JD305

A new >in warranty< porsche with a "Salvage title" designation...can it be brought to the dealer for warranty service? How would the dealer be able to tell the title condition of the vehicle...do they link somehow to state records?...or do they run a Carfax on it before they do service?

touareg

If you are asking how to rip off Porsche, I don't know.

New Car warranty:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...EULD3TMfszh7oA

New Car Warranty Does not cover:
Unauthorized modifications or vehicles with total loss or salvage titles.

JD305

Not exactly...cars can be made salvage for many reasons...not necessarily due to total loss accidents...insurance companies can issue a salvage due to hail damage...does the mean the rest of the car is a lemon?

Does the dealer care?...it's their car, they provide repairs and parts...and once in a while they can knock out a major service, brakes or oil change on it. No one gets hurt?

I understand there is wide spectrum here....unscrupulous dealers buying truly salvaged and rebuilds then trying to pass them off to get clean title.

When hurricane Andrew passed by, many cars suffered roof title damage to the body, nicks and dents, no broken glass...many of the good insurance companies just totaled those cars....especially the New Lexus dealer...you could of had a cheap Lexus...all you needed was to have body work done.

gnat

That shouldn't make any difference as long as it was repaired correctly. I doubt they proactively look that stuff up, but if they get in to fix something and find obvious signs of damage or bad repairs they'll say something about it.

Unless it's a screaming deal (which can be an indicator itself) and/or you have reliable documentation about why it was salvaged and what was done to repair it, I would be cautious (and would probably walk away myself).

Keep in mind that it takes a lot to total a new vehicle with a price tag like the Cayenne has (you didn't mention model information). There is a recent thread you can look at where an older Cayenne took a pretty good smack and original ($18k I think it was) estimate still didn't total it. It would have to be a lot worse to total a new one.

My point is that even if it looks good, major work went into making it look nice. If they did everything correctly (ignoring honest mistakes of missing something) there wouldn't be much room left for profit. And if they cut corners then you could have all kinds of weird issues and annoyances down the road (on top of having trouble selling it yourself).

gnat

I had a $70k 6 month old car trashed by hail (every panel (including the roof which isn't exactly a removable item) had to be replaced and the entire car was repainted). That won't remotely total a car of that kind of value unless you have an exceptionally strange insurance company.

There are extreme situations (you mentioned Andrew) where otherwise non-salvage cars get totaled because there is so much damage locally that it would cost them too much to do all the estimates and the repair times will be out of sight (which means rental car expenses will be painful too), but those are rare and you still have to determine if it was a real total loss (sat in the ocean for a week) or not.

JD305

That's exactly it...some recent areas like Sandy...there was so much devastation that some of these insurance companies just wrote a fat check to cover everything, even if no flood damage occurred...insurance checks to cover property and pain and suffering for victims....a new Cayenne owner can make the case to the agent and say.."hey, I can't pay for this thing any longer...looking at everything else I have lost" ... then again, I'm just speculating here...I'm not an adjuster

Insurance may total the whole area just due to the overwhelming number of claims.

DWPC

Consider the repair cost that would be required to "total" an $80K car. Not likely from hail damage or anything superficial. More likely a flood or water damage car, ie a nightmare, or perhaps a major clip. And I'd guess Carfax has a service reporting salvage VINs to manufacturers just for these reasons.

gnat

It's certainly possible, but as I said earlier without reliable evidence about the damage and repair the odds are much more in favor of it having suffered some pretty horrible damage even in such extreme circumstances.

It's sounding like you know something of the history and if that is the case and it's something you are comfortable with, go for it. Stuff may or may not be covered under warranty and as touareg points out you shouldn't even try to claim anything under warranty.

JD305

The seller said it was most likely from Sandy area...a 2011 CS, but was totaled because of overwhelming claims?...there was no water or flooding damage he could see, nor any smell of water...it is currently his daily driver.

(what is considered flooding? up to the brakes or up to the inside of the vehicle?)

Anyhow, he mentioned when first picking it up (I think at auction)...he took it to the Porsche dealer where they did some warranty service and no one asked any questions.

