Would you ever buy one with a prior accident?

If the accident and repair is fully documented, and its your forever car which you NEVER plan to sell then go for it.

If you plan to sell it in the future, then I wouldn't bother as you will struggle to sell it.

 

If you never sell the car who cares.

If you ever plan on selling the car, what the buyer thinks becomes very important. With a unibody aluminum car I'd NEVER personally buy it if it were in an accident. If you get into an accident at 40 MPH the frame is designed and tested to crumple a certain way. If you get into an accident at 80 MPH.. that margin for error in how the aluminum body crumples is much much narrower. Each panel and the strength of its bond to the next becomes absolutely integral. One missing or improperly seated rivet could weaken the body enough to cause you to die in the accident. That cost savings to me is at too high a price.

 

When I bought my black 458, it had had a reasonably large amount of damage, front end with bumpers replaced, bonnet, lots of parts costing around £40000 ($50000) in total. Paid a price reflecting it, it it had been fully done at Ferrari with no expense spared.

Couple years later, sold it at a massive profit for around £10000 below the market for a non-story car, making £40000 on my purchase price, so in my case, it was absolutely a cracking deal!, and I’d do it again with the right car

 

Yup. I enjoy my cars. They are a sum of parts, not mojo or magic fairy dust.

 

My 430 was in an Accident, but I knew everything that happened to it Thanks to a Member Here on Ferrari Chat.
Damage was minimal with no Airbag Deployment. I plan on having the Car a good Long Time and Put Miles on it so why not save the Cash.
I haven't Regretted it one bit and have had the Car for over 2 Years Now.

Thanks to Ferrari Chat I even got Pics of what my Car Looked Like after the Accident & Before the Repair.
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Looks Great Now (Pic from Sellers Place)
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Beautiful car mate, you wouldn’t know it’s been washed, let alone in an accident, it’s pristine!

 

It depends on a few things. First it needs to be a good 30% below market.
Then the damage can not be too severe re the structure of the car.
Finally, the accident and repairs have to be documented. Some sellers will say car has been in an accident but it was just a bump and you have to take their word for it. In that case i would pass.

 

TOTALLY depends on the severity and documentation. My Diablo has a accident on CarFax from 2003. Alot of people said to avoid it, because everything on a CarFax looks bad.. Turns out it was a whopping $6,000 repair bill from Lamborghini Manhattan. Even CarFax agreed t0 change the designation to "minor accident" and lists the miniscule repair cost.

So would that warrant a 30% discount?

 

If you can prove with documentation that it was just a $6k repair, then no but the issue is when times come to resell the car. If you have ample documentations and show it upfront, and it really shows it was a minor accident, then i wouldnt expect a 30% discount on a Diablo as $6k is very quickly spent...But that is my general rule. When time comes to resell a car with a crash history, i know a lot of people will simply not consider them regardless of what happened, how it was fixed and how it is priced. You can even filter it out on most websites so that says a lot hence i would need a significant discount to purchase such a car as i know i will have to do the same when i want to move on.

 

I would never touch a used car that had been in an accident, even a fender bender with thorough documentation. When it comes time to sell, 50% of the prospective buying pool would be immediately eliminated from consideration by seeing accident pop up on Carfax, doesn't matter if minor or not.

These regular model cars are not unicorns and there are plenty of one owner, no accident, no stories, low mileage examples to consider.