Radio Antenna and Key Questions

We have two 2008 Priuses in our household. I drive a Seaside Pearl Package 5. The other one is a silver Package 2. The questions I have concern the latter car.

The other driver in this household took the silver Prius to a car wash. The antenna broke off. Therefore, I am reluctant to take my Prius to a car wash. We have "ordinary" radio service, not satellite, so this is probably an "ordinary" antenna. Is such an antenna an easy thing to replace? What price range can be expected? And is there a way to prevent this from happening on future car wash trips for either car? When I brought my car into the dealership for preventive maintenance, I asked about this, and someone told me that the antenna should screw off. But the one on my car doesn't appear to have this capability.

Neither of us is the type of person to wash cars ourselves, so if that is the only way to get a Prius washed because of the positioning of the antenna, we'll have to watch out for those periodic car washes that schools and other organizations have to raise money. The other driver says that he can pick up AM radio okay but not FM. I'm coming off almost 10 years of ownership of a car with the antenna built into the windshield and 8 1/2 years before that of a power antenna that only came up when the radio was on (although sometimes that capability broke down and had to be repaired), so needing to worry about an antenna that's always up is something I've had to get accustomed to again.

Another little thing happened with the other car this week. The key fob button that is used to unlock the car as one approaches it has become stuck, rendering this button unusable. This was discovered while he was leaving home, so he was able to go back inside and get the spare copy. But this leaves him without a spare, and this is a person with a history of losing keys. I told him that he needed to go to the dealer TODAY and get a replacement, but he is taking his time, like he has with the antenna. He says he'll do it after we get back from the vacation we're leaving for next weekend (flying, not driving). My concern is whether this key fob is something that is even replaceable. Right now, there is a key inside the broken one that the salesperson told us could be ejected and used to unlock the driver's side door, so he still has a backup of sorts.

But is the key fob replaceable? And again, what price range are we talking about? And is this something that has been known to happen to others? In other words, should I be concerned that it will happen with the one for the car I use eventually?

Thanks for any help you can give me on this.

 

Thanks for these answers. We'll go out later today and see if we can remove the antenna from the Seaside Pearl car (and even more importantly, get it back on, because I do need FM radio, particularly if I'm in the car later today during the Eagles game broadcast). The other person had looked at it briefly after I reported back what the person at the dealership had told me, and he didn't think it could come off.

I think he also tried to unstick the fob button. We'll try again. I may be back here asking for step-by-step instructions for this "re-seating" fix, including recommended tools. Neither one of us is mechanically adept when it comes to useful household products (cameras, TVs, etc.) and consumer goods (cars), although he would know how to put together and take apart amateur radio and esoteric computer equipment.

 

Yes, it does have the Smart Key, and I should have realized I should have used that terminology from the start. I'm just still not familiar with it.

The two of us have different philosophies of how we use our Smart Keys. Mine almost never comes out of my purse. I unlock the car by coming up to it and grabbing the handle (or the trunk lid). I don't even stick it into the place for it in the dashboard. I then lock the car when I leave it by pressing the button on the handle. Each time, it's close enough in my purse to work. Even if I run out to the car to get something with key fob in hand, leaving my purse behind, I get in and lock up the same way.

He unlocks the car while approaching it by pressing the button that's now stuck. He sticks it into the dashboard to run the car. He then locks it after leaving the car by pressing the button for that function.

So, since my buttons have almost never been used, they haven't had much opportunity to become stuck.

 

We're both around 5'6", I'm actually about a half inch taller. It was quite a reach for me to grab the antenna, reaching from the driver's side. He had a little bit easier time trying to grab it from the passenger's side. We didn't actually take it off, in case we couldn't get it back on, but we at least could see that it does come off.

As for the antenna shown above, we are not do-it-yourselfers. He's probably going to get it replaced at the dealership, which probably means an official Toyota part. While he looks for bargains like this, I'm the type of person who would want the official Toyota part, even at 5 x the rate shown. (OK, maybe I'm kidding about 5 x the rate, or maybe that's the truth. If it is really 5 x the rate of the antenna shown, I probably don't want the official Toyota one after all.)

Thanks to everyone who has given us help and advice so far.