911 Rod

I bought an E36 M3 for about 60% of it's value because it was in a large accident. I thought I got it for a steal until 3 years later I had to beg someone to take it for 50% of what I paid for it.

dgrobs

Ouch...

egparson202

After tracking down photos of the damages through the rebuilder, the car in question is off my list. The damages were too extensive and I don’t have a high degree of confidence in the repairs. Bottom line: In my estimation it’s not suitable for my planned use as a track car. On top of that I think it will be hard to sell down the line.

I appreciate all the thoughts, opinions and experiences you all shared. Without benefit of this forum I would have had a lot harder time deciding to back away from a very attractive price. Of course, a PPI would have almost certainly told me enough to refrain from purchasing the car but with your help I saved some time and money. Thanks all.

aryork

dgmark is right on. P parts are very expensive. There are no non-OEM parts on the market for cheap repairs like GM, Ford, etc. Thus, parts are expensive and labor too since there are few P cars out there. I read this thread pretty quick, and did not see this mentioned, but find out if the shop was Porsche certified. The good news is that Porsche will not sell body parts to a non certified shop - dealers cannot even buy body parts unless they have a certified body shop. So, assuming it was done in a porsche certified shop, I would feel fine with the car after checking it out. Okay re-read one of your posts - sounds like an independent shop bought parts from donor cars to do the repair. That's a wild card.

I don't see airbags mentioned. It sounds like the accident was mostly frontal. Not sure how both front fenders were damaged, but only one headlight. Anyway, my point is if the airbags did not go off and this was mostly a frontal impact, then the impact speed was probably not very high and/or they hit another car that was moving or started moving following impact. Here is the key though, since you have an independent shop doing the repair, they are motivated to keep costs down, not necessarily fix it to be like new. I would suggest you or someone open the frunk and remove enough carpet, etc. to take a look at the front-most aluminum panels and check for damage. If there is none I would say you are golden and damage was mostly superficial. If it was fixed, then it may need another look by someone knowledgeable. Here's one reference point...when I got my GT4 repaired (long story) I had one of the front panels damaged and got to see it all undergo a Porsche certified repair process. It is rigorous. There was a 911 there that looked fantastic and I asked what happened. They hit a cat going about 50 mph and it went through the front bumper and damaged this front interior body panel that I am talking about. That was a cat! Thus, the rationale that if the impact was not enough to do damage that deep, then you are okay.

The radiators and mounts are all very fragile - basically in any impact those are gone. Not worried about that.

Another check can be the alignment. If an experienced P person aligns the car, they will be able to tell if it requires non-standard adjustments to bring it into alignment.

But, you will always get a better deal by letting someone else pay for the track upgrades. Maybe like this one https://rennlist.com/forums/market/1126000.

[duh, shoulda started at the end! OBE]