Shivatron

At the end of November, a driver who ran a stop sign on Lamar put himself right in front of me and my three-day-old (to me) Turbo, so I can sympathize. (I'll let you guess how much damage this is; answer at the bottom.)



I was originally contemplating taking the car to Berli's, but I've heard they don't like to handle Porsches (I could be wrong on this). As someone else noted, the only Porsche Certified Collision Center is in Spring, TX, which is prohibitively far. With that in mind, the car ended up at Roger Beasley's Collision Center.

I did note that RBCC has /horrible/ reviews on the internet, which is less than reassuring. They're also not Porsche Certified, as noted above. That said, I did have the opportunity to tour the facility, and they have an impressive number of Porsches in various states of (dis)repair. I can only hope that this volume makes them more familiar with these cars than a shop that sees them occasionally. The parts also meet the Porsche warranty requirements (new and purchased through a dealer), which is important to me since the car is under CPO warranty for a while.

At this point, it's all academic because I don't actually have the car back yet (it's due tomorrow, actually). I guess then I get to start working on the DV claim... fun.

(Oh, damage was estimated at a hair over $23k.)

windymiller

Owch! Was that your passengers' head that damaged the windscreen?

tkrtape12

Wow how did you not hurt..the other driver.. ;( like to see repaired pics

jhbrennan

Wow - glad you're OK - Austin can be a dangerous place. I went to RBCC to just have the front spoiler refinished/repainted - I was not impressed with the rep (maybe luck of the draw) - RB handles Suburu's, Volvo, Porsche's and I wasn't that impressed with the shop. I did have the front bumper refinished/repainted at Berli's. I thought they did an outstanding job and they never expressed any hesitation or concerns about working on a Porsche. However since you were looking at major damage and lots of new parts I'm sure you went to the right place.

DWF

I have used Quality Body for years. I have been very pleased with their work.

Shivatron

No, it was the passenger airbag which shattered the windshield upon deployment.

The other car was totalled, based on my understanding. (It was a 2001 Acura TL, so it didn't take too much damage...) The car's not back, so no repaired pics yet.

Maybe. I'm still not convinced I made the right choice. It's not helped by the fact that Roger Beasley Collision Center isn't very familiar with the concept of a "due date". Up front I was told maybe the last week of the year, which turned into January 3-6, then Tuesday the 10th, then Wednesday the 11th -- they were waiting on a part!, then Thursday the 12th (today) -- car needed to be detailed, oh wait, the airbag light is on, Friday the 13th by 10AM, wait, no, 2PM probably...

I'll be curious to see how good the work is. Any recommendations on a sharp set of eyes that can look the car over?

EDIT: Also, OP, do you have an update on your car?

Macster

You can have the car inspected by a Porsche dealer. Ask that you want it in writing the car's still covered by a CPO warranty.

Now if something acts up -- say a radiator leaks (just saying) -- when the car is brought in to a dealer for this if the tech removes the bumper cover and finds a non-factory radiator... not only will this not be covered by the CPO warranty the car can lose its CPO warranty.

I bought an 03 Turbo June 19 of 2009 and on July 3rd that year hit a mule deer. My car's damage was similar to your car's. The biggest difference is the airbags didn't go off. (I was traveling by myself.) The bumper cover, hood, passenger fender, passenger headlight, passenger side radiator and A/C condensor, the fuel vapor recovery system, the headlight washer, the passenger side front tire (cut from the metal being pushed back by the deer) were all replaced. The wheel was scuffed but ruined when the body shop sent the wheel out to be refinished. A new wheel was ordered.

The only 'tub' damage was the shelf that runs along the side of the trunk on the passenger side that the fender bolts to was bent down a bit. All the other hard points were found to be unchanged/within tolerance, thank goodness.

Total cost to repair was over $25K.

It took the body shop/dealer some time. I had the car in a few days after the accident and I think it was around 60 days later than I had the car back for the last time. I had to take it back 2 times.

For inspection I relied upon a body shop owner near me that I would have preferred to have repair the car but my insurance company was pushing him to cut corners so bad he told me to 'get mad' and yank the car out of his shop and take it to another shop, which had more independence from my insurance company.

