So you can't want nice things...

Well after only 2 short weeks of blissful ownership of my dream car... I went out with some buddies to see a movie and grab a drink after, about 30 minutes into our hang out at the eatery a nice lady walks in and asks if anyone inside is driving a Porsche. I jokingly say "you didn't hit it did you?" She says is it your car? I said yes and showed her my keys.. She says I backed into the bumper pulling out of my parking spot will you come take a look... My heart sank.. She did back into my car.. She tried to "wipe off" her paint, but the car needs professional help.. So bummed. She wants to deal outside insurance, but I don't know.. I'm going to take it to my preferred shop tomorrow for a look see.. StaNd up of her to find me and let me know.. But sucks, my temp tags are still on the thing and the perfection that was my car is soiled..

I feel for you... Then again, it's just a "thing"...once it's fixed no one will be the wiser. Just make sure it gets fixed right. "Outside insurance" is ok, but make sure you get enough $ to cover it. Good Luck

Too bad she hit you, but on the positive side at least she didn't drive off like so many do.

If you deal with it outside insurance, hopefully that keeps it off the Carfax. Better for you in the long run.

Relax, its a 15 year old car. If you take it out of the garage, things happen. She did the right thing contacting you and admitting her mistake. Don't make her feel even worse. I would certainly document everything, pics, her info, insurance etc. so there's no dispute later if you have to file. Some PD's wont even investigate parking lot scrapes anymore unless there's injury.

I by no means tried to make her feel worse. I felt that I handled it well. Even opted to allow the shop to repair the bumper vs. replace it. And helped negotiate the price down to where she could afford.

Let insurance handle it. That's why you have it, and since you weren't in the car, fault isn't going to be an issue. Most likely, your company will pay and will recover from her company, quite possibly including your deductible. As far as keeping it off of Carfax - unless you have the best body shop on the planet, the next owner's PPI will note the respray anyway, so let insurance pay to get it fixed properly.

I realize we are usually a tad over protective of our cars and we can react to a wound as if it were a life long disability, but in the end accidents happen. In the day and age where most folks can't be bothered with placing the shopping cart they used in the cart corral 10 feet away, we are very fortunate that anyone who wounded our cars in our absence were stand up enough to face us and take care of things. With my C2 in the shop the insurance company provided a rental. A mustang convertible, I was like really? A rear wheel drive convertible in January? The guy says, well sir you do drive a Porsche and we wanted to provide you with the nicest car on our lot. LOL - I guess they have a lot of demand to rent a convertible in the North East in January. Good news is it makes the 10 year old Porsche seem absolutely stellar in comparison to the 2013 Mustang.

It would be her insurance that deals with it, not yours If she wants to take full $$ responsibility and not involve her insurance company, I don't see a problem with that. Just remember, you choose the repair shop and should also be compensated for loss of use, rental car, etc If ts just a minor respray, no big deal, but depending on the damage, the bumper cover may need to be replaced

I had a similar thing happen to me, I got estimates of $400 to get it repaired in my area.

I feel your pain. I bought my C2 just before Christmas with only 40,000 miles on it. It was GORGEOUS and I can't stress enough the fact that it didn't have a scratch on it (see my avatar). So for Christmas I bought my girlfriend (car is in my name) a 2015 S550, another gorgeous car exactly as she wanted it, in diamond white. Three days later I wake up and go to the kitchen to find her crying sitting at the island and of course inquired as to her sadness. She took me to the garage to show me that she had accidentally pulled out and backed the Maersk Alabama (2015 S550) into my unmolested 996 sitting on the other side of the driveway. The passenger door now has two large scratch/gashes in it. I didn't make a scene as she was already crying, but I shed a few tears on the inside....

Don't do it outside of insurance.

If you decide to handle this privately, here's one possible outcome... . Lady agrees, thanks you for helping her keep her rates down. .. Your body shop finds additional damage. Estimate increases to $3,000. ... Lady freaks out, tells you to go to hell. .... You sue lady for breaching her verbal agreement with her and win. ..... You learn that collecting small-claims awards is very nearly impossible. Most insurance companies have claims like this down to a science. Picking the right shop is often the most difficult part of the process - so why not avail yourself of the service that both you and the other driver pay for and let the insurers duke it out while you get back to enjoying your awesome car?

