u7t2p7

If your Porsche shop is EPE in Natick, MA and Jerry blesses it, you should run [towards] this car. If your shop isn't EPE, then you should change shops

u7t2p7

If your Porsche shop is EPE in Natick, MA and Jerry blesses it, you should run [towards] this car. If your shop isn't EPE, then you should consider changing shops

nile13

Who's the mechanic? What color is the car?

pp000830

I would not assume the car body is intact and your purchase decision is purely a financial / intended use one.
I do not put a lot of faith in Pre-Purchase Inspections by third parties as they will generally only capture gross mechanical issues and miss most wear related parts and body condition items;
PPI Inspections by any dealer or local servicing shop is always suspect as a conflict of interest exists as they are in the business of servicing stuff once the car is purchased. Most new car Porsche dealers are no longer familiar with these older cars and therefore do not provide any enhanced inspection simply because they are a Porsche dealer.

You are better off looking at the car yourself with a friendly local PCA member who knows how the car should drive and feel especially since it has seen an impact involving the door jamb. Making a request through the 993 Technical Forum on Rennlist.com will usually turn up a PCA member in the geography where the car is located who will be more than glad to assist you.

Any car that has seen impact involving a door jamb can have diminish body integrity and so should be carefully investigated by a body shop not just a mechanic. I would go as far as to provide the body shop OE reference dimensions from the shop manual to do some verifications on the body. See attached.
The reason I am rather strident in my opinion is I have a friend who purchased a 928 under similar circumstance. Over time the car revealed subtle performance and handling issues that made it a disappointment to own.
Andy

Holytin

Buy for less, enjoy a lot, sell for less...

Looks like a win-win-situation but that's just me.

porschekid74

Kevin at Randolph Racing. He's been taking car of my 944 for a number of years now

nile13

I'd be more inclined to let them fix your car than to give purchase advice (google a bit). Although I've heard mostly good things about them as a shop.

The bottom line - take the car for a PPI outside. Start with a good body PPI. If that turns out OK, try mechanical PPI, especially checking alignment and suspension geometry. If the car looks OK on both counts I'd consider it a possible buy. It is likely that if things go the way they are it might eventually go back to Germany, where there's not nearly as much of a stigma associated with past accidents, I believe.

phoneyman

a little OT but heres some anecdotal advice:
my good friend recently found an '05 maserati GT coupe on CL listed for 25k with 8K miles. The car had been in a collision with a deer, salvage title issued and the previous owner bought it back and had it completely refinished properly. All receipts available, car got a huge thumbs up from a ferrari/maserati dealer, was not stolen, etc. etc.

friend boldfaced offered the guy 15k, he accepts quickly. I'm not sure of the PO's reasoning because it sounds very iffy to me, but a 15k$ maserati is hard to pass up. My buddy has another 12k miles on it so far and its been absolutely perfect, and a blast to drive.

So if youre looking for a driver, the color/options/trim level is to your liking, get it checked out, then make a bold offer and work from there. Good luck.

EDIT: forgot to address resale. I have no idea how resale will be. My friends title currently states nothing about the rebuild, but anybody with half a brain would use carfax and see its salvage. I imagine it will be a bear to sell, but I also imagine my friend will drive it into the ground before ever trying to sell.

vjd3

When my low miles 95 C2 coupe was totaled in Massachusetts back in 04, I got an offer for the salvage from Oklahoma Foreign contingent on me signing the clean Massachusetts title over to them and not reporting it to the RMV as totaled. I passed, as it was pretty evident that it would have meant a clean Carfax on a repaired car. Oklahoma Foreign may have disclosed it on the resale -- but that doesn't mean the next guy would have been so forthcoming.

Ironically, the salvage was purchased by a body shop in Worcester MA and he rebuilt it anyway -- he called looking for service records. I wonder where that car wound up.

Certain states are known for fixing salvage titles and true mileage unknown titles. At least you know the car's history in this case. But I would pass.