it to a shop, unless I wanted to lose big money on the car.

It ended up taking over $12000 and nearly a year to complete the repair, so the insurance company made a big mistake not completing a thorough estimate and totalling it at the time. I know the guy that handled the job at the body shop was fired and I would not be surprised if the insurance adjuster got in some big trouble for this one too.

Body shops and insurance companies pretty much have the game figured out and its pretty difficult to work the system in your favor. The main problem is that the customer is the insurance company not you. The body shop does not want to get themselves black listed by State Farm (or any major insurance company) because they charge too much for a repair. So they will cut corners to keep the bill as low as possible to make the insurance company happy, at your expense.

Different Insurance companies work in different ways, but this is typical to what I have encountered with a couple major ones in the past several years. Also different states have different laws that regulate what insurance companies can and cannot do. Some states do not require that insurance companies pay for OEM parts, they do not have to be new parts, and they will not account for value depreciation. The one thing that you do have going for you with a P-car: there are not aftermarket companies making body panels for Porsche, so you are pretty much guaranteed OEM body panels even if your state does not require it.

CPTdooberhead

I got rear ended, which wasnt bad at all (I fixed it myself with a wench). I ended up getting a $1300 cheque for it from the other guys insurance. I wish I could get rear ended every month...

-Randy

B951S

I got an estiamte of $4,500 from a good shop in Houston. Apraiser has been out and said they will not write it off and agreed to most of the cost. I will see how much they cut me directly and take it from there.