So this sounded interesting to me....hence my post...how would the dealer know if you pull up for service in a 2011?

I know for a fact they do not share service records across Porsche dealers. If you buy a porsche from Atlanta and bring it down to Miami...the Miami dealer has no clue as to the service done prior....unless you have access to previous service records.

gnat

Word of mouth on a salvaged car isn't something I'd go by, but that's just me.

When you said new I figured we were talking about a literally new car that something happened to. Being a 2011 changes the equation a bit (but they are still not easy to total under normal circumstances).

I have a friend that runs a body shop. He got an LR4 in that some idiot parked on the beach and let the tide come in and flood. He then took it home and left all the windows open to air out. Again he didn't pay attention and we had some torrential rain which again flooded the car. It was then taken to the LR dealer and parked for a month before my friend got it. In the first case the seat bottoms were submerged. In the second there was enough water that some poured out when the door was open (so a few inches).

Initially the insurance wanted to fix it and they paid to have most of the interior replaced. He got all the parts (paid for by insurance) and then they totaled it before he could start work (but left all the new parts with him). He managed to get it from auction and put the brand new interior in it and it's been his DD since then. If you didn't know the story, you'd have no idea. If, however, you start digging (look at the computer modules under the seats and other hidden electrical connections) there is a bunch of corrosion and he knows sooner or later it will fail (but in the mean time he got a $40k car for $15k that just cost him labor time to install the interior parts).

The point here is that a good job can make it non-obvious what happened, but there can still be surprises down the road.

JD305

Yeah...word of mouth about this is as trust worthy as market predictions.

I think he's asking $50K and actually its a 2011 CTT...it's an ok deal, but not a steal or maybe even worth it...

I would say that whomever buys it would have to literally keep for a long time.

What's worrisome is all the new technology and buttons that Porsche has thrown into these 2011+ Cayennes...especially front and rear A/C and all the other gadgetry

Cole

As mentioned here. There are a LOT of reasons cars get totaled and end up with a salvage title that have nothing to do with damage.

One very easy one I've seen a lot is theft. Car gets stolen and abandoned somewhere like a corporate parking garage or 24 hour grocery store lot. A place where a non-junker can sit for months unnoticed.

The insurance company pays out on it as a total loss due to theft. When it is finally recovered it may be in 100% totally perfect shape, especially if left in a parking garage. But still receive a salvage title because it was payed out on as a total loss.



Not always. I know of a 2004 Cayenne Turbo that had a minor fender bender with only a few hundred miles on the clock when they very first came out. You simply couldn't buy the replacement parts from Porsche yet. (Headlight, bumper). So with only minor damage they decided to "total it out" so the insurance could buy the owner a new car. All because the parts couldn't be bought yet.

DWPC

This isn't the kind of decision to base on anonymous forum responses. Why not ask PNA or a dealer? Or read the Porsche warranty text. If it explicitly excludes salvaged vehicles, it seems to me that you'd be at felony level fraud if you tried to get any significant warranty work.

Divot

I think the PIWIS would blow up as soon as it was plugged in.

JD305

In some states going over 100 miles per hour can get you 30 days in jail...how many around here constantly go over 100mph in their porsches?

If the dealer fixes something under warranty work on a car that has a salvage title..who gets hurt? We know that many times we bring it to the dealer for warranty work...and end up adding on some other maintenance items, rotate tires, change oil, wipers, brakes, etc.

I want to clarify that, from statements above...there are wide range of what someone may consider a "salvage" vehicle. Someone can show up to the dealer with it and just claim ignorance...I guess that's what this guy did.

Obviously PNA is covering their business interests by making a concrete blanket statement about not covering "salvage" vehicles.

Have PNA dealers done warranty work on salvage vehicles? I'm sure they have. Will they have you arrested at the dealer when you go to pick up the vehicle?

If the dealer does run a car fax, they will see the issued salvage title...then they will not even touch the car with a ten foot pole...ask you to kindly leave and return their free bottle of water.