My 2001 Prius was hit Jan. 14. It still runs, but the rear axle is bent I believe and the bumper and part of the trunk was sheared off. Hit just behind the fuel door as I was turning left, by someone running a red light. I've been through the wars with the car. Bought it in November of 2016 with 125,000 miles, had to have the hybrid battery replaced, the inverter, inverter pump, and the 12V battery is almost brand new. Tires are almost new. The hybrid battery has a 4 year warranty. It now has about 137,000 miles. It was going along like a trooper with 42 mpg around town, 50 on the freeway, so I'm very sad about it. It's pretty clean inside; opinions on parting it out vs. selling it as is and which could or would bring more money? Thanks in advance, all thoughts and advice are very much appreciated.
"More money" is not going to happen with a nearly 20 year old hybrid. Parting it out will only get slightly more money as there aren't much demand for gen1 parts. Call around to wrecking yards and see how much they'll offer. My guess $500
Thank you. Wondered because of the 1 year old hybrid battery, etc. The 12V is about 6 months old and cost $200. Darn it.
If you can claim insurance, they may pay out according to the receipts you have on the money you've spent recently on the car.
I would try to sell it whole on Craigslist. Don't expect a big payday, but you might be able to help someone who's trying to keep theirs alive. You also might want to look for a gen 1 prius that needs a HV battery. Usually really cheap, and often not in bad condition. You kinda live in the center of the known universe for cars that need help.
That you're asking this question tells me you've never parted out a vehicle. Potentially you can make much more money over selling it but it is a lot more work and time. I mean a LOT more. I would only part out a vehicle that is both a highly popular (collectible) model and no longer has OEM parts available and that's after judging the used part market (ebay, CL, etc) very carefully. GOOD LUCK!
Thank you Brian, that's a very good idea. I wonder if the warranty on the battery is transferable? I'll have to look into that. Do you think I might get more than $500 on Craigslist? It's really making me sad, I had gotten really attached to the car and had just gotten everything sorted out.
You're right, I've never parted out a vehicle. But I really regret not parting out another vehicle I had, at least partially, I really lost money on it. I have a big yard and security fence so I thought it might work if I let people take the parts they need? I probably wouldn't be that good at removing the parts myself and shipping them, though, in which case I'll just sell it on Craigslist I guess. Thanks for the good luck, I'll need it either way!
If you aren't going to buy another one and transfer the best parts over to it, sell it off as a single unit so somebody else can. It's got nearly no value as a car, even less as a no-effort parts pile, and somewhat more if you are willing to invest the time to extract, package, market and carefully ship the parts. The way forward with it is to get another one the same age and keep it going yourself. The way forward without is to dump it as a single item as fast as you can. The same formula has worked for "old cars" for at least 30 years that I've seen, probably longer.
Thank you Leadfoot. I really appreciate your advice, too. I'm probably going to go with selling the car on Craigslist. I really liked the poor car but I guess I'll have to sell it in one piece. I don't think I have the time and patience to part it out properly.
You'd get more for just the battery than for the whole car. Don't know if warranty transfers, probably not tho. You could pull the hv battery out and some other little bits and a junk yard would still come and haul it away. If I had a dead prius in my yard, I'd pull the brake booster pump, its a $1k part, sells used for around $100 to $200. And is easy to package up in a flat rate box. My guess is that you might get a grand for an almost new HV battery. and it isn't that hard to pull out. Real sorry your car is toast, mine is a favorite.
You could try selling both batteries and then sell the rest of the car or sell it to a junk dealer. How many miles on the engine?
That would make it worth it to pull the battery, brake booster pump and the 12V, especially if it's not that hard. I really appreciate the good ideas, thank you! I'll let you know how it goes on this thread.
I think I'll at least try to do that, I'm really grateful for the good info. The car has 137,000 miles on it. It still runs well, it just has a hitch in its git-a-long at the back end now, sadly.
Selling the two batteries and booster separately would make for a decent value recovery... On the other hand most commercial carriers want nothing to do with shipping batteries, or they make it prohibitively expensive. It's not impossible, but it adds complications. If you sold them locally/direct pick up you'd be on easy street.
