I have the opportunity to purchase an '05 997 Cab tiptronic with <13K miles. I learned that it was involved in an accident (ran into a tire that was debris from another collision in front of the Porsche) and the front bumper was replaced. Also, in the accident, the airbags were deployed. So I need advice on what the value should be and what issues may arise later from these items. I will have a PPI for sure, but I would appreciate any other inputs offered.

 

I would take the total amount of damage and subtract it from the value of the car, along with a slight diminished value amount. I don't know if the are experts that deal with Porsches and diminished value amounts or not.

 

Is the accident/damage shown on Carfax and, if so, what does it say?

 

Thanks PorscheDoc and Doug, I will take the advice into the negotiation. The CarFax only reports the accident (date and location) as well as showing a CA police report #. The owner has the report and will share it with me, but I think I will check it out on my own (never can be too cautious). This is an '05 997 Cab with <15K miles and listed @ $67. I'm thinking that an offer of $58 to $60 would be fair pending a positive PPI report. What do you think?

 

Personally I would not invest that much money in a late model luxury sports car that has an accident posted in Carfax. Unless there was some very significant, compelling reason to have this particular car I would avoid it because this incident will require an explanation when it's time to sell. Plus, any future buyer will want to buy the car below market because of it's history, minor or not.

It is important to get a fair guage of car prices in your specific area. Craigslist and Ebay are excellent ways to see what's out there. It's also important to get the book values. I would book the car out through the Kelly Blue Book site and NADA. You may see some very wide variances on value for the same vehicle within these two books. These are just guidelines and the numbers need to be considered against some actual sale prices in the market place as seen on Ebay, Craigslis, TraderOnline, etc.

Once you are armed with this knowledge you will be in a much better position to determine if this car is in fact an excellent buy or not. For you to justify buying a car of this caliber that has a Carfax report on it the car should be priced quite a bit below market value, regardless of what they are asking for it.

You are in a special situation to be able to purchase such a nice vehicle. Make the most of it and buy the very nicest car your money will buy, not a car you will need to explain later on.

...just my 2 cents

good luck!

 

Thanks once again for the advice. I think I'm going tosit this one out.