drcollie

Two observations:

1) Excellent Body Shop to catch all that. Kudos

2) Porsche needs to beef up its bumpers, that's a lot of cost for a minor hit.

theporscheguy

Duane,

I think the interesting factor would be knowing the true force of the impact. Then you could make a proper assessment, in my opinion. The body shop did a great job in analyzing the extent of the damage and making great repairs. You would never imagine that much damage just from looking at the bumper cover. I also hope that the owner negotiated future value loss v repair only.

jimbo1111

Great work on the repairs. Its truely rare to have it done correctly.
What strikes me as unusual is how manufacturers have a mechanical repair facility and not a bodywork facility. Leads me to believe that today's modern chassis are meant to be fully dispensed after a collision. Baring light cosmetic damage.
Insurance lobbying is at work to prevent total payouts. So one only wonders where the lines are blurred and what constitutes a full chassis or vehicle replacement. Not everybody is as talented in the small business of auto repair. Most people tend to rely on local sources and come away with an unfavorable experience.
Don't want to come off as totally negative but insurance companies want to payout as little as possible and autorepair facilities want the quotes as high as possible. What regulating body is looking out for the insured? My guess is no one. That is why a repaired vehicle is always going to carry a stigma. Hurts the owner more than anyone. Our government needs stricter guidelines to over see the insurance companies with there heavy lobbying powers diminished. Regular people are the ones that suffer in the end.

coreyco

Based on the Yelp Reviews, along with the praise this shop receives on this forum, I took my 911S in to Collision Consultants today. What could have been an expensive mirror housing replacement, was repaired by Sam in a few minutes. Add to that, the fact that Sam would not accept any money for this fix, sincerely stating "thanks for taking the time to drive over here today". Porsche dealerships should take lessons on how to run a business from Collision Consultants. They have earned a lifetime customer. Thank-you Sam! And thanks to all who make this forum possible!

Sam Zamir

Thanks Corey. I try to give Rennlisters extra love. You guys have always been nice to us.

mdrobc1213

Saving this post in case I ever need it....like when my front end got knocked in Vegas last visit there with my 2013 991 S...must be the model year!

https://rennlist.com/forums/991/9456...-question.html

Hope Penske in Scottsdale fixed it right..what looked like $2k ended up being about close to $10k when they got into it as I recall but am keeping this one for a while so glad it was repaired correctly...Or so I hope! Sam please don't spoil my high by saying otherwise! LOL

Glad I found this post from this thread here..
https://rennlist.com/forums/991/1042...d-surgery.html

Wonder what Sam would say about this one...making sure I book mark this shop for future reference for sure!

HenryPcar

Regardless of how good the repair was, it will never ever be as original. The fact that the collision will be forever on record and the value of the car takes a substantial hit. I doubt that insurance will cover the devalued portion of the car value.

r00t61

In fact, a diminished value claim will cover just that.

https://www.nasdaq.com/article/how-t...claim-cm174744

Porscheforever

Sam Zamir

1 - I would never spoil someones high, unless there was imperative danger. People come to me all the time all excited about buying a new car and when they clearly paid TOO much, I never mention it to them. It's like - you already bought it. Had they come to me before buying it, I would have shared more insight.
2 - I'm gonna save your post to read and comment later. Thanks for sharing.
3 - Blowing out someone else's candle, doesn't make mine shine brighter. I live by this mantra. Which is why...

I would never comment on this guy's repair.

DV claims are tricky. I have a couple clients that they spent $2K on legal and appraisal fees to reclaim $5K in DV. But that's in well documented cases (a GT3 and a lambo). Neither was truly content with the outcome.

I don't remember (it was over 5 years ago). And if I throw a number out there now, I'm afraid too many people would misconstrue my number to be some sort of assessment or testimony.

David in Talent

Where is the link on Summit consulting for PACC locations ?

Sam Zamir

www.porschecollisioncenter.com

go.illini

I read the list of insurance companies that are good to work with. We used to have Fireman's Fund and were disappointed when they moved out the personal insurance market. They were great to deal with.

Sam Zamir

I realized I never gave you an answer to your second question. To be Porsche Approved, we have a long list of qualifications to prove. It includes things like the size of our bathrooms, to space for proper paint prep. There are equipment requirements like the proper welders, frame machine, specialty tools, etc... There's also training requirements like I-CAR (which really anyone can pass but showing consistent training gives the impression the shop is somewhat "stand out." Here's where it gets interesting - the estimator, manager, painter, and body techs need to be ASE Master Certified. This is VERY difficult. THIS is a good indicator of the quality of the shop. No other factory certification program requires ASE certification. Porsche requires MASTER certs. Lastly, there's training at Porsche for everyone. They cover how to research info, how to read it, and hands on examples of the more difficult repairs (replacement of aluminum frame rails). I might have some photos on my phone. I'll look and share.

I don't make a habit of endorsing or bad mouthing individual companies. I have some preferences, but even then - they can change between individual appraisers or over time. If anyone is considering a new company or changing endorsements to a policy, I'd gladly share some thoughts if you DM or call me. To any Renn-lister, make sure you have a OEM parts endorsement on your policy. Your insurance company/policy should match your assets and liabilities. When I was single and my only asset was 94 civic, I was with a "whatever" company. Now I have bigger exposure, so I'm with a better company. Some clients have high net worth and/or exposure (celebrities), so they need companies like Chubb or AIG Private Client.

Sam Zamir

So I found some photos from the Porsche Academy.
Not gonna lie, I was really excited to sit at my chair and see this, my name on a preprinted placard. As I mentioned, there's a slew of prerequisites to get to go to Porsche Academy. The fact that they recognize and acknowledge your work to get to this point, really meant a lot to me.

This is a 991 body. BMW uses the term "body in white" cause these training chassis are just that - a blank body, no VIN, and never intended to be a car (maybe somewhere else I'll post similar photos from BMW, Mercedes, Maserati, Tesla and Audi training). Often times they are painted in all white, but this car was paint multi colors to demonstrate all the different types of steel and aluminum used in construction.


Lastly, this is a photo of a Carbench jig at the training center (exactly like the one you see we have in our shop). And what they've done is, on jigs, using replacement parts, they've assembled a complete rear and front end of a 991. This is actually how cars were built back in the day - on jigs, by hand. And basically, this front (and rear) gets put through a replacement by every class that goes in. You can see the section point on the front frame rail, where the grey part ends, and the black part begins. On the rear, you can zoom in and see the row of flow drill screws (exactly as we did in the real world repair). In the background, you see parts shelves stocked with more replacement parts, cause as I said, after we went in and did a total replacement on this part, no sooner does the adhesive dry over the weekend, the following monday, another class comes in and starts cutting it up. And repeat.