986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post - Dang! my son's Boxster was hit, not gonna buff out

mikefocke · 01-06-2015, 08:21 AM

My younger son was hit twice by people coming across into him. I finally drove around with him and kept asking him "where is your escape", "what is that car looking to do", "what is that car's body language telling you", "what is that old car liable to do given its probable driver". Amazing what it did for his insurance rates over time. He stopped getting hit. It isn't that it was his fault, just that he hadn't learned from experience yet the avoidance and anticipation by observation techniques necessary in today's crowded and impatient world. 15 years later he thanked me completely out of the blue.

I learned on empty roads, my wife driving a farm truck around the fields. Different world and don't think driver's-ed is nearly enough.

I had a 986 that had a discussion with a truck's rear end. Airbags didn't even deploy. On a Honda, the same damage would have cost $4k maybe. Car was driveable. Done by a high end Porsche shop, $26k is where they stopped estimating. Make sure the second body shop is not cutting corners, measures the trueness of the frame before it starts and if it doesn't measure up total it. You want a safe car for the possible next time and you don't want one that you can never get aligned right.

Compare putting $3k into a roller (car with blown engine of same year), $2k into an engine swap and IMS and getting $4-5k from the insurance company and junk your current car's carcass.

01-06-2015, 08:21 AM	#15
mikefocke Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Sanford NC Posts: 2,538	My younger son was hit twice by people coming across into him. I finally drove around with him and kept asking him "where is your escape", "what is that car looking to do", "what is that car's body language telling you", "what is that old car liable to do given its probable driver". Amazing what it did for his insurance rates over time. He stopped getting hit. It isn't that it was his fault, just that he hadn't learned from experience yet the avoidance and anticipation by observation techniques necessary in today's crowded and impatient world. 15 years later he thanked me completely out of the blue. I learned on empty roads, my wife driving a farm truck around the fields. Different world and don't think driver's-ed is nearly enough. I had a 986 that had a discussion with a truck's rear end. Airbags didn't even deploy. On a Honda, the same damage would have cost $4k maybe. Car was driveable. Done by a high end Porsche shop, $26k is where they stopped estimating. Make sure the second body shop is not cutting corners, measures the trueness of the frame before it starts and if it doesn't measure up total it. You want a safe car for the possible next time and you don't want one that you can never get aligned right. Compare putting $3k into a roller (car with blown engine of same year), $2k into an engine swap and IMS and getting $4-5k from the insurance company and junk your current car's carcass.