I had a guy rear end me and I tried to play nice and stay out of insurance land. After his excuses drug out over a month I handed off to my insurance and they happily took care of it for me even though I called them a month after the fact. Moral of the story is that even if you are going to give them a chance, still get all the info incase it turns into too much of a hassle.

The issue with doing it through the insurance for her is she stated she doesn't have the cash for the deductible.. I am going to give the shop a chance to repair it outside of insurance as she basically let me know that she really can't pay for her deductible ($1000). I will report back on the repair. The shop is trusted and has done good work for me in the past.

Btw: Shop mentioned if they are unable to repair the bumper a new one from Porsche is $2200 plus paint and labor!!

Here is the damage , I am confident they can get this sorted out without putting her in the poor house.

So, what happens if the damage exceeds the $1,000 mark you know she doesn't have? Are you going to be good with a payment plan? Seems like you have a big heart - hope you don't get boned for being kind.

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I'm debating that right now. They are going to take it all apart on Monday and we will formulate a plan. I think that if the $1000 is a stretch for her I will have to either help her get up to the deductible amount or let her figure it out. I just want my car right, without compounding her already hectic financial situation. When I was first married 14 years ago I had a $1000 deductible and made sure that I had that amount in savings incase something happened.. It's kind of a catch 22.. When people can't afford thier insurance so they adjust thier deductible to lower the cost, but then don't have the money to pay the deductible. Sucks.

In Maryland I am quite sure that there is no deductible expected from the policy holder for damage to another person's car. In other words, liability comes with 0 deductible. The deductible applies to damage to the policy holder's vehicle (collision and/or comprehensive). So, if I hit someone else's car, I pay the first $1000 in damages to my own car, but I pay nothing out of pocket for damage to the other person's car. This is a law that makes sense to me. Your ability to pay for repairs to your car should not be influenced by her ability to come up with cash. I'll bet this applies in most (if not all) states. You should look into it. I am guessing that having her insurance company pay for the repairs will NOT result in her having to come up with any cash. The benefit to her in going outside of insurance would be that it may not cause a rise in her future premiums.

that sucks....

My front cover got binged in a parking lot on day 4 of my ownership too. Difference was, nobody fessed up. Meh, it's just a car..

As for the somewhat dramatic "the perfection that was my car is soiled.." - I don't know what year your car is, but dude, you're driving a 911. A buck says something has already happened in that car - maybe in the passenger seat, maybe on the hood - that soiled the perfection of your 911.

Mark has a good point. I backed into someone with my wife's Murano - and left a note, because that's how I roll - and I did not have to pay a deductible for the other party's damages.

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Can I be your Girlfriend?

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Wow, that day should be remembered as National Depreciation Day...

Im sure my car has been "soiled" I kinda "soiled it" the first time I sat in the drivers seat...My car may be old, but the car was ding, scratch, damage free. I value human life much more than a car, but I worked hard to buy my car, I keep my cars in mint shape in the past have had a standing appointment with a PDR guy and previously detailed cars as a side business.. I'm picky about my cars. Im not crying about it but was irritated. It will be taken care of, either way. The car had actually had a respray on the front bumper at some point as any good car owner would do to take care of rock chips etc. ANything will go to crap if you dont maintain it.. I have had hoods, fenders etc resprayed to take care of age related issues.

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Thankfully the Benz was essentially damage free and got buffed out last week. There was no paint transfer surprisingly. I got a pretty good deal on the car, and I will keep it for at least ten years plus I can depreciate it on my taxes in its entirety thank goodness!

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If she can't pay her deductible, then there is no way she can pay out of pocket. I'm all for being a nice guy and trying to work things out away from insurance, but her money issues aren't your problem and her inability to pay the deductible is between her and her insurance. You pay your insurance so that you don't have to deal with this kinda stuff. I really do hope this works out for you, but I fear you are in for some headaches

It looks like a lot of us are losing paint early this year. I am pretty OC about seams being straight and things matching perfectly. I can't live with things out of alignment. My steering wheel must be absolutely perfectly straight when I am going down a level road...the wheel can't be even 1/8th of an inch off center or it is back to the alignment shop. When they call and tell me my car is ready, I won't just eyeball it, I will feel every seam and joint with my fingers, I will measure everything that can be measured. And then...I will force myself to try and live with reality and drink some wine while my wife makes dinner. Good luck to everyone waiting for their cars to get fixed.

