Been there. Didn't enjoy it.

Glad you are ok

 

You likely didn't notice the rear was coming out, like a progressive slide, until it was too late to correct. Glad you're okay, cars are replaceable.

 

I know it's easy to criticize after the fact. Lifting while in a slide will make you snap around faster than you can count 1. Glad you are ok.

 

Holy crap. Sorry about the car, but stoked that you walked away in one piece.

 

Surprises me that it flipped like that. I have seen a lot of cars spin on dry tracks with race tires. The wet road and smooth pavement should have just resulted in a spin.

I am glad to hear you are OK. I am, as always, super impressed with the strength of the cars. I also like that you intend to buy another

 

Man, you are the lucky one to survive without injury. Your Porsche gave you plenty of decent driving time while in your possession.Time to find another one.

 

Wow. Nice to see the strength of the 996. Sorry for the loss of your 996. So glad no one was hurt, but some lucky individual is going to get a nice engine out of it!

 

Not sure what limit you are referring to?

My new Cayman S was hit and declared a total loss. The other driver's insurance coverage (limit $50K) was not enough to cover the car. I had just bought it (new) 4 weeks prior and paid $50.6K (not including taxes/title/etc.). (The car was marked down -- by the dealer no less -- from $62.6K.)

The other driver's insurance coverage was just $50K. (I spoke with her insurance provider and gave it some heck for writing such low insurance coverage especially when the owner of the car, the driver's mother, had a house at risk should the insurance not cover damages. My Dad sold insurance (commercial insuance) and impressed upon me the importance of having sufficient coverage to protect one's assets in the event of a claim. My Dad felt it criminal for someone to write coverage which wasn't enough to protect the insured's assets sufficiently.)

The other insurance company wanted me to turn the claim over to my insurance. I refused. My insurance company would have insisted on having the car repaired (the damage total was over $45K and going up when the "exotic car claims adjuster" stopped counting and declared the car a total loss) or would have forced me to accept a lower settlement.

What happened was the other driver's insurance company gave me around $40K plus $1500 for loss of use of the vehicle, plus something for medical. (I inhaled a bunch of airbag fumes/dust which resulted in a severely irritated nose and throat that lasted for a while... should have gone to emergency room as the ER doctors are aware of this condition and would have dealt with it promptly.)

The insurance company allowed me $17K for the car with its salvage title. Thus I end up with nearly $45K in "cash" (checks) and the $17K car.

I had contacted Oklahoma Foreign (OF) and after talking with someone there, supplying him with the pics, it was agreed should I elect to sell the car with the salvage title OF would give me $17K for the car.

This was the same price the insurance company assigned to the vehicle and I did not divulge what value the insurance company had assigned to the vehicle.

I spoke with the general manager (GM) of an auction facility near me and he agreed to let me put the car into the weekly salvage car auction. I could elect to accept what the auction brought or decline if the price wasn't up to the $17K I already had on the table from OF.

The GM at the facility gave the car top billing -- so to speak -- putting it right smack dab in the middle of the auction floor along with info I provided regarding the car: a copy of the car's sticker for one thing.

On the day of the auction I was present and while the auction started out slow the price climbed to over $20K. I agreed to let the car go for that amount.

After I supplied the auction facility with the salvage title I received a check for the amount the car sold for. I offered to pay any fees but the GM declined. I asked about buying a car and he said he would put me in touch with a broker which implied I would have to pay the usual fees associated with buying a car. This was what I expected the GM to say.

Anyhow, there was no limit set on what I could sell the car for. There was the value assigned to the car by the other driver's insurance company, which just so happened to agree with what another party (Oklahoma Foreign) believed the car worth.

Before the other driver's insurance company came up with its valuation of the car, I did get some preliminary offers from various businesses -- body shops -- for the car as is where is of just $6K or so, which I declined and after the other insurance company and I came to terms realized these preliminary offers were real low ball offers.

It was these low offers that prompted me to wonder that the insurance company valued the car at $650 and yet you received offers of $7K. As I covered above, my experience is insurance company has a pretty good idea of what the car is worth as do businesses that buy cars in the condition your car is in. I got "lucky" I think in selling the car through an auction for more than this.

(Might add that I suspect the buyers at some point would have liked to have their money back. Not too long ago I did a search for this car using its VIN and found the car, what was left of it, for sale for $300. While one hears of stories of someone buying a wreck for pennies and getting the car fixed and back on the road for more pennies, there is the other side and that is someone paying top dollar for a wrecked car and then having to face up to fact the car is not rebuildable or afterwards is just not as valuable as one hoped for at the outset.)

 

Thanks Macster - that was clear.

And thanks to all for the empathy and well wishes. I'm feeling OK and am looking forward to the next one now. I do feel fortunate.

996: 10 years of learning, continued to provide enjoyment, held its value, and protected me in the end - what's not to appreciate? We had talked about dropping comprehensive just a few weeks back (!) - so glad I did not. Hope my story helps someone out there.

 

We have all had close calls, sometimes not of our own making, but sometimes of our own making. I won't bore you with the close calls I've had over the years, more from my own fault than I care to admit. What happened to you could have happened to anyone of us. There but for the grace of God...

You had a bit of bad luck that the situation got out of control. It happens. What really matters is you are ok and no one else was injured. It never hurts to remember that. Puts things into perspective.

Your story helps in that it reinforces just how quickly things can go all **** up, in the proverbial blink of an eye. We forget sometimes just how powerful and fast these cars are. We get acclimated to the power of these cars and forget that it can bite back at any time. I know after reading of your incident I'm making a conscious effort to cool my jets, especially in this rainy weather we are having here, so I for one appreciate you sharing your experience.

Do what you think is best with your car and get another Porsche and get back on the horse, or not. Up to you. Whatever you decide will be the right decision, I'm sure.

 

Sounds like snap oversteer.... Porsche has been tweaking it out of the rear-engined 911 since 1963.

Curious, did your car have PSM?

 

That's hard to look at, glad you are ok. The 996 is very tame compared to the earlier cars, but when that rear end passes a certain slip angle you are just along for the ride.

 

No PSM - it's just a standard Carrera coupe

 

Glad you came out of it OK. Thanks for your honest sharing. These cars are so powerful under the slightest of acceleration. The rear wheels can put you into a slide in slow motion as the car suddenly decides that it wants to go **** end first. I was NOT going fast. Only about 40MPH on an on ramp. This happened to me and there was no way of bringing the car out of the spin. I ended up glancing a safety barrier **** end first in the snow. Mine was on a slight up hill right hander. We have to be extra careful especially when the roads are NOT DRY. We live and hopefully learn.

 

Glad you're OK. That's a shame about the car.
Don't analyze it too much. You can second guess yourself to death.