ajoyce76

I'm looking at buying a 955 CTTS and I came across one with dash damage (I'll attach a picture). Any ideas on how to fix it if I bought this car? Thanks.

quight

I would be looking very closely at the rest of that car. That is the passenger side airbag tearout. It should be a single piece of material covering that entire area and not even visible as a cutout. The fact that the cutout has blown suggests the airbag has gone off.

ajoyce76

I was wondering about that. Did you see the marks around the cutout? Is that how they look after they blow or does it look like someone attacked it with a tool.

Malibu955

The leather dash in the turbo cars has a separate cutout for the passenger airbag, unlike the normal dash which is seamless. Most likely the leather airbag cover is starting to degrade after years of exposure to the elements, but a Carfax would certainly be in order to see if there was any accident damage.

Petza914

If the airbags deployed all the seatbelt pretensioners fired too and every one needs to be replaced. That will cost half the value of the car. The DME should also record information about airbag deployment that a dealer can pull with a PIWIS scanner during your PPI. I'm not sure that's repairable though and probably has to be replaced. Any repair made around that cutout could effect airbag deployment or launch pieces of the repair as projectiles at high speed.

phatz

where has it spent its life? clear coat suffering as well?

brett968

RUN away from that car! As others have noted, the airbag has deployed. Considering that they didn't even bother to repair a critical safety item, I can guarantee you 100% that the car was shoddily repaired after the accident, which by the way had to be rather significant for the airbag to deploy in the first place.

ajoyce76

Hi Folks,

I'd like to say thanks for all the input. The car is from Georgia, and it's black. I need to do more due diligence (I pulled a build report but not a Vin report yet). If it was leather damage due to heat I'm okay with having to replace the whole airbag (for the cosmetics). The front seats are a little rough too but the price is right. What surprises me the most is the damage to the dash around the cutout. It looks to me like someone was trying to hack out the airbag. I have more checking to do so we'll see. thanks again everybody.

ajoyce76

Okay, I just pulled a history report. It shows no accidents and the car has was sold new in Louisiana and then it went to Georgia. The dealer would be able to pull accident information from the onboard computer, right?

Petza914

Only if the airbags deployed I believe. Looks like a dog left.in the car may have chewed the airbag. If you inspext it in person, flip up the back seat and see if there is evidence of pet hair there that a detailer may have missed.

thesteve

For the record, a vehicle can be totaled and never have anything updated with the carfax people.
There are key places you can look to see if the front end has been worked on. If you do a search, there's probably lots of info available.
One place to check is the seam under the hood where the fender is bolted in. You check the paint around the seam and the bolt heads. You also look for overspray at certain places.
Sorry I can't describe in words better.
Hopefully the dog did eat it after all.

19psi

Is that the only interior photo you have?
The one strip of fake carbon fiber door trim is also trashed, yet other pieces are fine?

It would be interesting to find out what went on inside that thing.

brett968

I still say that the airbag deployed and I have little doubt that the car was in an unreported accident.

For the record, the ripped cover is not the airbag, that is part of the dashboard. The airbag rips the through the dash when it deploys. The stitching on that cover is a very particular stitch and the thread is special, this is to ensure that the stitching rips away correctly on airbag deployment. There is no way to safely repair the upper dash assembly that is in the car and no reputable interior shop will touch it. The correct and only way to fix the dash and airbag is to replace the upper dashboard assembly and the airbag itself. I believe the upper dash assembly is around $1500.

Libast

Only Buy it to part it out.

there are much better and less suspicious Cayennes in existence.

BobcatBrian

2009 CTTS on BAT with separating passenger airbag cover

It looks like this does happen on occasion. It’s weird, I’ve seen several CTT and CTTS with high mileage that have been left out in the sun and didn’t have this happen. What’s a dash replacement cost at a shop? $3-4K parts and labor? I couldn’t find the flag hours.