Greetings,

On 9/15/10 I purchased a 911. Wouldn't you know that 3 weeks later (last night) an idiot at a stoplight rear-ended me. We were just sitting still awaiting the green light and his foot slips from the brake to the gas.

Fortunately the angle of the hit only damaged the left side protruding bumper and seemingly nothing else. It looks very minor and I would guess even for a 911 it would be less than $500 (Having it checked out this afternoon by a body shop to be sure)

But, unfortunately the guy had no license with him and his registration was out of date from 2008. RED ALERT.... Because of this I felt I had to call the police to file a report. Now I assume that this accident will show up on CarFax and other services.

So my questions are:
Do you think this will significantly impact my resale value when the time comes even though I will have documentation of the very minor nature of the repair?

Would this affect your buying decision or impact your negotiations significantly if you were interested in the car?

Would you try to get any $ out of the guys insurance due to reduced value of the car after the accident?

Would appreciate any feedback and experiences you might have.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

Sorry to hear that. If it's just the bumper then you're fine. People change them all the time and they are easily replaced. Consider taking the opportunity to explore putting a GT3 bumper on.

 

Most insurance claims now automatically include diminished value settlements - without even asking, I got $250 for a BMW 550i bumper repair (in addition to the repair costs) - very minor bump as well.

 

Glad your ok.

Diminished Value on your UMBI

If I was looking at two as like cars, at the same price and one was wrecked ... I would pick the un wrecked car or ask YOU to reduce your asking price

 

If you don't make an insurance claim, it may not show. You never know with Carfax..

The most important thing IMHO is to take many pictures of the car before,during( to show no major damage) and after the repair.

Enjoy your Pcar!

 

What is your opinion of CARFAX?

Good / Bad

Valuable tool? PITA?

 

If you plan to trade the 911 back into a dealership someday, it may affect the trade appraisal value; especially if it shows up on CarFax, but it shouldn't be too bad. If you plan to privately sell it, you'll probably take less of a hit.

 

I am looking at cars now. If I see an accident on Carfax, I likely just pass on by. If I were really interested and you were able to show me a) pictures of the damage, b) the estimate and receipt from the body shop with date that matches Carfax, and c) an after picture, and d) copy of police report, then I would retain interest - but still expect some reduced value simply based on the perception that crashed cars are worth less.

Either way, cannot hurt to keep as extensive records as possible about the incident along with your maintenance. Should be a snap to do.

 

Car Fax is NOT reliable. Not that anyone else is better.

I am close to someone who had 3 major collisions in the same car (should have been totalled two times) including 2 separate airbag deployments. Each time, the body shops overwhelmingly underestimated the repair costs and insurance approved, then relented in paying the overage.

BMW M Coupe. Original Cost: $42,000

First Repair: $12,000 (deer)
Second Repair: $17,000 (track incident)
Third Repair: $23,000 (head on concrete median in the rain).

When the car was sold, Car Fax was clean.

I guess to be fair, Car Fax is only as good as the information it receives.

 

Go center exit exhaust and gt3 rear bumper.... mod the fix and turn this whole bad experience into something nice like a new mod

sorry to hear that news, I would highly recommend taking detailed pics of the damage, take pics after the bumper cover been removed to show nothing else major got damaged and have this data when you go to sell your car... nothing worse when an accident shows up and seller has only a story.... best they have pics, dates, details on what happened and even have the shop write something up on their letterhead that states the damage was minimal and cosmetic assuming that is the truth...

good luck, it is only a car, no one hurt....not a big deal...