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

Somebody pulling out of a parking lot to a wet street hit the Box. My son was going about 25 mph. Car slid into next lane. No secondary impact. Everything in car is totally functional as was before the accident. Body shop wants $7200 to fix (new door and quarter). AAA says it will pay $5200. Car is a 99 normal with 85k miles. Now they say they want to total it....Their source for car values says its worth $7200. I may take it after I battle them higher and fix it the old fashion way. Is there anything in that right rear quarter that would get in the way once I remove the fender liner?

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1419436178.jpg

The wheel did take some of the hit, but spins true with no tire damage. The rear wheel bearing seems to be fine. It is not loose, turns smooth and free of noise.

Do not settle! That is just the 1st lowball offer. Find several cars in your area for sale, or search ebay completeled sales, and show them what you think it's worth. If they don't accept it, call a lawyer. Your sons back hasn't been right since the accident anyway. ;)

Looks pretty similar to the damage of my accident just my damage stared at the front fender and the full way back. To my knowledge, if that rear fender is damaged the car might as well be totaled because of how the car is constructed. My insurance offered around 5 to fix my boxster, we sent it to a professional body shop rather than theirs and got the car totaled. Their initial offer on car value was 10.2k based on spring pricing. My car was a 1999 105k black base. We then argued against that offering with recent service history, parts receipts, and a selection of auto trader listings to better value my car. We ended up settling at about 13k.

Don't let them walk all over you, be stern and polite and make sure to know what you want.

thanks guys. Big Jake did you keep the car with a salvaged tittle? Or take the $ and leave the car? My son is 17 and I don't know that it would be a problem if the car has a salvage tittle.

I really dislike AAA. Took me 14 months to settle my claim when one of their insured totaled my original Boxster. Here is a summary of my experience. Good luck!

986 Wrecked Final Update

And the original post with the damage...

http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/43878-ahhh-my-car-hit-bad-today.html

We considered keeping the car, I think with the 10 offer they said 6 if we keep the car. I was 16 at the time of my accident. Don't try and fix the car, it'll cost way more than what's it is worth to fix. They will get in and try and fix what needs to be fixed and find more and more, remember that air vent is where the engine bay is, lots of room for damage in there.

You could consider parting out the car, but your best bet is to get the car totaled and try and get a fair replacement value, lots of boxsters out there for cheap, you should be able to get a comparable one for whatever insurance gives you.

Assuming it is just body damage, and nothing structural, I have seen quotes in the $3-4k range to replace the rear panel. That panel is particularly troublesome because it extends 2/3 the length of the car from the trunk to the front of the door. I would get some additional quotes, and go from there. Best of luck!

Might as well total it and get another vehicle. Maybe an opportunity to get a 3.2 or a 996mk1

If the car is for his son, I'm not sure more power is what a young man needs in a car. I certainly didn't when I was young. ;) I felt the need to personally find the top speed of every vehicle I had. :o

That is exactly why I bought a clean 2.5 base.

Keep us updated, as a young boxster owner that's been through this myself, I really feel for your son.

Its going to get fixed! A little fighting with AAA on the replacement value and finding a different shop that knows how to work on Porsches! The shop had a much lower quote to fix. I'm so relieved.

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.

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.