Assessing Damage in used 987 purchase?

[Perfectlap]

I would be inclined to call your insurance company and ask what sort of 'diminished value' someone who damaged your car would have to pay you. That should be reflected in the starting price of the car before you even begin to negotiate a lower price.
Personally, I would need a very very steep reduction to buy a car with enough damage that it had to paid through insurance. Around these parts some people would prefer to pay several thousand dollars in repairs then have their premiums go up and to keep it off the carfax record.

[larryshomework]

Thanks for the feedback.

The CarFax suggests this was an accident with a police report. I guess that could mean it did or did not go through insurance for repair.

The current ask price for the car is about 3K below Edmunds trade-value and about 7K below Edmunds retail.

[racer_d]

Is the title "clean" or "salvage/rebuilt". That alone might explain the extent of damage.

I hit a deer with my Jetta last fall. To the naked eye, 1 hood, 1 fender, 1 bumper cap, 1 headlight, repaint areas.. well.. $3,000 later, it was repaired. I wouldn't have thought that much damage would have occured. My point is, it could have been a 5-7mph stop and go incident.. but fixing a Porsche won't be cheaper than a Jetta. Maybe you could track down the original police report to get an idea of what happened? Also, if the car is at a "highline" dealer, did the accident occur in their possession? Was the car bought at an auction? Maybe the titles been "washed".

Lots of questions imho. My guess is that if you wait 6mo, you could find a "non-stories" car for the same money

[saaber]

Originally Posted by larryshomework

Thanks for the feedback.

The CarFax suggests this was an accident with a police report. I guess that could mean it did or did not go through insurance for repair.

The current ask price for the car is about 3K below Edmunds trade-value and about 7K below Edmunds retail.

The police report is meaningless. Someone scratched my bumper when the car was parrallel parked and I had to file a police report. The only way to know anything about the damage is an inspection by a qualified bodyshop as someone else has said already. Unless of course you can talk to the owner who had the car at the time of the accident. If it was an insurance claim they likely will have photos, body shop estimates, etc. too.