parts prices, had a heavy "off" last night

[andymc]

Hi,
im trying to get some rough idea of whether or not the insurers will classify my car as a total loss,
its a 986 boxster s (2000,68k)
i span the car and it has sustained damage to the bumper (front and back), front wing and rear quarter and one alloy, the radiator is also leaking, i would be gutted if the car was wrote off as it took ages to track one down.
thanks

[thegoose]

It would be a 5 figure sum to write the car off, the repairs *should* come to less. However, the insurance company may determine that it would cost them less to pay you out in full for the car at pre-accident market value and then sell the salvage on, in which case they will write it off. You may be able to buy it off them and then have it repaired yourself, which you may be able to do cheaper than they would have - e.g. you could source used parts (which may still be newer than what was on it before, so not really sub-standard).

I guess you're OK to only be posting about the car, in which case I'm glad you're alright. Whatever happened to cause that damage must have been quite scary.

[andymc]

thanks for the concern, i had just dropped my daughter off which is the main thing, always thought the RWD thing was a myth until yesterday!
still peed off about the car but as you say there were no casualties

[LeeME3]

I had a 2000 W reg 2.7 Boxster that ended up going into a tree backwards and airborne. All rear body panels were changed, new hood, new gearbox, full engine out engine check, new rads, new tyres all round, new rear suspension, chassis alignment checked on laser jig etc etc etc. Car had 15000 miles on at the time and bill for repairs came to £20K ish - not written off by less than a £few-thousand. From what you've described I reckon your repairs will be £10K tops provided they don't want to take the engine out and run loads of bench tests on it.

Glad you're OK and FWIW my car was 'rebuilt' by OPC/local OPC approved bodyshop and came back literally as good as new so far as I could tell - and I sold it with no problem (having declared the damage).

[Wanta996(Gotta)]

Interesting, the exact same thing happened to my brother-in law in his 2001 Boxster S on a roundabout - There was £15k worth of damage and the Insurance company paid out to fix it rather than right it off - bare in mind that it was taken to a Porsche centre.

Note that this was in 2001 when the car was probably valued at approx £38k.

[cardigankid]

Glad you are ok, really that's all that matters. I know its a Porsche and though it pains me to say it its only a car.

Without wishing to be nosy what if anything did you do to provoke the accident? There seem to be a few posts about crashes at the moment and its always good to learn by example not experience.

[andymc]

nothing i can recall, very heavy rain and propably too much on the gas exiting the roundabout , its not that easy to correct a slide unless you're walter rohl, car ended up pointing the right way so i just limped up home, could have done with a drink to steady my nerves but was very wary incase the police had been called

[rude-boy]

andymc said:

nothing i can recall, very heavy rain and propably too much on the gas exiting the roundabout , its not that easy to correct a slide unless you're walter rohl, car ended up pointing the right way so i just limped up home, could have done with a drink to steady my nerves but was very wary incase the police had been called

Sounds very similar to what happened to me, totally without warning, rear let go after a bit of fishtailing I was able to gather it all together and count myself warned. Went straight back to have a look at where it had happened (quiet at the time thankfully) and didn't need to consider further than damp road with a healthy slug of diesel (could tell by the gleam on the surface when I looked carefully, running hand over and sniff test and the fact it was slippy even to stand on!) just where I had started to feed the power down.

Mid engine/RWD is the mutts nutts right up to the point when it goes without warning, then, as the OP says, you need to be W Rohl Esq or exceptionally lucky not to be taking a trip to the menders a the least. (I’m putting myself in the lucky group here!)

[supersport]

If there is diesel on the road there is fig all you can do. I had the rear end out on a round a bout at 10mph!!! The road was thick with oil/diesel, just had to go round and try again.

God knows what would have happened if I had pushing on.

[cardigankid]

I wonder if there may have been some oil on the road - even Rohrl couldn't do much in that situation. It just goes and goodbye. Happened to me once about 30 years ago. I don't think Boxsters go without warning.

[dava]

Any of you guys got PSM? If so, did it trigger?

[noumenon]

Don't kid yourself, PSM won't help when you're way beyond the limit, like on oil. All it really does is try to keep the tail in line so you hit head on, exactly the way the car is designed to take the impact.

I had an mx5 turbo, which used to drift all day. A boxster lets go a lot later due to being mid engined (more weight on the rear) and having bigger rear tyres to the fronts. However you have to be quick to catch it. When it really goes, it has teeth. Take it on a Walshy day or similar and find out for yourself if the car and your skill are a good match.

[IMI A]

They may write it off depending on what they value your car at. When Boxsters let go the trick is to feed in very very small amounts of opposite lock. They don't react well to armfuls. I've had a couple of hairy moments in snow and ice - took car up to Bedford Autodrome and seventy laps later felt far more confident. Agree mid engined car was a bit more difficult to get to grips with compared to front engined rear wheel drive like 944.

Edited by IMI A on Monday 20th August 20:54