I'm sorry to hear about what happened but as others have noted... - If you call your insurance company they should be the ones you deal with to manage the claim. They will work things out with her insurance company. There isn't or shouldn't be a deductible on her end for property damage she causes to a third party. That would only apply to damage to her car. That's why most states require you to have, at a minimum, collision insurance on your car. Most don't care if you can't repair your own car as long as your insurance will cover the damage you cause to others. - And, if she doesn't have $1k she can't afford to fix your bumper properly. You're going out of your way to be the nice guy...which is right...but that doesn't mean you should allow her to take advantage of you. She might not want you to report it because she's had a few too many of those types of incidents and she's fearful that her rates will go up. You never know. Just be careful. Best of luck, -Eric

Dropped it off at the bodyshop tonight. I will keep you all posted on the repair and end results.. Man I have been missing driving it.. The short drive to the shop got me all nostalgic.. I may need to buy another one as a backup while this one is getting repairs or upgrades..

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they are like heroin you just cant get enough

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Yes. My C2 is still in the shop for body work, should have been done last Friday, stopped by and they hadn't yet started on it. They thought I would be happy in that I would have use of the rental car longer. Nah, I pointed to my C4S in the lot and just said "Porsche, there is no substitute".

Went to the shop today to check out the car, they are going to have to redo the job, there was an issue when they sprayed it and it fish eyed / divoted.. Shame because the color match and finish looked amazing besides that..

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I Hope your kidding! You DIDN'T Really say that to them about a 996 did you?They're Probably STILL Laughing!

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That seems a little harsh.. Do I personally brag about my car? No.. There is always a bigger, better, cleaner, faster, more advanced model out there.. But the 996 is not loathed or laughed at by non-elitist porsche owners.. I personally think the 996 is the best performance/experience value by dollar.. I was at the shop last night being picky about the paintjob, a guy and his wife walked up and started gushing over the car, asking me if they could just look inside it.. My car still had a drive out tag on it and they thought it was a brand new 911. They said "I couldn't imagine buying a brand new car and having to take it to the bodyshop" I informed them the car was 16 years old.. They couldn't believe it wasn't a 2015.. Hate on the 996 all you want, we 996 owners have nothing to be ashamed of. These are great cars, and still a timeless design..

Back home, as good as new!

Congrats on getting the car back - and look on the bright side, at least they didn't make you drive a Viper. You'd probably still have header-sweat running down your legs.

PORSCHE: THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE “There is no substitute." These four words have graced the bottom of advertisements and the top of brochures for the iconic Stuttgart, Germany-based Porsche for a few years now, but they have stood true for the brand for 80 years. Over its history, but especially since the introduction of the 911, Porsche made itself universally known as the no-nonsense sports car company, with none of its products ever losing points to other cars in performance or beauty.

On a more serious note: glad you have your ride back. Picked up my C2 from the body shop on Friday and I'm satisfied, not perfect but overall the car is better than before the fender bender. New shop manager and I must say the guy has a keen eye and delivered the car in pristine condition. Sounds like a few of us have or body shop issues behind us. Enjoy

that gal was stand up to tell u she did it. When I saw the damage, I knew there was no way she was gona pay for it. But in out here in Southern Cali, I've had 3 different cars bashed and no notes left in over 30 years...ever. What was the bill by the way? m

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The shop should be commended. After they quoted the repair They asked her what she could pay and discounted it down to $500 all in..

I'm starting to suspect that the other driver must be hot.

Good for her, and for you. I really like hearing about situations like this as testimony that decent business people still exist. Every insurance repair we have ever had done incurred additional charges for "supplemental repairs". I assume that many businesses adhere to the principle that "insurance is paying" so might as well go for the greed.

All fixed, no one would ever know

Beautiful. Glad it is all in the past now.

I have to admit (knowing some of the folks on this forum) that there were no suggestions that you have it shipped to Germany and put on an official Porsche unibody frame straightener! I just kept waiting for it!