RIP my 06 Boxster S :(

Sad time for me last week, had someone turn across traffic and not see me which resulted in me hitting the side of their Malibu at probably 30MPH. As you can see it resulted in a roughed up front end, airbags went off etc. Luckily no serious injuries, passenger of the other car felt some pain so was carted off and I had a sore foot the next day which I think was just from hammering the brake pedal and then the load of my body weight get transfered to that one point at the time of impact, fine now though. Insurance inspector hasn't been to see the car in person yet but has said that due to age and value it'll likely get written off (I did knowingly buy it as a salvage title as well) but I had full coverage insurance. It'll be interesting to see what they value it at (it'll never match the value it was to me emotionally of course). I had put a lot of effort into this amazing little car since it arrived to me from Texas looking filthy and unloved 26 months ago with 127,000 miles. A couple of more recent photos (why didn't I take more??) and I had driven 28,000 miles in it over the last couple of years including a few trips from KC to Atlanta and back, taking different routes each time. These things are amazing road trip cars. I like the front end much better with the original fog lights instead of the LEDs from the previous owner... When the car first arrived covered in dust (and still in my garage) I had thought it was a metallic black, it wasn't until I ran a VIN check that I found out it was actually Dark Olive Metallic, what an amazing color, especially in the bright sunlight which is what prompted me to do the gold accents to match the gold flake in the paint. It's very hard to capture the color on camera. At least I still have my little replica I made from a HotWheels 987 Spyder to remember it by. Now to start the search for a replacement...definitely another 987

I customized my 986 to my tastes, it was really fun and a cool car, the engine went 38K, no idea how it was treated before I got it except it was hit. Anyhow, my grandmother used to say, "you don't get a chance to buy new if what you have doesn't break now and then". Probably made more sense in Italian, anyway you're in good health, that's priority one. I'm confident you will find "love" again with a different Porsche , I know I did.

I'm so sorry to hear it, @Apexhunter987 -- That's terrible news! Just glad you're okay. Currently recovering from a shattered collarbone surgery -- and I'm having one of those moments of realizing how lucky we are when we're not hurt. Glad your 987 protected you when you needed it. Hope insurance does well by you and cheering you on here.

Sorry you had to go through that and glad you're ok - that's the most important part! Are you 100% going back to 987? If so, what are you thinking?

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. What I get next will largely depend on the check from from the insurance company. I'd like to stick to a Boxster , love the open top and I'm not going to track the car more than maybe a couple of times, it'll always be a road car first and though it might not be as stiff or quiet as the Cayman , I'm happy to make the compromise. If I can, I'll take the step up to a 987.2 , preferably an S but might consider a well specced base model. If not, I'd be very satisfied getting another 05 or 06 3.2S manual, not likely to consider a base .1 Another slightly more crazy option....take the check, buy back the car off them and build a Safari Boxster ....silly, I know. Any other thoughts? Or guesses on how small the insurance check will be?

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Non car guys would never understand.

Insurance companies are rarely fair. They will try to low-ball value the wrecked car. You have to counter that. The way to counter it is to show them sales of almost identical cars that went for real-world prices. You do have two issues driving down the value - a salvage title and high miles - but I'll continue this discussion just for the general edification of our members... How to do that? You need prices - you can find them in a number of places: eBay - set a filter up for the year/model, and make it for "Sold" cars. That should show you all the results for cars which have sold. You only need to show them the highest price ones because before this crash your car was PERFECT and FLAWLESS (keep repeating that to them..) BringATrailer - aka BAT. They have a feature where you can select a car model and see all the past auctions for that car. You can see the ones that didn't hit reserve and didn't sell (and how much they didn't sell for) and the ones that sold. There have been some very strong sales for low mileage 987 cars on BAT over the past 2 years. A place called "Classic.com" is a classic-marketplace reporting site. It reports on all sales and for-sales of a model you specify. For your car: Porsche Boxster - 987.1 Market - CLASSIC.COM - it's free and very informative. Hagerty - the classic insurance company - has a valuation tool that the other insurance companies would find hard to argue with: Classic Car, Truck and Motorcycle Values | Hagerty Valuation Tool® That's what you use to counter their offer. If you have the "proof" they'll usually fold and give you a reasonable price. Make sure to include in your estimate sales tax (if there is any) and registration costs. Those can be significant and they owe you that money too (they'll often sort of forget about these..) EDIT: If your state is a no-fault (aka PIP) insurance state - this may not apply (currently 18 states have no-fault - which means your insurance company pays for medical treatments and loss of wages) - but... If you were injured in this accident and the other party was found to be at fault - his insurance company will be anxious to settle with you and get you to sign off on any claim against them after being compensated for loss/expense up to the sign-off. They don't want you finding a personal injury attorney who finds you have undiagnosed whiplash that will prevent you from ever working again or having sex again.. and the attorney recommends suing the other party (really meaning the other party's insurance company.) One has to be a bit subtle about this - maybe mentioning you have a doctor's appointment soon to review some aches and pain you're having (you mentioned it above..) but it might (or not) make them more amenable to satisfying your claim against them without chiseling away at the settlement. Just saying... not that I'd suggest doing this. But I have known of it being done when a company is ignoring someone. Good luck! Let us know how you make out!

