Rear Ended - Just Can't Believe it!

wow. that is a bummer. glad you all are okay though! i always use an insurance approved shop because they guarantee the repairs. tough first post, but welcome to priuschat, all the best!

 

Wow...I hope you and your family are doing well. I would demand that the 4x4 driver buys you a brand new Prius v and cover your rental car until you get a new Prius v of your choice. With that much damage, it will never be the same again.

 

sorry to hear/see about that.

I am thinking totaled. Airbags?

 

Sorry to hear about your accident and I'm glad you and your family are doing fine. That's a pretty good damage you got there. I would wait and see what the insurance adjuster tells you. Since it was not your fault, your insurance adjuster hopefully will claim it as a total loss. They have the subrogation clause with other insurance company. If it was a single accident or an accident caused by you, the insurance company may opt to repair it. Does the other driver have insurance?

 

If that's not totaled, I don't know what totaled looks like.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident, but glad to hear that you all made it through intact.

The first thing to do might be to let us know where this happened - was in FL where your plates are from or our of state? This will matter as state laws regulate what the insurance companies have to do. Start goggling the laws in your area - you are going to be your own best advocate and knowing your rights is the first step.

I was also just wondering why there was such a disparity in speed? Were you going way under the limit or was the other guy speeding?

Last thing - I'd recommend that you grab a dedicated notebook and keep notes on every interaction - things like date and time of calls as well as a brief description of what was discussed. This is the sort of info that can be really valuable if you have problems down the line.

Best of luck.

 

looks like you were out on a highway? were you turning? getting on the highway? hypermiling?

 

Demand a new car, you are the victim and the customer of your insurance companies. I would be surprised if that is NOT a total loss. Hope you have a good insurance company to act in your behalf against the other persons insurance. I had a similar accident last year, and the other company (American Family) would not even return my calls or the body shop, I called my insurance (Hartford) and all was handled, quickly, and notified of every step taken.

 

Your one and only goal should be replacement, not repair. There are still 2012 v models available.

 

The laws of each state will give you a certain set of rights as you go through the process. There will be a state agency that regulates the auto insurance industry - I'd start looking there. The statutes are going to be confusing at best so I'd look to see what other info they have - a handbook or FAQ would likely be perfect. Best of luck.

 

Be careful on what you post. Not uncommon for insurance & attorneys to check social media



iPhone ?

 

My concern would be the safety in a similar crash of the repaired vehicle. The metal in the body and structural elements, once deformed, lose their strength and would deform very differently the next time it got hit there and the liability to anyone who repaired a vehicle in that unlikely occurrence would be enormous. I wouldn't want to drive it.

My one experience was an accident my attention to something else caused and I immediately thought it would cost $5k to fix my car. The body shop stopped counting at $26k and the insurance actually paid me more than I had paid for the car 4 months earlier. The car was drivable after the accident and I didn't detect any suspension damage.

Let them pay for you to get a new car with a crash structure as it came from the factory.

 

First off, glad you are OK. Toyota's engineering is superb and the car is meant to wrinkle. Most people assume a car that looks destroyed after impact is cheaply made, and the one that has minimal damage is better made. This is completely false. Toyota and Honda design their vehicles to be safe in impacts both between other vehicles and humans. The hood is made specially so that if you hid a pedestrian it will cushion the blow and direct the human off to the side of the vehicle instead of ahead to be run over by the still moving car. Likewise the front and back end are made to crumple (hence "crumple zones") so that the energy of the accident goes into deforming the metal and not into deforming you the human that can't take as much stress as steel.

So A+ to Toyota.

Now I have bad news. That car needs to be totalled. Fight for it to be totalled. You say that the driver door does not close. The damage went through the back pillars and roof and into the A pillars at a minimum. Basically every panel on the car except the fenders and hood needs to be replaced and repainted. My gut tells me that you have frame damage as well with the way the car is crooked.

Another piece of bad news is that your 12v battery has been crushed. It could be leaking sulphuric acid all around your back carpet pieces. Also, it is essentially shorted. The inverter has a 100A (well GenII is 100A, I think GenIII is 120A?) fuse, and if that has blown you have to replace the fusible link in the hood as well.

And the kicker... Your traction battery is located in the rear, sort of halfway under the rear seat and false floor. So is your spare tire. I see lots of stuff pushed up, but I don't see your spare tire poking through anywhere. Which to me says it went straight forwards. Which means it probably impacted your traction battery. Broken or leaking cells, broken or fractured bus bars, temp sensors, and lots of other things in the battery that are not easily detectable.

That car needs to be totalled and destroyed. It is no longer road worthy. But you are OK, so count your lucky stars and thank the Toyota engineers. Hopefully another V will be in your future.

 

No reputable body shop would ever "repair" damaged crumple zones, everything must be replaced. This can be done if its just one quarter panel damaged, one front corner, etc. To repair this car they essentially need to cut it in half and replace everything. There's just no way that's not going to add up to a new car's price.

 

I guess I look at this differently than others, you put yourself in harms way to protect an idiot, you were going way to slow to be on a highway and it cost you your car and likely some medical problems and the moped just left you hanging without so much as a thank you,,,this seems to be your fault and the dumba$$ on the moped and the person who hit you equally

 

To try to lighten up what is a challenging situation.
I'd just like to say because of this thread I googled "Super Brella".

I'd say...good luck...push for a new vehicle...and whatever happens take some time and Super Brella on the beach.