Saying frame damage is a misnomer as this is a unibody car and doesn't have a frame. Also old school thinking that if the frame was bent, the car was a write off as it was heavy steel where talking about.

Your car took quite a good hit though to buckle the right quarter panel. The car will def need to be measured and pulled back to square. It doesn't look totaled off the bat, but P car parts are very expensive and I'm sure there's a lot of damage under that bumper cover on the rear body panel and lower right side rear rail.

As a 3rd party to the accident you should def get the diminished value claim. Don't let them try to tell you otherwise or even use the company's repair shop.

If you need help, I can guide you. PM me if needed.

Thanks,

 

Sorry. I am surprised you didn't physically attacked him. I probably would. Bloody retards out there. I will take a different view. These cars are strong. Considering bumper damages (rear and front) it could be just the metal sheet buckling under stress (a good whalop). It also make sense as twisting was involved (hit was to the right rear). It also seems the door frames look ok. I think that any considerable frame damage would have smashed the door pillars in too. Let us know once the car is inspected on the lift & report back whazup. Good luck. Ps. Agree with s65e90.

 

Actually a damaged frame back when cars/pick up trucks had frames was not that big of a deal. A frame could be obtained from a salvage yard and essentially the undamaged running gear and body could be moved from the damaged frame to the new frame. Ah, those were the good old days.

Nowadays a damaged "frame", damaged tub/chassis, is a very serious matter.

In some cases this damage can be repaired -- tub/chassis pulled back into position -- but this work can be time consuming and of course expensive. Insurance companies balk at paying for this. But the car is not considered properly repaired by Porsche unless any damage to the tub/chassis is properly dealt with.

Diminished value is a very real thing, but I would not lose focus on first ensuring if the car is deemed a repair candidate that the car is properly repaired, put back to its pre-collision condition as best a humanly possible.

Once this is out of the way, the car should be checked over thoroughly.

In the case of my Turbo I had another body shop owner check over my repaired Turbo and he found some things. Had me write them down and I ended up with around 20 or 25 items to have addressed. Then I took the car to my local dealer where the techs went over the repairs. They even removed the new headlight and front bumper cover and they found the headlight mounting plate/electrical bracket broken and some other things not right under the bumper cover and some other things I forget now all of which I added to my list.

With the list then I took the car back and dropped off a copy of the list and told the body shop owner to address these and call me when the car was ready. In the meantime I asked for and got a loaner Cadilliac. About 30 days later the car was ready and this time the inspection found no issues.

My point is as I said above to focus on ensuring the car is properly repaired, then and only then should the focus switch to the diminished value claim.

 

Hey Everybody,
Thanks for all the comments and advice. Here is a much needed update!

I’ve had the car taken to Automobile Associates in Canton, they are a well-known club sponsored garage that has been around for over 30 years.


It turns out the damage to the car was very minimal behind the rear bumper. The car will need a new exhaust, bumpers, and decklid. Even though the right side of the car buckled from the impact there was virtually no damage underneath the wheel well, to the engine or unibody structure. The civic had hit the impact bumper in the perfect spot so it took the majority of the force from the accident. Here are the pictures:




Slight Pinchweld bend



Heatshield cosemetic damage, bent exhaust tip



Under exhaust damage from bending



Cracked Plastic Intercooler shrould



Slight distortion in sheet metal...see Tree image.



Impact Bumper Piston Travel

There is some distortion of the sheet metal above the impact bumper you can see from the pictures. The factory seams at the decklid opening for the pinch welds look great except for one little gap. The force that caused this minor distortion above the impact bumper in turn caused the exterior sheet metal above the right side fender to push forward taking the path of least resistance and causing the car to buckle on the under the side scoop due to the hollow spot underneath.

Contrary to popular opinion the shop and insurance company believe car can be saved. Total damage estimate assessment is over $22k at the moment….Scary yes! But a lot of that has to do with the fact that New OEM Porsche parts are astronomical in price. A Honda Civic, for example in the same condition would have been $7k for repairs including half respray of the whole car. It also helps that these cars are no longer depreciating and it would have taken a lot more to total it out.

So after much debate, I’ve decided I’m going to keep the car and make it into a full build. The shop is throwing it on the frame rack this week to pull the body square and is confident the sheet metal skin will revert back to normal. I’ve ordered up an aftermarket exhaust and am going to push for a full respray!…StayTuned

 

Glad it can be fixed. The buckled sheet metal is the indicator that the unibody is out of square. I would be very surprised if it measures in specs once put on the rack. I would prefer the car go on a Celette bench for measuring but new digital equipment is nice also.

 

My post is saying that the idea of frame damage being deemed a total loss goes back to way before when cars were old and frame damage wrote them off write away. Steel was different and the entire car was heavy steel and harder to repair with limited equipment. Unibody damage on cars today is fixed all day long with the proper measuring equipment.

 

Well if it turns out to be repairable that's good news, as long as it is repaired properly.

It was Allstate that when I called about my Turbo after hitting a mule deer suggested I take the car to a local gas station and have it fixed. In Ely, NV no less. $25K later it was fixed but not at a gas station.

It will be interesting to see what turns up on the Celette bench. In my case the insurance balked at this as "unnecessary" but the body/repair shop and the dealer convinced the insurance company this step was very necessary.

As it turned out all that was off was the shelf that runs along side the front trunk lid to which the passenger fender bolts. The force of the mule deer impact bent this shelf down a bit. It was returned to the correct position to ensure the new fender fit correctly and all that means.

 

What have they said about giving you a payment for reduced value? While the car can be repaired it will almost certainly command a lower sales price as the value has been reduced and you should be compensated for it... Glad to hear the damage isn't as bad as it looked!

 

Thanks me too! Still working with them to figure it out. It's going to be a long process.

 

Thanks, I'm curious as well to see what the body shop finds for tolerances. They showed me some of the other cars they were restoring that were previously on the race track and had taken some serious accidents. Right next to my car was a 996 GT3 in Guards Red with full glass, doors and bumpers stripped for repair. I feel they have all the tools to bring this Turbo back and then some.

 

It may be a sign of the values rising that the insurance company wants to repair this?
With a $22k starting point, it will be interesting to see where it ends up at when completed.

 

byron in ms had his car destroyed at road atlanta. i was positive they would total his 996tt. ins paid enough that he had a 997 front end kit installed!