Buy it back and build a track car.

If only I had the garage space... And tracks close to me

2006 Porsche Boxster 5-Speed Bid for the chance to own a 2006 Porsche Boxster 5-Speed at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #111,195. bringatrailer.com And you've got the gold already..

And here I am trying tell people Dark Olive Metallic is rare.... Nice condition though! If only it was an S...

What does the insurance company want for it?

Sorry for your loss. I'm glad you and the other driver are okay. Most important. I lost my first Boxster in an accident caused by a sudden medical emergency. I was stopped at a traffic light on my way to work trapped between cars when a man had a fatal heart attack behind the wheel. He slammed into the right rear corner of my car and sent me into the car in front of me. I came out virtually unscathed only biting my tongue. My pristine 01 986S only had 50K miles on the clock. I loved that car. It left a void in my man toy world that I never thought would make me that depressed. Because the driver that hit me died before he hit me triggered an insurance nightmare I never new existed. The "sudden medical emergency" clause. His insurance claim was delayed for months based on the situation and forced me to make a claim on my own insurance, leaving them to fight it out with the dead guy's insurance. That's when the fight began on valuation and payout. I was able to recover a fair market value of my car by having a certified post-accident valuation performed for about $350 and helped me recover almost $5,000 additional value over the standard book for my car. It was well worth it and the insurance company didn't even balk at the valuation done by the company I hired. Here is my car on the day I drove it off the lot in NJ. Replaced it with the 981 I'm driving now. I wish you all the best of luck on finding a good replacement. Funny after you have one of these cars, you can't imagine not having one. The present 981 delivery day!

Not sure yet, the insurance assessor/inspector person won't be able to look at it until Monday next week. Thanks again to everyone for their well wishes and useful advice!

Small update, went out to the yard where the Boxster is being held to pick up my garage remote and have a better look at the damage myself. The damage "could" be repaired but it's not worth it considering the value of the car (watch me comment again on this post in 20yrs time when the 987's are "classics" and correctly recognized as the amazing cars they are "Last of the Hydraulic Steering Porsches!") I should start listing all the spares and parts I have in the marketplace....will be needing cash..

Knowing what I do now, I should have bought mine back from the insurance company for the $1800 they wanted and parted it out. The BBS wheels alone would have covered that.

I would bet wheels, brakes, engine and trans will bring more than they want.

Thats what we're thinking about, we'll see what happens...I might end up with a very long list of parts and spares on the marketplace

sorry for your loss :-( that was a beauty. I hope you get a good claim amount. maybe pick up a 987.2 this time?

Very sorry for the loss of your Boxster , as I'm sure all of us fellow Porsche owners are. What an awful experience. Glad you were not seriously injured. Not that it will help this time, but for what it's worth: I purchased my Hagerty auto liability policy at an agreed-upon value of my car, a 2009 Cayman w/ PDK and about 30,000 miles. My understanding is that in the event of a total loss, Hagerty will stroke a check for that same amount. As time goes by, if the car's value increases or decreases, I can adjust the value of my coverage and amount of premium to keep the car covered to the limit of its value. This was, to me, a great reason to use Hagerty.

Here in Australia there is an option to insure for "market value" or "agreed value" (don't know whether it's the same in the US). The "agreed value" premium is always higher because people tend to insure their cars for more than "market value" and consequently their premiums are higher. My insurer wouldn't accept my nominated "agreed value" amount - they claimed it was too high, but I have been watching the market for many years and though it was realistic. So I went for "market value", fully aware that if worst came to worst I would probably be in for a fight. In anticipation of a claim ("hope for the best, prepare for the worst") I have taken screenshots of all cars of my model and age having similar specs advertised on a popular car sale site every month since purchasing the car and saved them in a Word document. That (i) provides me with evidence of value, and (ii) allows me to document pricing trends. It's also fun and useful for seeing how individual sellers adjust their prices as market conditions change. Of particular interest to me is the variation in 6MT vs PDK cars. Best of luck with both the insurance company and your search for a replacement.

