Generally, yes.

I say this as the owner of two Porsches: A Boxster and a Turbo, both of which have been involved in accidents. (A 3rd car, my new 08 Cayman S was destroyed in an accident about 3 weeks after I bought it. 2009 was not a good year for cars for me...)

The Boxster was hit from behind while stopped at a light. Impact about 5mph (I had a data logger in the car that caught the impact.) Damage? front and rear bumper covers, one taillight assembly, one headlight assembly and some minor sheet metal (the sheet metal rail that runs (under the rear bumper cover) just below the spoiler. I have pics. Total cost to repair: About $5K.

The Turbo was a bigger accident. I hit a mule deer with it on highway 50 out west of Ely NV. Long story short: Damage came to over $25K. No chassis/tub damage. All damage to external plastic or sheet metal. Front bumper cover, front trunk lid, passenger fender and front tire and wheel (tire cut slighly and the wheel replaced when the wheel refinisher screwed up the refinish job); passenger side headlight, A/C condensor, radiator, and the fuel evap system under the passenger fender. Since the car's arctic silver the paint on adjacent undamaged panels had to be blended to match the new (factory) parts and their paint jobs.

Takes a body shop expert to spot the car's been repaired. (The paint has less orange peel than the factory paint.)

I have pics of the car on a Celette bench being checked for any hard point locations out of place. None found, though the metal shelf that runs along side the passenger side of the front trunk to which the front fender bolts to was bent down slightly.

Car repaired in partnership with a Porsche dealer and a dealer recommended body shop. The car's CPO warranty (2 years, 100K miles) remained intact and in fact I had to use this a few times since the car was repaired, with absolutely no repairs arising from the accident or the repairs.

In fact the new passenger side radiator fan/hub assembly which was replaced in the accident repair failed but all the parts were factory and the CPO covered these.

My point is that if the car's damage not severe the car can be repaired to the point the accident means little or nothing.

The trick is to 1) Avoid a severe accident: The Cayman S was declared a total loss due to the severity of the impact (from the side). Oh the accident was not my fault: I was almost stopped two car lengths from an intersection when another car (driver on her cell phone) missed a turn and slammed on her brakes and slid through an intersection and 2 lanes of traffic to smash my car right ahead of the driver's side door. Both airbags deployed.

2) Have the car fixed right. This is harder than it sounds for reasons I won't cover here.

3) Document the extent of the initial damage and the full damage once the car is torn down. Document the entire repair procedure. I have pics of all the accident and post accident tear down and repairs which show to what extent the cars were damaged and the completeness and correctness of the cars' repairs.

Both cars were inspected by an indy body shop competely unencumbered by any loyalty to the repairing dealer/body shop and both cars were inspected, the Turbo 2 times, by a different Porsche dealer to verify the repairs were done properly. A few minor items were found and I took the car back and had these addressed, then had the car inspected again to confirm they were addressed and correctly. They were.

So, when it comes time to sell the Turbo, should I decide to get rid of it, I can at the same time admit (I'd never not admit this) the car was in an accident but then shove an inch stack of photos and paper work at the buyer that shows while the car was certainly in an accident it came out of out in very fine shape. And if I decide to sell the car before the CPO waranty expires (June of this year) the CPO warranty is transferrable.

After all of the above, what is my point: That while generally one wants to avoid a car that has been in accident, not all cars that have been in accidents should be avoided. If a seller is savvy he will have ready what I covered above to alleviate the buyer's concerns about the car.

If a seller is not so savvy, then while he may admit the car was in an accident if he can't produce anything that allows you to make an honest assessment of the car's condition before and during and after the accident, then this is when you should simply walk away and seek out another car.

Sincerely,

Macster.

 

Macster - I agree with you 100%. The rule of thumb is that if a car has been involved in an accident, don't buy it. My view is that it depends upon how well it's been repaired.
Most high quality body shops can repair the car so well that the repair can only be detected by professionals. Personally I'm far more concerned about engine condition and other mechanial parts that could cause me a lot of money down the road. Also, don't be intimidated by the price of the repair. Porsches are very expensive to repair.
I witnessed an accident to my friend's 2010 997. An SUV backed out of a parking spot and collided with the 997. The impact was to the driver's side headlight and fender. The fender, headlight, wiring harness, wheel and tire were replaced. The wheel was scratched in the impact. Impact speed was approximately 5 mph. Total repair cost - a little over $8K. After the repair was completed, the car looked perfect to the unntrained eye.
So would I buy this car? Yes, in a heartbeat.