Dang! my son's Boxster was hit, not gonna buff out

[mikefocke]

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.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by mikefocke

"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..

imho 99% of excellent street driving or even high performance is done with the eyes.
You drive with your eyes and your hands and feets just tag along.
But in the real world people are driving in a daze, distracted by their smartphones or fixated on what is directly in front of them. On a highway of three lanes or more it seems to get worse as a constant speed sets in. They start tail-gating, doing parallels or braking instead of lifting.

To the OP, you have two options if the damage exceeds ~$6k (can't tell what's going on underneath).
A) You can do this by yourself or B) you can get it done this calendar year with a lawyer.
My car had about $5K in damage when a guy light tagged my front bumper reversing without checking his mirrors in a parking lot. But the damage was largely cosmetic. His insurance was excellent and paid for all new parts and full labor at the body shop of my choosing. I insisted they send me a check instead of paying the shop directly much to the disappointment of the body shop owner who thought he'd found a way to pay for his Caribbean cruise.
Amazing how expensive even a minor repair can get with these cars.