Very Sad Day For Me.. My (meticulously pampered) Prius was hit...

Ah, that will buff right out. kidding. At least nobody was hurt bad. I am sure the shop will fix it right up, but I know it is hard to get over it.

 

Sorry, bad things happen. It's always upsetting to have things like that in a brand new car under a year. I've been there too.

 

I feel ya. I detail mine every weekend and i actually look forward to the weekends because of it. I however have a 100 mile commute to work everyday so it's a little harder to keep clean throughout the week and I've already racked up well over 5k miles in a little over two months of owning it. I'm always thinking about how pissed i would be if someone else damaged it given all the time i spend trying to keep it looking nice. I've even had three complete strangers compliment me on the car... one asked if it was a "show car" .

anyway... i feel your pain and best of luck at the body shop!

 

The center cannot hold.
The nature of the existence is deterioration either incremental and slow, or rapid or countless degrees in between.

Take this as simply a message from the universe. All the wax, protectants and detailing spray and armies of separate buckets and mitts cannot stop this truth.

Sooner or later something happens. Sooner or later, a rock flys up from a tire, or a passing bird decides that aerodynamic blizzard pearl shape looks like a good place to drop a bomb.

Not that your fight isn't valid and noble. It's much the same fight I continue today. I also make offerings to the car protection and appearance gods. I own the buckets, mitts and products that promise that your vehicle will remain looking brand new. I don't have a garage, and I take too much pride in the fact that often my vehicle is mistaken for new or near brand new.

But despite what Meguiars, Turtle Wax, Zaino, or any other well marketed product might want you to believe? It's ultimately a losing battle.

I think the trick? Keep fighting it. But when the inevitable ding or chip happens, and it will happen. Instead of thinking of it as weakness or flaw....take it as a well earned battle scar.

To the casual observer, or even someone looking very, very closely, my vehicle usually looks way ahead of the curve. But I know where that 1 pebble sized ding is....nobody else would even notice it. Once it would of bothered me, but now? I do the very best I can, and any wounds that happen....only make me stronger.

If your bodyshop is good? You should be able to look back at this as simply one small chapter in the life of your Prius. Perfection is unattainable....and highly overrated IMO.

 

It's fortunate you took so many pictures. You can clearly show how straight the sheet metal was before the accident, and expect it to be the same after repairs. In addition, take a lot of care to ensure the body shop is expert at exact paint matches. For someone like you, a mismatch will stand out like a sore thumb. If they get the match right, and a new bumper, and get the paint and "metal" smooth, the knowledge it has bondo will eventually ease off.

Another suggestion is when you have a setback like this, try to come out ahead. Get something for the car you'd like but otherwise would not have changed. Like a Scangauge?

 

Sorry to hear/see that. Good news is nobody was injured. It's only a car--find a good body shop and leave it in their hands.

 

That's a bummer, sorry about your incident. Hopefully the shop can repair her back to pristine condition.

 

What a bummer ! Sorry to hear.

I remember when mine was first new and the first new car I had bought for myself in years. I remember thinking that it would be my luck for someone to hit my new car after driving 10+ year old vehicles

 

Sorry to hear about the accident - glad no one was hurt and may the body shop get your baby back in shape to you very soon.

 

If I may offer up what I've learned in the not at fault accidents I've been in, if you want to check the paint, make sure it's a sunny day and just how you took those side pictures, look at it from the headlight on and the taillight on. Paint can look immaculate, but from that view you can see if it's "runny" looking.
Also if you're not at fault in the accident, the other parties insurance company should be rewarding you some money for Diminished Value. It wouldn't be much, maybe 1K, but still something. If you were to try and sell that Prius next to an identical one that wasn't in a previous accident, no matter how much wax you used, which one do you think they'd buy? For the same price, the one that hasn't been in an accident.
Manufacture paint is baked on at a much higher temp. than a body shop; my personal opinion is that manufacture paint will fade and chip over time (10 years +) but body shop paint will do it quicker. I too have a blizzard pearl Prius and due to the nature of the accident 90% of it needed to be repainted or blended. If I come across anything that may of help to you while I'm dealing with my own Prius that's being repaired I'll let you know! Good luck!

 

When you get it back it will be as good as new.

 

5000 mark and just got rear ended... Feel your pain. 100% other driver's fault

 

What body shop? My dealer recommended German Auto Body in Santa Clara

 

To the original poster and PiP owner above, I hope they repaired your car perfectly, with genuine Toyota parts and that the paint repair is so good that for the life of the car you cannot tell it was ever hit.

Good job for being such a good ambassador with your Prius Five car.

 

The Prius can be fixed - an inconvience having it in the body shop.

The driver / occupants injured - more serious.

Count your blessings, it could of been a lot worst.

DBCassidy

 

I think the DMV will know about the crash and it will go on Carfax record thereby lowering value of the car.

Citations are given out for speeders, red light runners, etc, when no accident happens. In this case, other person's insurance will likely go up, but they ought to be cited, fined and also be required to complete at least a dozen hour or so online or in person driver training course at their expense.

I had to complete a 50+ driver online training course that took 12 hours reading over several days to complete. Cost me $17 and bunch of time ... just to get a $51 / year insurance premium reduction.

The guilty driver needs to relearn a lot about safety, not just get a little slap on the wrist like, that's ok, you had a bad moment.

 

The only "good news" is that the entire passenger side will need to be painted, so matching paint should be much better/easier. It's much worse when they only paint say one fender and one door, and "blend" it - you can often still tell, especially with pearls and metallics (silver is the worst). Choose a shop with a great reputation and you probably won't be able to tell where the repairs were.