What’s a fake Porsche 997 worth?

I often get contacted by insurance engineers wanting to value Porsches for claims, and the other day one rang up with an intriguing predicament.

He’d been asked to value a Porsche that had been involved in an accident and which the owner claimed was worth £25,000 – the engineer didn’t think it was.

The car in question was a 1999 Porsche 996 Cabriolet with 90,000 miles and had already been recorded as Cat D. OK then, depending on condition that’s probably a £8000 to £10,000 car.

However – and this where it gets interesting – the car had been updated by its owner to look like a 997. I could hear the engineer cringe as he told me that the later-type 997 wings had been stuck over the originals, which were still visible.

Now, I’ve seen 996s updated with 997 bodywork and it can look look – Porscheshop has done some good ones. However, by all accounts this was far from good and would make the car less attractive than if it had been a standard 996.

So what to value it at? Well, £8000 to £10,000 for insurance purposes but I suspect it would be a hard car to sell. I wouldn’t buy it!