Well, all good things come to an end, and so it is that my 2001 Electric Green Mica got clocked in the right rear quarter the other day. Side impact, no airbag deployment, no visible intrusion into cabin space (I pulled the inside trim and looked for any inside-visible sheet metal distortion, couldn't see any). I'm very impressed by the reinforcement bar inside the rear door ... it shows no sign of even bending, though the door folded above and below it. No breakage to any glass, lights, or inside trim. Both I and the other driver walked away unhurt. That door is pretty well wedged shut though. I have brute-forced the wheel-opening edges back outward (compared to what you see in the pic) to avoid tire interference when moving. There is some visible tread damage from before I did that. Insurance estimated $3345 body shop charge vs. $2363 pre-accident market value (which includes about a + 10% adjustment for better-than-average condition). The replacement parts shown on the estimate were (all right, rear): alloy wheel door quarter panel protector 58741-47010 outer wheelhouse 61631-47010 plus various consumables, tire valve stem, urethane glass seal kit (no glass broke, but they seem to estimate removing it to do the sheet metal work, then putting it back) ... 31 hours body labor, 10 hours paint. If I were a body-work DIYer there might be options here, but my DIY skills are strictly mechanical/electrical, so for me this is time to move on. For anyone who either wants a Gen 1 parts car or a project car with bodywork needs, here is a fully functional Gen 1 with a bashed-in right quarter. All features work, all lights, A/C (compressor shim adjustment a few years ago), brakes (rebuilt calipers, last year, recent pads), etc. As a 2001, it did not come with Nav (it just has "dead" Nav buttons on the dash), and no CD. I added a Dice iPod adapter to compensate for the lack of CD. I added cruise using the original Toyota parts. HV battery is original (as far as I know) ... no trouble codes. Mileage is 232,584 at the moment (though I have a bit of car shopping to do still, so that will go up some). A lot of the service history on my car can be reviewed in the Gen 1 Forum right here on PC. Toyota put in a brand new steering rack at 192,532. Wheels were refinished last year. (I'd be surprised if the right rear can't just be refinished again; it's gouged but I don't see cracks, and I just checked the runout, around 0.003" near the bolt circle, 0.007" near the rim, seems serviceable to me). I have posted in the past about some apparent valve-train noise that never got solved, but hasn't really been getting worse either. I've been taking compression leakdown readings every few years and only the last test (August 2015) was starting to show some uneven results (96.5/97.5 for cyls 2 and 4 but down to 89 for cyl 3 and 92.5 for cyl 1). The numbers on a leakdown test aren't PSI but %, and only meaningful compared with the same tester model (OTC 5609 for me). So it's safe to say the engine's getting old. Nice thing about a leakdown rather than compression test is you easily hear where the leakage is going; for cylinders 1 and 3 it's into the crankcase. In cold or damp weather the cold engine misses some at idle, but not yet enough to light the CEL or make any P03xx codes. $375 is the difference in my insurance offer between them taking the car or me retaining it, so if anybody has a use for a pretty good old Gen 1 and it'd be worth more than that to you, 'Conversation' me with an offer. -Chap
Hello. Trying the conversation function, but it doesn't seem to be working for me (or I am doing it wrong...). Would you please try to message me?
sorry to hear it chap. she was a good old girl, and you did right by her. all the best with your future transportation plans, i hope you stay with us as an asset to the community.
The photos show a car maintained in excellent cosmetic condition prior to that unfortunate rear fender / door impact. Sorry to hear about your accident, hope you are OK. Good luck with your next vehicle choice.
Oh yeah, there's a spare parts collection too. When posting this announcement for the car, it slipped my mind that I won't be needing the ChapmanF Gen 1 Spare Parts Collection any more either. So that's now described in the thread linked above. It would be ideal if one person had an interest in both the car and the spares collection and PMd me with an offer encompassing both. Then I could just put the collection in the car and the happy buyer drives off into the sunset. If that doesn't happen, I could entertain separate offers too. -Chap
It's been fun being a Gen 1 owner.... The car and the parts collection are now on their way to another place where the roads aren't salted in the winter (I'm told) and over a hundred Gen 1s roam the town. It looks good in Colorado plates.... -Chap
