[gulshan]

some background. I am actually looking for a good condition, low miles 981 S but every now and then a 987 S appears that is optioned exactly the way I would want but has a minor accident on carfax. (fender bender that kind of stuff where claim was made and hence came on carfax). I dont mind a 987 over a 981 since I am mainly buying for the flat 6 sound itch (with PSE or Borla type sound) coming from a BMW e92 N54 with the OEM performance exhaust. My eventual car hopefully before I die is the 718 S (unless something comes out that is better than that..hopefully not otherwise my soul will not rest in peace )

Now to my questions to you folks. I need your collected wisdom. If I buy one with accident on carfax where the car is in good shape how much will it be discounted when I go to trade in for a 718. To clarify at the time of trade in everything else being the same if a clean carfax trade in value is say $40,000 what would dealers quote for trade in value for same car with an accident on carfax ? Thanks

 

[D&D]

I went through selling my '07 Cayman back in 2015... Accident or not/carfax or not, dealers were only going to give me "wholesale" value... and some dealers were not even interested in taking the car and doing the paperwork. So the real question is whether or not any of this makes a difference with selling "yourself" on the open market. I don't have any experience with how that "minor" accident would affect an arm's length transaction. And not many 987S's are going for $40K.
Hope this n=1 experience is of help.
D

 

[gcurnew]

My experience selling a Porsche (2011 911 GTS) privately with a $10,000 front bumper replacement was that it didn't matter to the people interested in the car. It didn't show up on Carfax or Carproof (the Canadian equivalent of Carfax), but I disclosed it in my ads for the car and had about 40 hi-res shots of all stages of the repair showing only the bumper skin, GTS front spoiler and underlying supports were damaged (although the LED fog lights were replaced as well). If the repair is minor and documented as having been done by a Porsche Certified body shop, damage shouldn't dramatically affect resale value to a private party or a trade to a dealer. Yes there are folks (many of them vocal on the site and others) who say they would only buy low mileage, never damaged, no-blemish garage queens. Fair enough...but there are LOTS of other used Porsche buyers who are more flexible. Bottom line: if you find a car that has had minor accident damage repaired properly, you can probably get it a few grand cheaper than a no-damage car. At resale or trade-in time, you may have to sell if for a similar discount.

 

[gulshan]

My experience selling a Porsche (2011 911 GTS) privately with a $10,000 front bumper replacement was that it didn't matter to the people interested in the car. It didn't show up on Carfax or Carproof (the Canadian equivalent of Carfax), but I disclosed it in my ads for the car and had about 40 hi-res shots of all stages of the repair showing only the bumper skin, GTS front spoiler and underlying supports were damaged (although the LED fog lights were replaced as well). If the repair is minor and documented as having been done by a Porsche Certified body shop, damage shouldn't dramatically affect resale value to a private party or a trade to a dealer. Yes there are folks (many of them vocal on the site and others) who say they would only buy low mileage, never damaged, no-blemish garage queens. Fair enough...but there are LOTS of other used Porsche buyers who are more flexible. Bottom line: if you find a car that has had minor accident damage repaired properly, you can probably get it a few grand cheaper than a no-damage car. At resale or trade-in time, you may have to sell if for a similar discount.

You lucked out. Buyer now has to repeat what you did and can only sell private. Dealer trade in will be discounted severely I think but don't know by how much. They typically do a paint meter test to detect (clean carfax does not matter)

 

[gcurnew]

You lucked out. Buyer now has to repeat what you did and can only sell private. Dealer trade in will be discounted severely I think but don't know by how much. They typically do a paint meter test to detect (clean carfax does not matter)

I highly doubt my local dealer would have cared about a bumper skin replacement. It was a long way from a garage queen. I wonder though why people take typically low ball trade in offers from dealers when its SO easy to sell a car these days privately. Even though I know the local dealer's used car guy well, his offer to buy (not on a trade) was around $20,000 less than I sold it for.

