Rear ended by a drunk.

[Alex Walker]

Well it finally happened. 2 years into owning my boxster and I got rear ended by a drunk doing 90 on the high way. Luckily I sped up at the last second and managed to miss getting hit dead on, but still did some damage. I've attached a photo here. Still completely drivable. It would go into gear and drive no problem. What do you guys think? Fixable? There are about 130,000 miles on the car.

[Gforrest2]

Wow. Glad you're okay. I'm sure they're going to total your car, but maybe you can buy it back from the insurance co. for a token. Same thing happened to me about 20 years ago. Drunk ran a red and I T-boned her, completely demolished her car and I thought I killed her (didn't know she was drunk until I got the police report). Not her car and no insurance. They totaled my truck and paid me about $6k. I bought it back for 10% ($600), bought a new bumper, grill, front fender, hood, and did a rattle can paint job. About $800. Drove it another 3 years and got hit again. Insurance totaled it again, I got $3,500. This time they wanted 25% to buy it back so I said no.

So maybe you can buy it back for a couple of thousand, spend a couple more fixing it up, and keep driving. Good luck.

[eightsandaces]

I'm glad you're OK too, I'll tell you this, I'm so sick of DWI and people reading on horn pads that I've already decided if this ever happens to me I'm going to fall out of the car post accident like I took a burst from an AK-47 injured or not. Screw it, if there is any segment of society that deserves it it's the people not paying attention to their driving or driving drunk.

[JTP]

Sorry to hear about your accident, that really sucks. Good thing is you're not injured.

My car was recently damaged due to a deer strike and the damage wasn't nearly as bad as yours and it was $4500 to repair. I managed to "surf" over the animal and avoided any damage to the bodywork but you've got alot of damage. If they total the car you could buy it back and fix it yourself. Might not be perfect but you'll have a great project car.

[yelojkt]

The pics below are my NB after hitting a deer. There was about $4000 in damages but with a good body shop he cleaned up nice. The second shot is some 5 years later. So you can make it like your old car again or you can take the money and upgrade to an S. I guess it just depends on how attached you are to the car.

[mikefocke]

I was hit from the rear by a little car sliding in to me. No metal damage. No lights damage. No spoiler damage. Show a picture and if I didn't tell you where the damage was you wouldn't have noticed. But the bill was $3k for the bumper and supports and they reused the darn bumper skin! Muffler replace too.

In your case you may have frame damage which should be an immediate write-off. You certainly have involved the whole motor mount system where the muffler was driven into the cats then into the headers and to the motor and then the motor mounts. Cascading damage potential.

Make sure the estimate includes a frame measurement (either via laser or by using Porsche jigs) as that will tell you if there is any chance to rebuild it safely. Insist on a Porsche rebuilding specialist even if the benefit to you is a thorough analysis of what needs to be done to make it drivable.

My web site has a "totaled" story page of my experience with my first Boxster. They stopped counting at 80% of the car's value. And the other vehicle, a truck, had no visible damage.


Glad you are OK, sorry about the car.

[KevinH1990]

This cost the other driver's insurance company about $900 to repair, and they didn't have to replace the bumper cover and there was no hidden damage.

I think most of the previous posters are correct. Be prepared. The insurance company will probably total your car.

I'm glad you are OK.

[ekam]

It sounds strange to say this but it might have been better if he did hit you dead on from the rear. An offset crash like that are more likely to damage the frame.

That being said, I hope you're doing okay.