MarekN

Dear Corsican, I am very sorry to hear that. The exact same thing happened to me here, fortunately with my daily driver BMW. A BMW X5 backed up into my car inside the service area. After some shouting, the dealer agreed to buy the car for a fair price and ordered a new car (will be getting it next week).

May I suggest that you get as much evidence (maybe print this page out as well) from welding specialists and info from market value research and put together a comprehensive presentation with your lawyer. Send it to the dealer via your lawyer by official mail, copy the factory in Zuffenhausen, find out if Porsche has an ombudsman (I know BMW has one) and, if you can afford the time and effort, go all the way to court.

Since the GT3 is out of production, I think a very fair thing would be to help you in getting another GT3 similar to yours or to give you a discount on a new GT2.

Tell your dealer what I told the BMW organization here: If we wanted to drive around in damaged cars, we would buy them from the scrapyard and not from official dealerships.

Either way, I sincerely hope you will find your peace. I know I would be beaten up bad by your situation.

eclou

They should be able to push that out further with a good dent remover - there should be access thru the door latches and vents, and also by removing the wheel liners. They could also try using professional suction pullers as well.

Chris C.

Diminished Value on a 1-2 year old Porsche should be in the 15 -20% range - on this car I'd say even 25%

MartyB

You may do better to handle both the repairs and the D.O.V. through your own insurance carrier. I strongly recommend getting the best diminution of value appraiser in your region to prepare a written appraisal. I handle quite a lot of car accident cases and I would expect in your situation that the dealership will try to blame the customer in the Cayenne and he will blame the service guy for parking the car where he did. If the dealership does accept liability, they may be interested in buying your car for resale rather than having to pay a large depreciation claim, especially if GT3s are hard to come by in Dubai. With your "archaic" system, it might be easy for them to sell the car to someone else without them discovering the damage. The dealership certainly does not HAVE to buy you a new car.

leif997

Have the dealer buy you the newest one available on the market and let him eat the problem with the damaged car....there is no other alternative as far as I am concerned.

340Elise

I am so sorry; I feel your pain. I would not want the car anymore regarless of how good the fix is. Only option is a new (or almost new) GT3; I don't care if they have to go to a dealer in the US and buy it for $20K over MSRP or $40K over if it is an RS that you have. Or, they fix it so you cannot tell, even though you will know it is there and for me personally, would bug the **** out of me; and they give you at least a $40K DV claim.

I don't think $40K is too much. Your car is probably worth about $110 to $120K in the US if it is a regular GT3. After a repair like that, a drop to $80K is not at all unreasonable. I personally would not buy your car for $80K if I saw those pics and it looked perfect.

I will mourn for you today.

Stephen

CorsicanBB

Thanks guys.

Here is the latest. I spent the whole morning dealing with this!!

One of the best high-end body shops in Dubai will handle the repair, at the guilty party's cost of course. They work on Porsches, Ferraris, Lambos and others. I have used them before for minor work and was very impressed with the quality. I visited their workshop today again, looked at some of the work that they have done and am confident they can do a very good job.

They assured me that the panel will be repaired cold, i.e. without putting a torch to it or using an electric arc. They will basically use the same method that was being used to build cars in older times and reform the panel by hand. They say it will come out to almost the original shape, which will in effect reduce the amount of filling to a few paint thicknesses worth, as K24 madness indicated above. They guarantee that it will not affect the lifetime or the quality of the panel and remain undetectable.

This is the best available option to me right now. Still talking to my insurance about a reduced value claim, but they had never even heard the term!!!!

MarekN

Best of luck to you. I also have some good experience with body shops who do their work correctly and hope that in a few months time, you will forget about this bad luck. If you want to keep your car and you feel that you can get over it, then this is the best way.

Kolbjorn S

BB, so sorry to hear this. Do you talk of HOC? They scratched the driver's door on my mint 993 and did a filthy job re-painting it. I've also seen them mess up several other simple jobs. Lets hope it's another shop you're referring to!

frafoss

Are you a norwegian????

CorsicanBB

No, I am taking it to POLIMAR, who do so really outstanding work. HOC is not worth the hassle.... My experience with their sales showroom and service center has been appalling!!! Took my friends 996 4S in for servicing on his behalf once when he was out of the country, they could not even order the correct set of floors mats! I also went to their body shop with my M3 to have a front fender repainted: to show me how he would do it, the manager there was rubbing the dust away from the paint with his bare hand!! I told him to stop, got in the car and never came back!

340Elise

I have no idea how they do it in Dubai, so maybe they don't even pay for diminished value. Do they have a carfax type system their? Either way, when you sell it you should disclose the damage and repair, that is the right thing to do. Maybe the next buyer will not care. I have heard that there is a little bit of money floating around in Dubai , so who knows, maybe it is not of concern to the average GT3 buyer over there.

I would ask the dealer what they will give you for the car right now. If they say that they need to give you 10 or 20K less, then that is what you need to get out of the guy who hit you, or the dealership because the car was in their possesion still when it happened. Just ask them and see what they say. Of course you might want to be armed with information on how much the car should be going for as an outright buyout from a dealer there. Then you have a number to compare it to.

CorsicanBB

No carfax here, no disclosure requirement. It is the right thing to do, I agree, which is also why I keep a full folder of receipts for everything I do on or buy for the car. That goes to the next owner, even though I intend (ed?) to keep the GT3 for many many years.

You are right: with all the money flying around in Dubai, most buyers do not care what your car has been through, as long as it looks good when they buy it. Very few buyers are interested in the car for what it can do, as opposed to the status that comes with it. The funniest - or perhaps the saddest - thing I have seen is a 997 Turbo with ceramic brakes and regular seats: the guy wanted the showy yellow calipers but did not care for the sports seats since nobody would see the inside of the car with the dark film he put on the windows...

03-turbo911

It's good that the Cayenne Owner has stepped up and is getting your Gt3 fixed at the place of your choosing! I was going to suggest that you ship it here as the Dealer's Bodyshop has an excellent reputation and has just returned a 997 Gt3 on the road looking as stunning as when it was new after the owner lost it with some mild to medium damage.

db_gt3

I think I am going to cry. Dont let those savages fill the *** end of your car with bondo! The only proper way to fix that panel is replacement and no it will never be the same again. I would absolutely get a lawyer and force them to buy your car at the market value prior to wrecking it (i.e. perfect condition). Let the dealer handle the damaged car from there. You should not have to live with the consequeces of owning a bent car. Their fault, their loss.