When the body shop owner got through I had a list of over 20 items that needed attention. I then took the car to my local dealer (not the one that was supposedly working in partnership with the shop that was doing the body/paint work) and had the car inspected. The tech found some other things when he removed the bumper cover. But what he found was all the parts that had been replaced were factory parts.

If you can't find anyone to inspect the car if you want I can walk you through an inspection by phone. The process is too complex to type in.

I'll be on the phone and at my car and can re-enact the inspection I and my body shop friend did to my car.

Send me PM if you're interested and we'll get in touch by phone.

Oh, you can still go after DV but I still advise you to try very hard to get the car repaired as good as humanly possible.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Alstoy

Sorry to hear this.....glad you are ok. Hard to say but it is an inanimate object.

fast1

Sorry to read about your accident. The good news is that with today's state of the art body repair repair technology, your car can be repaired so that it will as good as it did when it was new. Of course it's critical to have your car repaired by a quality repair shop, preferably one that specializes in the repair of high end cars.

As far as diminished value is concerned, it will be a challenge getting it based on my experience. I had an accident about 10 years ago which was clearly the fault of the other driver based on the police report. Of course the Insurance Company for the other driver denied responsibility, a default Insurance Company position in the vast majority of cases.

The dispute was taken to arbitration and the other driver was found at fault. All this means is that the repair bill is paid by other driver's Insurance Company. One of the terms of arbitration however is that the losing side does not admit fault. So in order to get diminished value, you have to sue the other driver and incur legal expenses unless you opt for taking the case to small claims court which you can do on your own. The maximum Small Claims Court award in my State is $5K.

Bottom line is that Insurance Companies will do everything in their power to present you with as many obstacles as possible in order to prevent you from getting diminished value.

TommyV44

Macster,

What happened to the car after it was repaired? It sounds like you didn't go after DV but didn't you experience a significant amount of that with a 25K repair?

I'm just curious that when it came time to sell/trade what problems did you experience?

Finally, how was the car after the repair?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

Macster

I can't be sure now but I do not think DV was available to me. Since I hit the mule deer I had to file a claim against my own insurance company and more and more companies are adding a rider that says you can't get DV from your insurance company.

Even had DV been available, my primary goal was to get the car properly repaired. The damage while ugly was not severe.

As I mentioned the chassis suffered no damage the only hard point found out of position (and it was obvious -- I took some pics of the repair process) was the shelf to which the passenger fender bolts to. This was easily straightened.

Then factory replacement body panels were ordered and painted and fitted. The body shop even transferred all the stickers/labels from the underside of the damaged hood to the underside of the new hood.

The damaged radiator, A/C condensor, vapor recovery hardware, light, and wheel were all new factory parts.

In the case of the damaged tire, the same tire was ordered and fitted to the new wheel. In fact the insurance company replaced both front tires even though the wear difference between the ruined tire and the other tire didn't call for this.

The paint was blended as required. Arctic silver is particularly tough since the paint derives its color from the metal particles in the paint. The size and shape are controlled by the paint manufacturer. (Dupont I think makes some of the 3 paints approved by Porsche: Standox, Spies-Hecker or Glasurit.) The application of the paint also plays a role but I chose a shop that had one of the approved paint systems and of course had a painter experienced in applying these types of paints.

But what I paid particular attention to was the prep. The parts were painted off the car. The hidden areas, scratched from the hardware from the impact with the animal, were also painted. The door jam and various areas that aren't visible (unless you're under the car with the car raised off the ground) were also painted.

Rubber seals were removed where possible or tied back where not possible. Thus there are no paint ridges. I checked and my body shop friend checked.

All painted surfaces were properly sanded and smoothed out and these include not only the immediate surfaces that one can see but underneath, around the edges, in short all over. My body shop friend and I groped the car like a teenage boy gropes his date on prom night.

Of course the new panels' fit and alignment were the same as the original. My body shop owner friend told me that Porsche is real good about keeping its various body panel jigs and fixtures in good condition so a door for instance made just last week will be the same as a door made 10 years ago.