Update. So as expected, they judged the car a total loss given the branded title value of the car and level of damage. I did decide to retain the car so managed to borrow a trailer from a friend, take a trip out to the Copart yard here in Kansas City yesterday and pick it up. After a pretty uneventful trip home I got it off the trailer and back into the garage for the last time as a complete car. I'm going to start listing parts in the marketplace soon but if anyone has any parts they might want to put their hands up for or has any questions, let me know. Thanks again to everyone for their kind words and advice earlier in thread. It's sad to think that its the end of the road for this Boxster that I put so much love and effort into bringing it back to a presentable state and it treated me to 28,000 trouble free miles including some great road trips taking in some wonderful roads and scenary BUT I feel better knowing it's becoming an "organ donor" and good parts will go out to the community to keep other well loved 987s alive and kicking! I also feel good that the funds raised will go towards the purchase of another Boxster (trying to update to 987.2). Cheers, Julian

Sorry for your loss. Best luck with the parts. You should do well parting it out. You will replace your car with a better one, and this will be a great story to share at the next cars and coffee. I'm glad everyone is okay. Bruce.

So what’s happening , what said the insurance company?

Last I heard from the insurance company they confirmed they were going after the other guys insurance for full re-imbursement and so I should eventually get back my $500 deductable which is nice. I have just received a week and a half ago my next 987, its a base 07 Cayman that been involved in a very light front end accident, it seems that now these cars are valued quite low and it doesn't take much to write them off. this car had front left damage that was enough to require replacement of the bumper, headlight, fender and the various plastic parts/grills/paint etc. Those parts very quickly add up (new bumper cover alone from Porsche is $1200). This cars damage was so light the impact bumper and radiator/condensor were completely untouched and yet it's a write off. Great for those that want to put in a little effort to rebuild a car ourselves How it turned up at my house off the truck from California. After spending literally one afternoon removing the bent bits (admittedly, they were only held on by cable ties and duct tape..) and swapping on the bits from my Boxster... I spent this last weekend giving the interior a good clean out, took out the seats, steam cleaned them, vacuumed carpet etc. The leather on the seats still feels a bit dry so I'm trying to find what might be the best to nourish and soften the leather, also need to re-dye them, the bolsters are showing some aging. I'm thinking of trying Clydes, anyone got other suggestions? I've also been going over the error codes, it has a LOT of "unable to communicate with PCM" due to a headunit change, evidently it HAD a Bose system but that amp was swapped out as well but that leaves a lot of errors that are annoying, doesn't get reflected on the dash at all but...annoying. I also removed the interior engine covers to give it a visual inspection, nothing untoward, no visible leaks or loose pulleys etc. The drivetrain itself from underneath was quite grubby so I expelled a couple of cans of foaming degreaser over the rear suspension, sides of the engine and gearbox and rear wheel wells, then hosed it off, not sure it removed that much but better than nothing. I'll just continue to deep clean the parts of the car that get worked on as I go. I pulled the coils and plugs, the coils are the older design beru's with the thinner mounting flanges/shorter bolts but didn't have any cracking etc so I'll leave them for the moment. The plugs that are installed are Bosch R5's, shouldn't they be R6's? I put them back too but may change them depending on feedback. Replacement bumper and associated grills etc have been ordered, hopefully I'll have all that early next week. Once they are fittted, I'll get the state inspection and get it registered. Might even drive it around for a week or so with the mismatched fender and turn up at the weekly Porsche club breakfast like that just for shits and giggles... Cheers, Julian

Thanks Delbi, I did end up ordering the Clydes yesterday but if that doesn't seem to be working I'll see if I can get the Labocosmetica here. Cheers, Julian

HI Julian, Do you still have the 06 Boxster parts car? I might be interested in the convertible top transmissions if they're in good shape.

I do still have them, I can take them out and pop them open to photograph the insides if you like?

$160 shipped for both the left and right sides.

I'll take them.

Cool, I'll post photos tonight

Pm sent (to save everyone else from the barrage of photos)