HUMU is back after a month of plastic surgery and two weeks of brain renewal. The body shop did a fabulous job and I have, in effect, a 2004.5 Prius given that there are lots of brand new items in the car. The tricky part was reprogramming the fobs to get the smart key system working. Toyota of Lake City (Seattle) were real troopers. At first, I was quite upset that they couldn's seem to get this simple thing done, but after testing the whole smart key system and replacing the ECU, they discovered that the real problem, get this, was that the software manuals from Toyota have an error in them and the dealer couldn't successfully program the fobs using the directions in the manual. Toyota sent technicians out to the dealership to investigate, but the mechanics themselves figured out how to program three fobs. Apparently, the two fobs not being programmed had to be out of range, like across the shop floor, while the one fob was being programmed, then in turn, each of the other two had to be run across the shop and entered into the computer. I think the dealership ate a lot of the cost which they will certainly try to recoup from Toyota. They said they had never seen this problem before. For those of you who have have multiple fobs reprogrammed without incident, as I did when I got the third fob, you should be aware that this particular reprogramming occured after a major impact to the operating computer and sensor located in the left rear portion of the car. All the stuff about "diminished value" etc, doesn't bother me. I don't think anyone could detect a repair on this car unless they knew in advance. I plan to keep HUMU as long as he's driveable, and I think by the time I get around to getting another car, the purported loss of value will be academic. Bob
Glad you got it back. That's a long time to be without a Prius. As for no one noticing the repair, that's good, but if the insurance company was involved at all, and I'm sure they were, then the VIN has already been entered into a national database. There are web sites that offer a car's history for a nominal fee, based upon the VIN. carfacts.com for one. Of course, if you own the car for awhile, this becomes academic, like you said.
From the sounds of that, it will be a long time before you are ready to part from HUMU. That far in the future the "diminished value" of a car which has had major repairs WILL be academic . . . especially if the car has performed admirably after the repairs. At that point in time, a fresh coat of wax would probably recoup most of the "diminished value."
That's great news, Bob -- I'll be on the lookout for HUMU on the highway! And thanks for recounting what you went through. Since I use Toyota of Lake City, too, it's very good to hear how they stuck through the reprogramming. Very reassuring! As to "diminished value", think of it this way: You have a Bionic Prius!! :mrgreen:
FYI - That's carfax.com, not carfacts.com. The latter goes somewhere that does a few redirects before hitting carfax.com
Getting mine back seems so far away with it recently in the shop. Going on 2 weeks now. At least I have a nice camping vacation in Yosemite coming up at the end of August which should help keep my mind off not having it for about a week.
