tgibrit

i am so sorry to hear that, so frustrating even if the damage is relatively minor,

I agree with the other posts re avoid any shop Geico recommends, i would also avoid dealership recommendations unless you built up trust with a particular service manager or sales person.

i would recommend posting in 997/996/993 forums for recommendations but also search other high end car forums for recommendations - thats the approach i used to find the shops i have used in the past.

LAGinz

I see Eli's is one of the few in the area on the Porsche Certified Collision Center list, for whatever that is worth.

bigkraig

This is terrifying.

I've used this shop on my C4S. The rear bumper was keyed and they did a pretty good job matching the paint up, but there were a few fisheyes in the paint.

997s07

Like I said, Sam Zamir: that's the guy in the thread. He's won awards.

Trust me on Eli's; I know I would never take my car there.

Hoopumpers

Keep the repairs off of carfax. Car will depreciate substantially with a damage report. Sorry for bad luck.

Why I now buy obnoxious colors. Maybe ppl see me more

silverrules

+1, My wife had a bumper damage and it cut pretty good but the body shop patched it up and painted. You could never tell it was repaired. It cost us $1100 and we didn't go through insurance.

br911

Same happened to my old C4S, but car needed to be totally realigned. $20k(the great LA driver who forgot to look forward had insurance), and 2 months driving a C300. DC Autocraft in Burbank (outsourced by dealer). High quality repair - car was perfect - but very slow shop.

ScottKelly911

Did you just tell him to be dishonest? Seriously? When you two decide to buy a previously owned car, wouldn't YOU want to know if it had been repaired properly or repaired at all, instead of thinking you're buying a perfect car, only to find out later that you've been taken? I know that there are many people who would avoid insurance to keep from having Carfax blemish. But to publicly endorse doing so really is reprehensible. I also think it should be a law that all repair shops need to report repair work (if it isn't already). Just my .02

silverrules

You making up your own story here. We are not planing to sell her car for sometime and when and if we decide to sell it we will disclose to buyer and no I don't want to get dinged again by insurance companies for the next five years and since when paying out of your own pocket to fix your bumper is illegal?

Cuda911

Arghh! That blows, big time. But, maybe you might want to self pay on such a new car, and avoid getting a hit on Carfax?

EDIT: I skipped ahead and missed some of the posts that suggested the same thing. I concur. Keep it off of Carfax. A minor bumper repair that doesn't get onto Carfax is not misleading in any way, IMHO.

mqandil

Scott you assumed he is being dishonest which is not fair at all. Most Porsche owners I know are very honest people. Most of us would not want a charagable accident against our record for only $1000 worth of damage. Most have their deductibles higher than $1000 and insurance is no use to them. Not only your insurance rate would suffer from making such a small claim like this but if you have a few family members on your policy and few of these show up on your record you could get cancelled. No one here is encouraging anyone to be dishonest. Mark

shapiroeric

Carfax gets its info from a lot of different sources, including the gov't.....if there's a police report and you don't put it through insurance it could still come up....not trying to scare you one way or another but it's possible....you've also already reported the accident to Geico so it may show whether or not you get it repaired with their money.....personally I just document the damage with pictures to show its minimal....

Again, not trying to be a dick but don't be surprised if it shows even if you don't use the insurance money...,

http://www.carfax.com/about/data_sources.cfx

destaccado

Working around the insurance process to intentionally have the damage not reported to Carfax with the theory that you'll disclose it to the buyer later is the de facto definition of dishonesty.

The only reason the additional ding from having it documented at Carfax happens is because you can no longer trade the car to a dealer or someone else who will do the dishonest act of covering up the damage for you and pass off some of that benefit to you financially via their higher purchase price.

I've found numerous examples in the Rennlist forums of individuals not disclosing damage and called them out on it during my two year search for 993's. Seeing the number of dishonest individuals in this thread is discouraging. Thanks to ******** like these I paid over $600 on PPIs that wouldn't have been necessary if people were honest upfront as I wasn't looking for a damaged car.

mwar99

Just a note - there is no way the damage is less than 1,000. He is getting a whole new bumper skin, it is not a patch and repaint. Sounds like an insurance claim to me...

bigkraig

Bumper cover alone is ~2,000.