Repainted 911?

Howdy all, I have been lurking around here for a little while since my father has been looking to buy a Porsche as I am the mechanical one of the family. He found the car he wanted, 2000 911 Aero w/ 50k on the odo. This car is at Gran Prix Imports in Wilsonville, Or. Unfortunately they dont have it on their site nor are there any pics available at the moment. Visually identical on the outside to club411's car that is for sale except with blk interior. Car has a clean carfax. I took it in for a PPI today and all looks great except they seem to think the entire car has been repainted. There appears to be no replacement work underneath as none of the bolts seem to have had a wrench on them. The agreed upon price with the dealer was 42,500 providing a clean PPI. Question: If no visible damage has been found and a clean Carfax, would you mind that the vehicle has been repainted? Would you lower your to them offer b/c of this? This has not yet been brought to the dealers attention that we know this info. On a positive note I took the vehicle to Stuttgart here in Portland, Or. on the recommendation of this site. Those guys were great/knowledgable and allowed me to be with them throughout the entire inspection. Kudos Stuttgart! TIA for any opinions on the repaint subject! Thanks, Mason

Sounds a bit high but if he likes it and thats the car he wants...go for it....

Mason, I am not qualified to answer on the paint, but based on my spending the last 8 or so months looking for my car, that price seems a bit high (not knowing much about the car). What I can say about the paint is that it is important that if it was painted, it must be done properly, and the even bigger question, why was it painted?

Mason-That price is high and if it has been repainted way too high. In July I purchased a blk/blk, factory aero, with 21,000 miles in MINT condition for $42,500 from a private individual. From my research I paid about $1000 too much but since this car was so close to me and in such good condition it was worth it. In my opinion the car should be below $40,000 maybe closer to $38-39,000. Good luck. I would have a professional autobody person examine it for possibly a better bargaining position.

Yeah we knew that the price was a little high but my father was ok with it because it meet his criteria as well as having some nice extra's. I am not too up on the Porsche options but will try and list the big ones. In addition this car has new brakes on all four and new rubber. -PSM -Litronic package -Sport seats -18" sport designs After market: -Clear Bra; entire front spoiler and normal amount up the hood, complete side skirt coverage. -Headers(brand unkown), cats and rest of exhaust stock -Dealer to install Beltonics Radar/Laser. -Alpine head unit and changer; JL audio amp and speakers. -Short shift kit(brand unkown) -Full window tint The car looks and sounds beautiful in great condition. Knowing that he was going to pay a premium before, I am sure that will have to change if the dealer wants to make a sell. Mason

Sounds too high- I just bought a 2001 996 Cabriolet w Sport Designs, 22k miles, near perfect except for a weak clutch (knew it would need replacement soon) for $38,500. Wes

I agree, a bit high but if it's the car you want that's ok. A thing about repainting... If you are not going to keep the car but a couple of years it's not a big deal. To properly repaint requires that every panel be sanded. This could destroy the factory multi step anti corrosion process. It's my understanding that the entire body is dipped in galvanizing and special primers that can fend off corrosion for years or possibly a lifetime under the right conditions. This special coating process can be destroyed if the car is sanded or if it has panels replaced. A repaint can never be as good as a factory job in terms of hardness, durability, or usually longivity. The quality may initially seem great but after time the non-factory job usually shows signs of deterioration faster. If you will keep the car for several years, I would look elsewhere.

Mason, I heard a similar message to nick49's comments a couple of weeks ago. I got a PPI on my 2000 C2 at a good independent shop. The shop owner told me that if a car has been repainted, then the paint will likely deteriorate faster. Also, he said it's impossible for a human with a spray gun to apply the paint with the same precision as the Porsche factory, so it will never be as good. He was clear to say that it's not necessarily a reason to walk away, but that his rule of thumb is that a repainted car should be discounted by 10% over a car with original paint. Good Luck!

if u plan to keep the car for more 5 years, walk away from ANY repainted car.

It all depends on the place it was repainted....if the place uses quality paints, does excellent prep work and the car is then taken care of..then you will get a good, long lasting paint job....in some cases, you can get BETTER results than the factory....look at alot of those old hot rods that had custom paint jobs...30 years later they look amazing and are still outshining new cars.

maybe it got repainted because it was keyed really bad? or had some chemicals spilled on it??