 

[gulshan]

I went through selling my '07 Cayman back in 2015... Accident or not/carfax or not, dealers were only going to give me "wholesale" value... and some dealers were not even interested in taking the car and doing the paperwork. So the real question is whether or not any of this makes a difference with selling "yourself" on the open market. I don't have any experience with how that "minor" accident would affect an arm's length transaction. And not many 987S's are going for $40K.
Hope this n=1 experience is of help.
D

Regarding $40k. I just threw out a random number. i am guessing dealers will sell "as is". Trade in value will be less than auction/whole sale. The question is how much less than whole sale. Regarding dealers not buying your cayman. i guess you only wanted to sell (not trade in for another car with them)

 

[desmotesta]

I can think of few worse ideas than to be shopping for a car as a place holder so you can one day trade it in and buy what you really want

If history is any indication, you will buy this place holder, dump a bunch of money on mods, get back , $0.25 of every dollar spent on Mods ... 2-3 yrs down the road trade it or sell it (resulting in more LOSS) and then buy what you want.
Sadly, 2-4 years down the road, when you add up money spent on this "place holder", Mods, maint and service, Loss on sale, .. you will prob be just a few thousands away from your so called dream car.

That said.. human nature dictates that you mostly ignore this post and learn from real life experience.. its how we all work



Good luck

 

[gulshan]

I can think of few worse ideas than to be shopping for a car as a place holder so you can one day trade it in and buy what you really want

If history is any indication, you will buy this place holder, dump a bunch of money on mods, get back , $0.25 of every dollar spent on Mods ... 2-3 yrs down the road trade it or sell it (resulting in more LOSS) and then buy what you want.
Sadly, 2-4 years down the road, when you add up money spent on this "place holder", Mods, maint and service, Loss on sale, .. you will prob be just a few thousands away from your so called dream car.

That said.. human nature dictates that you mostly ignore this post and learn from real life experience.. its how we all work



Good luck

The delta's on the cayman's are wider than you may think
Good low miles 987.2 S about $30 to $35k (as high as $45k for dealer cpo --2012 year)
981 S - About $50 to $55k
718 S -- about $70 to $75k

So it helps to placeholder and try each model if you want to every couple of years. You could save for 10 years and buy your dream car or keep incrementally saving for 20 and 30 years and change cars every few years. All depends on which school of thought you subscribe to.

 

[RickH]

IMO it all comes down to your definition, and the sellers proof of, a "fender bender". Dealers will indeed go around with a paint thickness meter and discount significantly on ANY accident. Buyers will fall in a couple of categories. One might buy the car and not worry too much about it. The other will NOT buy the car. I would think, however, that all buyers would do do-diligence (Sp).
Myself, I fell in love with a 981 CS that was optioned perfectly and in sapphire blue I just had to have it. Ordered a car fax and discovered that the car was in an accident that the seller had not bothered to tell me about. Once ask he was strait forward enough and provided a full set of before pictures, the Porsche certified body shop invoice etc. It had had a minor "fender bender" in the left rear quarter panel. Since the cause of the accident was supposedly the fault of the Porsche dealer servicing the car, the owner demanded a full quarter panel replacement, which he got. Big, big bill! When all was said and done I passed on the car which was offered to me at $10k below fair market value. Just too much "fender bender" for me. Now, bumper cover replacement or repair, that is another matter and I would not think twice about it. Do your do-diligence! Good luck.

 

[gulshan]

After posting my question, reading various responses I have once again been reminded by life that there is no free lunch I am now seriously leaning towards buying cpo or 2 years remaining on factory warranty only for my next purchase.. I think there is another thread somewhere where someone even bought a cpo car where a paint job was detected when he went to trade in after cpo expired. Bad guys have figured out how to game carfax.

 

[gulshan]

I just found out about this for those who get hit for no fault of theirs and hence get their car's value diminished..google for "diminished value claim"