EDITORIAL ON PPI's


By Matt De Maria


A few days ago I had a person call me about a Porsche (that they had purchased 30 days previously) that was damaged on the front end. The lower axle tube had separated from the body of the car on one side. I was e-mailed some pictures to estimate repair on the vehicle. I saw in the pictures a massive amount of rust around the axle beam. I saw what appeared to be fatigue cracks across the cross section of the front beam. The frame strut to body joint was rusted. The front diagonal was severely rusted. I saw a picture of what was described as rust at the juncture of the center of the diagonal to the floor.
In short, I had the beam that would fit into the car but there was no solid metal that I could weld the front beam to. To repair the car, a complete floorpan (including of course, inner and outer rockers and lock posts and fender edges) was required and then a replacement front beam could be installed. This repair would have exceeded the value of the car (a coupe). The car was totaled.
The moral of this story is:
          For anyone thinking about buying a Porsche, any year, get a pre-purchase inspection done by someone familiar with the particular series of car. If you don't, you run the risk of losing your investment value in the car. The reason is that the initial value plus the repair value would easily exceed the blue book value of the car.
The PPI serves two purposes:
It finds and determines the cost of what needs to be repaired; and thus determines the
appraised value of the vehicle.
It also serves as a safety inspection for determining if there are any serious safety issues
that must be immediately addressed.