Rear Suspension Question

So I fairly regularly go to the Salvage auction to buy, drive and flip cars. I know, I know I've heard all the war stories but I've purchased a lot of good cars out of there. Frankly it amazes me sometimes what gets totalled. Anyway there is a car coming up that I'd like to get but wanted to pick your minds on the potential issue with this car. It's a very clean 02 996 that has been hit right behind the passenger rear door. The body work is minor but the right rear wheel is canted in at the top fairly significantly. The question is when one of these has been hit back there is it most likely just suspension damage or is there a good possibiltiy that there is transaxle damage? Having never owned a Porsche this is one I'd like to keep. Any help you guys can provide would be much appreciated. Here's a picture of the damage.

the transaxle and engine just hang from rubber mounts. I don't foresee them being damaged. An axle, maybe, but not the transaxle. If I was going to buy it, I would just part it instead of trying to fix it.

Curious why you would part out a.car like this. It's a very clean car. I'll check it out tomorrow to see how it runs. But assuming no transaxle damage the repair will be pretty cheap. Is it just a.personal preference with salvage cars or are these models that disposable?

could be just bent suspension arms and such. Can you look at it?

You won't know until you get the car and partially disassemble it and put it on an alignment bench and check the hard points for proper location. Could be bent hardware, but I have to point out the hardware is pretty substantial and if bent likely the anchor points where the hardware attaches are bent, pushed out of position. Depending upon what is found upon partial disassembly and inspection the likelihood of further suspension or drivetrain damage can be ascertained.

Going to check it out today. But its not one of those things where I can jack it up and crawl underneath or disassemble anything. In looking at the parts online I see what your saying about them being pretty substatial. Vipers are like that. The have really strong suspensions but weak frames. If they take a solid hit on the wheels you have problems.

FWIW, I'm assuming that car has the OEM suspension. If it does, most likely the suspension and connecting parts will break first most of the time(also depending on the angle of impact) as they are cast parts and break away. Ask me how I know. Inspect the underside and see what kind of parts are broken first. Broken suspension pieces are better than a tweaked frame or tweaked suspension pickup points on the chassis.

Hello, If you do decide to pick this up and part it let us know... we could probably scavenge the hell out of that one! PS. More Pics, wheels , interior, engine bay, trunk... blah... blah... blah...

A "very clean" car with "minor" body damage being sold at a salvage auction should tell you something about the suspension damage.

Not really dplus. On a typical car that I buy the repair cost is between 1000-1500. Now granted that's not rack rate body shop prices and I'm sourcing and picking up the parts but you'd be surprised what gets totalled. I've been told that a lot of it depends on the insured and how how much they push and complain in a particular direction. A buddy of mine bought a Lexus is fully repaired. Story was customer was dissatisfied with repair and car was totalled. He drove the thing for.six months before he sold it without any issues. I drove the car and it was solid. Anyway I'll post more pics later today after I get a chance to take a closer look.

So here are a few pics. After inspecting I think it's mostly the rear upper control arm possible the front as well the lowers look ok. Car is definitly clean inside and has the carbon fiber package. The downside that I didn't know was the mileage 119k. Also of note I was able to start it and put it in gear. All seemed in good order. Will probably bid $5k. Thoughts Rear upper arm definitely bent. Lower looks ok. Just stuck phone under car. couldn't see directly Closeup of damage.

Appears the wheel took the brunt of the impact. If the suspension links are bent almost certainly where they attach are bent, pushed out of position. In the case of my Cayman S which was hit just behind the driver's side front wheel some links were bent, others were broken. The tub was bent. The car was totaled. Might mention the car was sold at a salvage car auction to some guys who thought they were getting a nice low miles car they could fix. While the car was nice, it was just 4 weeks old, and low miles, with just 2K miles on it, the car was more severely damaged than they thought and the car was never resurrected. Sometimes a car is just at the end of its life and its parts are destined to live on being used in other cars. This car is very likely such a car.

Just a point of reference, I've seen cars with that mileage selling in the low teens before with a clean title. Unless you're a body guy and a mechanic and assuming the only broken pieces are a couple suspension items and nothing else, you'd probably looking between 8-10k max selling price on a salvage title. Places like Capital motors specializes in selling salvage Porsches unrepaired so you may want to compare the selling prices of those as a reference.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Thought I'd report back with the final tale. My limit was $6k on this car. After some good feedback here as well as some add'l research I figured that this total repair was going to be between $1000 and $1500. After fees towing etc I figured I'd be at or about $8k. Maybe a bit less depending on how many suspension pieces were bent. That gave me a pretty good margin assuming a $10-11k sales price. My guess is someone liked this car a whole lot more than me as it sold for $8500. Oh well I'll have to wait for another day to get my Porsche fix. Truth be told it probably will work out ok for them. Drive it for a few months and sell it for a about what they have into it. Of course if as some of you said it's a bit worse than expected...ouch.

I'm pretty sure that the worst thing from that damage would be to replace the rear subframe.