Thanks for the responses all. Guess my father spoke with the dealer quickly this afternoon and mentioned the paint issue to them. They are saying that only the front end(not the entire vehicle) was painted prior to installing the new ClearBra. It is now looking like it was done solely as a cosmetic issue due to rock chips and the like. He is going to the dealer to discuss this with them tomorrow. Can't imagine that they will be willing to go down 4k in price due to paint, but then again you never know till you ask! I do however believe that there should be at least half that in wiggle room in the price. Thank you all for the feedback, keep it coming! I will keep you updated on the outcome of this purchase. Mason

always ask... then walk then hopefully they call you back.. in which case, you have them

Might very have been re-painted due to: Rock chips on the front bumper & hood. Rock chips on the mirrors. Door dings on both side. All very likely on a 50,000 miles vehicle. So, the entire car was re-painted to assure matching. But it is WAY too high on the price!!

true you may want to confirm if the whole car was repainted or only the front bumper. respraying the front bumper to address rock chips and such is common. I had mine done recently but documented the procedure in case I ever want to sellit. This will reassure the potential buyer that no damage was done to the front of the car.

Here's the rub: Ask a dealer how much they take off of the trade-in price when they apply their paint guage and find out it's had paint work! Bastards pretend like paint work is no big deal when selling a car, but when buying one they won't touch it before taking $5K off the trade in! Ask me how I know? And you know what, those options aren't anything special. You can find other cars with a little extra patience that are similar or better without the "stories."

In my neck of the woods, full repaint often means hail damage.

I am a professional auto appraiser by trade, and I can tell you this much...if you have a high end vehicle that is repainted, it is worth SIGNIFICANTLY less than a non-painted example. The same holds true on lower priced vehicles, but at a lesser degree. If you can prove that the paintwork was done because of cosmetic reasons (rock chips, key scratch, etc) it will lessen the depreciation, but not by much. Again, this is based on the wholesale market. Dealers/brokers/wholesalers, are looking for ANY reason to pay less for a vehicle and paintwork is the most obvious avenue. The quality of the work will also have a huge impact on the amount of price reduction. Did the shop, remove the glass and moldings or just tape the area off? Are there sanding lines, overspray, fisheyes? Does the color match perfectly? Is it a vehicle that is in high demand and is hard to find? All of this will go into the equation of value, but it all depends on what someone is willing to pay. Whew! With all that being said, I currently own a beautiful '99 C4 Aero that has had paintwork on the rear end. Was it a big deal to me? No, because it was quality work on on a very unique vehicle that I have no plans on selling anytime soon. One last thing, don't rely on Autocheck or Carfax alone. They both basically search law enforcement and insurance databases for vin numbers, and if the vehicle in question was not involved in a police report or insurance claim, it will show up as Clean. I can't tell you how many completely mangled/repaired vehicles I have seen that have a clean Carfax. PPI will save you plenty. BP

Yea, and I didn't even have to do it for a living to tell you that...

I paid $38,000 from Beverly Hills Porsche for a 2000, non-aero, base-model. Car was in good condition, has 34k miles and a Porsche Certified warranty for 2-years/100k miles. I think you can do better. Mind you, I did buy from an actual Porsche dealer... I love the piece of mind of having a warranty.

I paid 32,000 for a non aero with heated Sport Seats, PSM, 19" Champion wheels and 49,000 miles.

Mason, I'm in Portland as well. Bought my 2000 C4 Cab last year for $43k. Had 38k miles. I'm fairly familiar with Gran Prix in Wilsonville and stop in from time to time. I'd be curious about why the whole car was repainted, however, I'll bet you a beer they did it at Precision Auto Body in Beaverton. I just had some minor paint work done on my car and that was the only referral Gran Prix's service department gave me. While at Precision checking things out, I saw two other brand new Porsches from Sunset Imports (1 block away) and Precision told me that Sunset brings their cars in all the time to get minor scratchs and dings fixed. Precision guarantees their work for life and my car looks absolutely beautiful coming back from them. They have an excellent reputation. Maybe take the VIN or Plate number and see if Precision has any record of the car being in there. The rep I dealt with was Cyndi White, phone is [phone removed]. Also, on another note, I was told by Precision that the only time an incident goes on Carfax in Oregon is if a police report is filed. So if the guy crunched his car but ran it through insurance only it wouldn't show up on Carfax.

$26,500 for my 1999 w/55k miles ~18 months ago.

I paid $45,000 for a 2000 C2 Cab with 37 or 38 thousand miles from a Porsche dealership w/ a CPO warranty - that was 18 months ago. I am trying to sell my car now and think I'll be fortunate to get $35,000 the way things are going - my car currently has 46,000 miles and is in great shape. I would not be surprised if resprays on bumpers and hoods on Porsches are somewhat common (mine had it done and it doesn't bother me)