A particularly tricky task was the new headlight. Since the fender was damaged and had to be replaced the headlight mounting platform had to be replaced as well. This is adjusted at the factory when the car is assembled and my tech friends tell me if this platform needs adjusting after it leaves the factory the job can be labor intensive. About the only time it is necessary is if the fender needs to be replaced or someone goes in there thinking the platform adjustments are for headlight beam alignment.

Wouldn't you know that one of the more obvious reasons I had to take the car back was the passenger headlight's fit was not the same at that of the driver's side. The body shop complained a bit about the complexity/labor but I didn't care. The shop had to make a subsequent request for more money to cover the additional work/labor but that's not my problem.

The important thing when I got the car back the headlight's fit was identical to that of the other side and the adjustment of the headlights was spot on. Also, the high pressure washer system worked. When I tested this before the driver's side worked but the passenger side did not. When the tech removed the front bumper cover he spotted the lousy routing of the wiring, cables, and hoses.

The tech also removed the headlight and found the headlight platform was factory new, which was good, but the wiring connector to which the headlight connector plugged into was loose. The connector was ok but the plastic bracket that held the connector secure was broken. This bracket was replaced.

The tech even poured water at various places on the windshield and body and even in the gas tank tube access cavity to make sure the various body drains were in place and working ok.

The bottom line is one picks the right shop and pays attention these cars can be brought back from an accident with very little DV.

Also, and this is important, the car retained its CPO warranty which came in very handy. Among other things that went wrong and were covered under warranty was the factory transmission (6-speed) developed a leak (selector shaft) and a new (well, rebuilt) transmission was supplied under warrranty.

Now the car might have some DV, at least on paper since I'm sure the accident would show up on a CarFax report. (I've never bothered to run a CarFax report to see what shows up, though of course I have a copy of the one that was run on the car before I bought it.)

Even if the accident didn't show up were to sell the car I'd tell the buyer about the accident. I have pics of the car at the accident scene and at various times from then to after I got the car back and the pics help to document how bad (not so bad actually) the car was damaged and how the car was properly repaired.

After getting the car back I drove up to Stead Porsche to look at cars. A new salesman came out and we got to talking. He told me he used to work for a high end body/paint shop. I mentioned the car in front of him had been in an accident and could he tell me what he thought of the repair. He walked around the car not even laying a hand on it IIRC and then came and pointed out the 3 new body parts. Thinking I had missed something and sick at the thought of taking the car back for another go around with the body shop I asked how he spotted the new panels so easily. He said the paint was too good. It didn't have the orange peel factory paint has. I can live with paint that doesn't have the factory orange peel.

Anyhow, after the car was repaired I put over 70K miles on the car driving it almost every day. In fact I drove it to work today.

Sincerely,

Macster.

TommyV44

Macster,

Very generous and detailed answer....thanks so much for taking the time to do that!

I guess, from your story, you weren't too concerned about hanging onto your car given the fact that you've kept it these many years but I'm guessing you probably owned it.

If you leased it like me and the same thing happened and you could've turned it back in after let's say a year....would you have done that? That's a harder or easier decision depending on your POV.

Tom

fast1

Even if the accident didn't show up were to sell the car I'd tell the buyer about the accident. I have pics of the car at the accident scene and at various times from then to after I got the car back and the pics help to document how bad (not so bad actually) the car was damaged and how the car was properly repaired.

WOW You are one in a million. Not too many people around who are as honest as you.

westlaker

Thank you for all of the thoughtful replies. So, I've attached a photo so you can see what the damage looks like. Any opinions? I'm hoping it's mostly cosmetic. I did drive it home... though it didn't feel right.

The other driver was uninsured and lied about it to a cop. Guess that's how the world works.

So, I've called in an uninsured motorist report to Farmers. They've now taken my statement, rented me a car, and are coming to my home Monday to inspect the vehicle. I have two body shop recommendations from my repair shop (TPWS, Inc on N. Lamar) and plan to insist that the repairs be done at one of those.

westlaker

Oh, I am being urged to replace my front bumper with this GT3-look front bumper. What do ya'll think? I might enjoy a little change since I've had the car 5 years and plan to keep it a while longer.

Should I also try to update it to the 997.2 front turn signal package?