[smdubovsky]

Flooding a motor = $. Electronics = $. Wiring harness thats low in the car = $. etc etc. + labor. I suspect a car that sits in just a foot of water could be totaled. It will go up the tailpipe and enter the cyls.

And don't necessarily go by the headlights frosting. 996 headlights are plastic and frost badly from plain old UV in random patterns (I wonder if some waxes or cleaners attack them). Mine look like crap. You can polish them but haven't gotten to it.

[ruffyz]

Originally Posted by HoodPin

I'm thinking he meant that the price should be reduced by $10k for a salvage title; if an unblemished title was otherwised valued at $37k, a salvage title would make it worth $27k.

I was thinking that $27k was fair for a clean title on that car, and $10k was fair with the salvage title. Maybe I'm way off base, but again at the end of the day you are really buying the title, a very hard to resell title, thus my only interest would be to buy cheap and drive to death.

Originally Posted by Vicegrip

Offering 10K on a car being offered at 27K is little more than an insult.

I didn't offer a hard number, but I think he was a bit annoyed when I told him that I couldn't come close to what he was asking. I get the feeling he's had several offers much lower than his asking, at least I tried to couch it as much as I could.

[Jazzbass]

Couldn't you get more than $10k from a 996 just selling the drive train and a couple other assorted parts? IOW, despite the salvage title, it seems like it'd be easier to sell the car for > $10k in pieces than as a whole. And who cares about the title when you're doing that?

The car's not worth $27k, but (I think) is worth more in parts than $10k. So your number is probably in between somewhere. That said, this:

Originally Posted by good hands

... it doesn't look like a salvage title was disclosed up front and you found out through a NMVTIS report. That would throw up huge red flag for me.

would make me just walk away.

[FrankyV]

I have not seen perfect examples of these cars selling for even $25k, asking price yes, but not selling at that level. I have been watching the market for three years because I was originally considering building a Spec 996. Oh the podiums I would have won, I could have been as famous as Scott B.

[ruffyz]

Originally Posted by SkankyFrank

I have not seen perfect examples of these cars selling for even $25k, asking price yes, but not selling at that level. I have been watching the market for three years because I was originally considering building a Spec 996. Oh the podiums I would have won, I could have been as famous as Scott B.

Ok, this has been my experience as well, albeit only over the past year or so.

Originally Posted by Jazzbass

Couldn't you get more than $10k from a 996 just selling the drive train and a couple other assorted parts? IOW, despite the salvage title, it seems like it'd be easier to sell the car for > $10k in pieces than as a whole. And who cares about the title when you're doing that?

Didn't consider parting it out, but if that is the case now we are taking a risk to try to make money and putting a lot of hours into the project. So say there is even $20k worth of parts on the car and you are going to want to pay yourself $120/hr like a real Porsche mechanic, plus rent on tools, a garage, storage, and time selling it all. I'm not sure even 10k is fair in that case, but you'd have to calculate it all up. Time (and risk) is money as the saying goes.

Besides you still don't know the condition of the parts you are pulling. If the motor is original you'd have to worry about water, if it isn't then you have no idea on how many miles are on it. I don't want to be part of that type of scam, rather just drive.

[good hands]

Originally Posted by SkankyFrank

I have not seen perfect examples of these cars selling for even $25k, asking price yes, but not selling at that level. I have been watching the market for three years because I was originally considering building a Spec 996. Oh the podiums I would have won, I could have been as famous as Scott B.

You got to finish to Podium...You got to start for that matter

[pjalexandre]

A car with a salvage title needs to be rebuilt and is usually sold for the value of parting major components or keeping in mind substantial inlay of cash to achieve a rebuilt title.


What you are describing is wanting to buy this rebuilt 996 for the average price of a salvage car that still needs a ton of $$ put into it. A car with a rebuilt title sells for ~10/20% less than full retail. Not nearly 70% off retail. If you are serious and do your homework on the repairs done your offer should be in the -10/20% from full retail range.

I would want to see a before picture and extensive documentation on what was repaired. Any shop would have kept those records so they can see where their bottom line is.

[FrankyV]

Originally Posted by good hands

You got to finish to Podium...You got to start for that matter

Touche' - I did laugh out loud at this

[Vicegrip]

Modern car + Flood = RFR. (Run Forest Run)

Unless he bites on the $10k offer and it is running working condition now.

[ruffyz]

So there are three parameters that have come out of this discussion.

FMV - fair market value of the car
SEARCH - fair market value of determining the current state of the car
REDUCE - the perceived reduction in value due to rebuilt title.
SALE - final sales price

where SALE = FMV - SEARCH - REDUCE

Taking those three parameters into account it seems like we are all arriving at similar numbers. For instance assume the FMV is about $22k after basic maintenance and negotiation is taken into account, also assume a week worth of desk and shop time at $120/hr which is about $5k for SEARCH. Couple that with a 20% reduction off $22k being about another $4k for REDUCE we get to about $12k, assuming nothing is found during the SEARCH period. If the current owner isn't going to let you tear down his car, you've gotta factor in a risk parameter as well. This parameter is subjective unless you have access to a lot of data.