mglobe

In my 997. Motherf&%k! I'm sitting at a red light at the corner of Hillcroft & Bissonnet, and this guy just plows into me. I don't think he even hit his brakes. Knocked my head into the headrest so hard I've got a knot on my head and a nasty headache. My daughter was with me & has a headache too. She started crying immediately, because of the car. She loves it that much. The car, actually looks better than the guy's suburban, which was a mess. The impact caused us to hit the suburban in front of us, so both the front and back of my car got it. I can't tell how bad it is under the bumpers, but I'm pretty sure the front bumper is bent fairly bad, cause I couldn't get the towing hook threaded in. The engine starts, and then dies after about 20 secs. I had the car towed to the dealer (Momentum), and will have them inspect it in the AM.

To make matters just a little worse, the guy that hit me is the father of one of the girls on my daughter's soccer team. I'm going to have to look at him all season.

Anyone have any advice on how to proceed with a diminished value claim?

Snoopy

Sorry to hear this. I don't have advice on diminished value, but wanted to say that I hope you and your daughter are okay. In my experience, you could feel worse tomorrow. What was this idiot's excuse? I seriously cannot stand most other drivers. I am so sick of looking in my review mirror and seeing some a**hole in a giant SUV on my tail, chatting away on phone, in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic.

--Amy

mglobe

The guy was very aplogetic, but offered no excuse. What can I say, he's a numb-nuts. We were at a dead stop and had been sitting still for probably 20 seconds when he hit us. I dont think he even hit the brakes.

Snoopy

Terrible. Really sorry to hear this. Let us know what the dealer says.

mglobe

You can't imagine how sick you feel when it happens. I waited 30 years to get this car. Still, it's only a car. Compared to some other stuff we've been through, this is just a bump in the road (bad pun).

Snoopy

Like you said, it's "just a car", but still . . .
I used to have a Saab that I LOVED. I got smashed into by a guy driving a dually and was just sick about it. I cannot even imagine how I'd feel about the P car getting hit.

OCBen

Man, so sorry to hear that Mike. Makes me sick just to think how awful you feel right now, your daughter too. Wow, that just sucks big time. Glad neither of you were seriously hurt.

I know it's easy for me to say this, not being in your shoes, but try as best you can to put it in proper perspective for your daughter's sake if not yours. She'll look back on this later in life and see how you handled having your prized possession demolished like that through no fault of your own, and dealing with it as though it were just a material thing that can be easily replaced. That's tough to do, and I know I would have a hard time trying to deal with it rationally and stoically myself.

Hope the dealings you have to go through now will go smoothly for you.

Soulteacher

That sucks. I'm sorry to hear that. I'm glad you and your daughter are more or less okay.

I'm a HUGE believer in expertise. As such, I'd take a lawyer specializing in traffic accidents. They'll figure out the whole diminished value thing and such. You will have to deal with an insurance company and they are going to use their legal specialists, too. So don't try to be nice just because you know the guy through your daughter. It was his fault and he has insurance (hopefully), so let the insurance and your lawyer fight it out.

THPorsche

Sorry to hear that, I hope you two did go to the hospital to check things out.

kauai_diver

Sorry to hear, F-ing sucks man... hope things get back to normal for you soon!

I had a close call with a woman tailgaiting me in her Volvo suv down highway 1 north of Santa Cruz, almost rear ended me at a stop sign because she was following too close. I have to consciously keep an extra few car lengths in front of me just to deal with the idiots who follow too close behind.

Yah and as Soulteacher said don't go easy, sounds like this guy was totally negligent.

mglobe

Great words of advice Ben. Wish you had given them to me before the accident. My daughter got to learn the effective use of the term motherf#$%er unfortunately. Still while I'm not real happy, I'm keeping the fact that it is just a car in perspective. This might have something to do with the fact that my wife is a brain cancer survivor. It's maddening, but crap happens.

OCBen

That's just spontaneous reaction that I'm sure she recognizes as such. I don't know many people who wouldn't have blurted out a few choice words either -- in fact I blurted out the f-word when I read your post!

A couple weeks ago I almost got rear-ended myself by a big fat rear end!! Happened in a shopping center parking lot (I seldom stop to shop for groceries when driving the 911 but sometimes ya gotta listen to the wife when she says to stop so we can pick up a few things).

I was backing out of my spot while the wife was yakking about something (distraction factors at maximum) when I noticed a huge pickup truck starting to back out of his spot directly behind me, obviously not seeing the lower profiled p-car behind him. (Pickup drivers must think all vehicles are like theirs in height and size and fail to see smaller vehicles, so it seems.) Anyway I stop and immediately hit the horn - the embarrassingly wimpy sounding horn - while quickly shifting into 1st in case he doesn't see or hear me and I need to pull back into my spot. He finally hears the faint horn and stops. Whew! If I hadn't been paying attention I would have been nailed!

And my wife complains and wonders why I don't give her my undivided attention at all times.

gota911

Mike - Sorry to hear about your car. It sounds like you have perspective on it though. My wife and I had two children... twins… and boy and a girl. 7 years ago my 11-year-old son died unexpectedly in his sleep. Reason still unknown. Since then, I don’t really sweat the “small stuff.” My daughter is moving into her college dorm today. I can't help but think there should be "two of them" moving into a dorm today.

Remember it’s only a car and can be replaced.

mglobe

So sorry about your loss Tim. Life changing events like that do at least give us the gift of putting things into perspective that we sometimes otherwise tend to lose sight of.

Mike

Le Chef

Diminished value: what you have to do.

Ask the other party's insurance company what documentation they require for diminished value compensation claims. Typically (so it seems to this novice) you need to get two appraisals from authorized Porsche dealers which show the value of the car after it has been repaired, and the likely value of the car before it had the accident. The dealer representative needs to also include their experience in doing these kind of appraisals (20 years + kind of stuff) and present that to the other party's insurance company.

If they don't play then you take them to court, and demonstrate that the market for high end cars is small with discerning buyers who do not want to buy damaged goods. I'm also trying to get the most basic of information from Porsche about their CPO program and whether they reject cars that have been in accidents. You should also do the same.

The key thing to stress through all this is that it is a rational business transaction - avoid putting any emotion into it whatsoever - insurance companies take no notice of emotional responses (e.g. "my pride and joy") and will use it to your disadvantage.

I'm waiting on my car to be finished in the repair shop and will update people here on how my process to claiming compensation for diminished value progresses.