ccbb

I'm looking at a repaired 997 (looks good now) but tracked down the vehicle's Copart images. The repair involved replacing the bumper, FR fender, rocker, door realignment, and rear right quarter repair, along with all the subcutaneous work. Car now has a rebuilt title. The shop, based on searches here, and google, is a reputable in the porsche community.

How bad is this? Did the frame rail get Fed in the A? Clearly the light, condenser, and fender took the brunt of it. How would you value this? 50k mile 997.2 cab base with manual tranny which is a bit of a unicorn these day

Of course, I'm worried about:

1. Physical damage. Mitigant: PPI and alignment check to confirm
2. Resale value, and therefore purchase price are branded by the title. Based on research on classic.com, clean 997.2s trade around 40-45k. This is asking high 30s, which feels... optimistic to me. What about you guys? Personally, I'm looking for a GT cruiser and will hold on to what I get.


Before 1 - seems the unibody slightly bent here at the frunk (right side)

Before 2 - closeup

Before 3 - more closeup

During 1 - bumper, fender, rocker placement

During 2 - frunk alingment "during"

During 3 - condenser and ducting back in

After 1 - frunk body seam seems nice

After 2 - looks pretty good

After 3 - looks pretty good
s.

cwheeler

With some deeper investigation and alignment numbers, I may be interested at mid 20s. But to me, I agree, mid to upper 30s is optimistic to say the least.... unless prices have really risen that far...

I'd say they are looking to take advantage of spring and unsuspecting person.

Cw

myltz400

Hi, I'm sure you will get some meaningful responses of all types. IMHO it will boil down to your gut felling when you drive it. The PPI might give you some information on the condition of things other than the repair. But as always it may not. A good drive in the vehicle might give you what you are looking for. As far as resale I would forget about it with the damage on the title, either make this your dream car for long term or walk.

Bruce In Philly

2009 C2S 170K miles

The place to look is on a lift. Look at the front trunk tub. If there is any evidence of distortion or repair, the car was not repaired properly and I would pass on it. If the tub was bent in any way, it should have been replaced.

This kind of an accident is very very easy to repair... as far as repairs go... as all those components are replaceable. Insurance will pay for replacement parts on this stuff... they are structural and affect the future crash worthiness of the car.

IMO

Peace
Bruce in Philly

OKB

what does the car fax say? is it a total, is it minor damage? that should be a certification by the body shop as to the actual damage. I would look under it and see if there is any damage to the frame, that was covered up. Or deception by the body shop to minimalize the damage. There should be documentation if you look hard enough
otherwise I would offer less that they are asking, just as a rule of thumb

ccbb

Thanks gents, I've offered 75% of ask to see if he'd like to keep the conversation going which I believe to be a generous offer. The Carfax calls it minor though there was a double airbag deployment. I'm an out of state guy so the order of operations sadly is kind of upside down. I'd need to get pricing within range before flying down to see it and get it up on a lift. The body shop that performed the work is the seller so at the moment I've got images, and have requested a parts list. I'll request the certification.

Bruce In Philly

I purchased my car out of state and it had a bad carfax. I contacted the local Porsche Club and one of their guys, I think the technical lead for that chapter, offered to go look and drive the car. He did... and gave me a big thumbs up.. then he gave me the name of a local Porsche speed shop that did pre-purchase inspections. That is where I learned about the tub issue. Anywho.... the Volvo dealer selling my car took the car to the speed shop, no charge, for an inspection... I think that shop charged $150 ???. I spoke directly to the shop owner and the tech both.... they both told me something like "if this car was in an accident, we see no evidence of it". So I went ahead and purchased the car with a bad carfax and 23K miles... very happy with the deal. I paid $53K for the car in 2012 with 23K miles..... not bad eh?

Oh, I sent the PCA guy a crate of oranges from Florida... great guy.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

linderpat

I wouldn't worry too much about resale value, since it is in the crapper no matter what. As you said though, you are going to drive and keep it. So long as the work is good, and otherwise passes a thorough ppi, you are good to go at a deeply discounted price (double air bag deployment is more than a 25% discount to me).

southbay

Salvage title I would think upper 20s. You can possibly find the auction price with the VIN to see how much they’re into it. Check alignment and if it drives straight.

ccbb

Hey Southbay thank you very much - the auction closed at 14k.

ccbb

Hey Bruce, and Linder, the car is in PA - yinz interested in a road trip ? Bruce you got a great deal! This deal may be dead in the water if the seller ghosts me so I'll keep you guys apprised.

sandwedge

The "Before 1" picture makes me wonder how deep they dug into this. You can patch things like this up making it look good and nobody would be the wiser or you can do it right which takes the whole thing to a different level. This story comes to mind: https://rennlist.com/forums/991/7603...r-job-huh.html

As for price and resale, I agree completely with those who already said high 30's is absurd given the amount of damage and what similar accident free cars are selling for. Resale? A lot of buyers won't even consider this car unless it's almost given away. I say this since I've read enough posts here by potential buyers on the hunt that won't even give a car with a resprayed front bumper for esthetics purposes (no damage except for stone chips etc.) a second thought. A LOT of buyers won't get near a car with any kind of accident history, never mind one with the extent of damage pictured and described here.

Just my feel for this but if you can get the price down a minimum of $10K and plan on keeping it just about forever.....maybe.

TommyV44

Call the repair shop and talk with someone there and see what they say in terms of what they did...if they fixed it right then maybe like Sandwedge says. The price looks high to me but I do love GR cars so that would tug at my heart strings. These cars can be fixed.

If you get a good price and you like what the BS says...

Tom

linderpat

Where is it? If it's near me, I'd love to have a look, and maybe I know the shop. I'm in the South Western part of the state, Pittsburgh

Petza914

Make sure you can get comprehensive insurance on a salvage title vehicle and not just liability with your carrier, as that may be your decision maker right there, unless you're willing to risk the $25k that car is worth.

For it to end up copart and have that rebuilt title, I believe it had to be totalled. Than means the repair cost estimate was close to 70% or so of the total value of the car. Though the book on 997s is currently too low for what they actually sell for, let's say it was $40k. That means the damage estimate was around $30k.

That's likely too much damage for this car to ever be right again in the long run. Was the hole car resparsyed or just the damaged front and side as it likely won't match as the factory paint ages differently than the repaint. What will foal in the future as a result of the accident - for example wheel bearings on the impact side often fail due to the accident shock but not until about 5k miles after the accident. What fluid tanks were stresses and are now going to develop cracks and need to be replaced, like the washer reservoir tank. Are all the coolant lines that run all the way from then front to the rear of the car straight, not bent or damaged.

Personally, if have no interest in a car like this due to the future potential problems that will eat up the savings you think you got, and resale will also be a challenge. If you can't buy it for $25k or less, I'd walk.