: I start this post with twenty unhappy faces because the Prius I bought in May got rear-ended by a drunk driver (in the middle of the day) and has been collecting dust at the body shop whilst they await the parts to come from Japan. This is an interesting point I felt worthy of a post... We're driving vehicles that are so hot that the manufacturer basically doesn't have spare parts or extras to send out for repairs. My experience has been this...the three week job to fix up the car will end up being stretched to eight weeks! Luckily I have another car I'm selling which I've been driving, but otherwise I'd be paying for a rental car after my insurance covered the first thirty days! This was a huge job ( wasn't totalled) so I doubt smaller jobs will take this long. Basically the scenario ended up being that the body shop needed the bumper parts before they could continue...and these were " OUT OF STOCK" NOW ON A GOOD NOTE... IF you unfortunately do get into a situation like mine...because our vehicles are so new...all the parts have to be Original and New! Anyone familiar with "diminished value?" My insurance co. is acting like they've never heard of it. Even thought its an '05 Prius, the car is going to lose some value from being in an accident...but they've repeatedly told me..."you're in a Prius, your car hasn't lost value..."
I'm sorry about your car. I'm sorry your insurance company is being so obtuse. But you make a good point, it would be very hard to put recycled or after-market body parts on 2G Prius.
Pretty much the only source I've seen is a handful of totaled ones being auctioned off piece-by-piece on eBay.
Sorry to hear about your Prius. But why isn't the guy that rear ended you insurance paying for a rental?
Sounds as if you need to retain an independent insurance appraiser. Do a Google search for one in your locale.
How close was your Prius to being totaled? If it was close at all, I would pressure the insurance co to total the car. I would be amazed if the body shop will ever be able to make the Prius right again. It is hard enough to make a Chevy Silverado the same after $15000 in damage, I can't imagine a vehicle like the Prius ever being as finely tuned as it once was. As far as the value, it sounds like your Prius' collision was significant enough that it will show up under CARFAX as being involved in "severe collision". The Prius is hot right now, but it won't always be, don't let your insurance co off the hook that easy. What will the market be for a "technologically advanced" car that was involved in amajor collision. At my stores we would hit it for several thousand dollars behind book. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
umph, it is only "bumper parts" not parts of body/frame that need to be welded on, so I doubt they wont be able to fix it - dont scare the dude. As long as frame is fine and they did an good repair job (not hard to do), you will keep having an awesome car...
Not trying to scare the dude. The Prius has to be a precision instrument to get 50+ mpg with "hybrid technology". Chances are it will be tough to be precision after getting rear ended like that, the damage goes beyond just the rear bumper cover.
It all comes down to having the right person repair it. My family has had a few needs to use an auto body shop and every vehicle has come back looking brand new. Even after $8k worth of damage to a mercedes, you couldn't tell anything had happened at all. And I had a Jeep repaired and while you could see that it had been fixed if you opened the hood, the outside looked perfect and the vehicle was never affected in any negative way. The Prius is a bit different internally, but it's the same concept otherwise and should be able to be fixed 100%.
