Effects of Side Damage to Prius?

Structural integrity is the concern. The safety structure of the car has to be able to absorb the next hit. Generally a body shop puts the car up and does measurements of critical components with a laser based machine or physical jig and compares those to spec.

My bet is the floor pan is bent, the side rails compressed, the door post bent inward and the alignment will never be the same.

Looks like it did what it was supposed to, absorb the blow. But like any metal once bent, it is now weaker and deformed.

 

My belief is it would be nearly impossible to evaluate how the damage to the vehicles might affect each vehicle based on a few before and after pictures.

However, the damage in both looks pretty extensive to me. My concern would be frame integrity.

Sold cheap, after an accident, at auction? You're getting what you pay for....

Those weren't fender benders.

How the vehicles function or the the integrity of the vehicles would depend on a lot on the dedication and skill of whomever did the repairs.
In general, if I didn't want the risk, or the challenge of repair as a project, or need the potential "savings" of an damaged auctioned vehicle?
I'd steer clear of investing vehicles in that scenario.

 

See Post #2.

Personally? I'd never take the risk.

 

This type of things isn't a mechanics bread and butter, if this is truely the road you want to go down find an auto body technician with a many years of experience that you trust. I would never take a mechanic word on this anymore than I would take an autobody guys word on transmission issues. Not saying that some can't cross train just trying to point out you need the guy that specializes in the area you need looked at.

 

The red one shouldn't be the same car. Red is the most expensive color to paint, no need to change the entire car color to fix only side damage.

I would take caution in buying salvaged vehicles with questionable odometer readings and questionable color modifications

 

why do you want someone else's wrecked junk?
they look totaled. Are the titles clean or rebuilt?
no one will go through the expense of fixing the cars then sell them "cheap" unless they were fixed cheaply and poorly..
you get what you pay for, the airbags and sensors alone on the silver one exceed its value and ask yourself why did they change the color?
why is the mileage wrong, the crash would not effect it..

save your money for a few months and get a good car that will be safe to drive

 

The car is much more than the engine. On an older body-on-frame car, side damage might be less of an issue, but unibody is a different story.

 

Would it bother you if:

- the side airbags had not been replaced?
- the lack of frame integrity meant that the car crumbled the next time it was hit in that general area?
- the car produced excessive wind noise at highway speeds or water leaked into the passenger cabin when heavy rain is present, due to lack of alignment between the frame and the doors?
- when you try to sell the car, no one will buy it because it has a salvage title?

It would be necessary to do some disassembly to determine whether the first two of these issues are present or not.

 

To do the repairs professionally, the bill would easily cost $3K or more. When you consider the price is $4K and presumably the seller is not operating a charity, think about what short cuts were taken during the repair process.

 

Unless you went to physically see the vin on the damaged silver car, then go see the vin on the repaired red car, there is no way to confirm this.

Cars that only net $4000 does not get a $1500 red paint job for no reason........they would get a $300 paint job to repair the side damage.

 

if you brought a mechanic with you, he'd tell you those cars were junk. if you don't understand why a bent or poorly repaired frame is important, you better have a trust fund. find a car that's not been hit hard, if you don't want constant problems.

any good mechanic that's put in any time can tell if a car has been wrecked. and can tell if its worth fixing. trust is another matter because there are a lot of thief hack mechanics. most don't do body repair, but are familiar enough with cars to identify what's damaged, and to know what to look at.

most body shops are not willing or capable of correctly repairing a car with a bent frame. they mostly make cosmetic repairs, sometimes very poorly at that. there are some shops that can and will restore even a unibody, but it ain't cheap.

nope. there are several places to look on the body of those cars to see if it is the same car, or has been "clipped" or is stolen.

 

for $4500 you can buy my red one pictured BELOW and its never been wrecked...

 

Although you are completely missing the point, let me say a few more things. There is a lot more to worry about on a repaired Prius than just the 12 Volt and the HV Battery. Which you appear to believe you could fix on the cheap... There are a myriad of ECU's or computers that make this science experiment work. These can NOT be rebuilt on the fly, and could set you back thousands of dollars in diagnosis and repairs, if they flake out. The likely hood of that, in this scenario, is very high.

To put it mildly, you are being taken for a ride. If money is your only thought process in this, not your life, not your safety, I can tell you now that you are making a huge mistake. Walk away.

 

Even if the OP was unconcerned about the safety of his passengers or himself and money is the only concern, he is taking a big financial risk with regards to unknown problems hiding under the shiny cosmetics that could cost big $$$$ to resolve.