We feel a bit heart broken. We got a 62K 2005 Prius for our son and it was absolutely immaculate one owner with all the Toyota maintenance record. The thread is here though you don't need to read it: Need advice: 2005 Prius w 62,000 miles for college student... | PriusChat The car has been perfectly fantastic and we put a brand new set of Michelins on it. A few weeks ago, another car ran a redlight and totalled our car by hitting it on the front right corner. Fortunately the city's camera caught the whole event and cleared our son. Insurance is only paying $3500 though they valued the car at $7K since we only had uninsured motorist at that number. Repair will easily top $8K to $14K depending on who we ask so not worth even considering, not to mention that the frame is bent. We are grateful that our son braked so that the passenger was not hit. Going forward, any suggestions as to how we may get the max value out of this wreck? We are hoping to take the new set of Michelins out and keep it for our own 2010 Prius. Also, it has a new $200 battery which we plan to swap with our 2010 Prius which still has the original battery. Other than that, we are planning on just selling this to a junk yard. Any further suggestions? Thanks in advance for any insight. We are now shopping for another Prius and realize that our chances of repeating the first Prius' deal is slim to none but we do hope to get another one.
Get values for similar cars. If they wont match what it costs to replace, hire an attorney. My 2005 with significantly more miles got totalled by another driver (at fault) back in January. Their insurance company offered me 5800. They are obligated to make you whole. They are throwing the screw to you. Of course, this assumes other party had insurance.
Uninsured motorist coverage probably maxed out at $3500, insurance won't pay more. The tire size might be smaller than the 2010 car
Yup, uninsured motorist is maxed at $3500. We own the car still as they value exceed what the insurance paid. The reason for uninsured motorist is that for a newish drive, it cost $1 a month. But to insure for the car beyond that would have cost my son something like an extra $1K a year. Doing the math, we figured that the chances of totaling a car by a car without insurance is low like this is very low - except that it did happen. JC91006, feel free to contact me with an offer. I can send you pics via email if you wish. The car was garaged the entire life and immaculate other than the damage. Thanks everyone for the comments.
Thanks to ALL of you who helped, including and especially you JC91006. This final post is to complete the loop. In short, the local parts shops all tried to convince me that the car is worth very little and made low ball offers. Finally published in Craigslist. One day, got over 10 contacts. Asked $865 (per insurance) and $235 for tires it anyone wanted the tires. $1090 total. First guy came and offered $1300 if we would sell without having 2nd and 3rd person show up. We said it was too high and settled on $1200. They are happy and we are grateful. The 1st buyer said it was clearly superbly maintained and paint looks like new so he felt he got a great car for parts. Thanks everyone for help. UL ps: Now if we can figure out what to do with our 2010 Prius that is burning 4 quarts of oil every 6K miles and running rough....we'll be happy. Oil change at dealer every 7K miles too - and then suddenlly this problem shows up at the current 125K miles but that's a different thread.
Was the car towed away using AAA? If you drive really fast on the freeway 80+mph, the car will burn oil at an alarming rate
