I live on the north side of Chicago. The other day I returned to my parking spot on the street to find the driver side rear view mirror smashed and apparently lying in pieces. I was, however, easily able to reattach that piece of housing and now the rearview mirror appears just like it did before. to be honest I haven’t driven the car since I found that, but let’s presume it still works fine. my first instinct was that it would be broken, so I filed a claim with AAA, and their agent got back to me. I will be coordinating with her shortly, but after I was able to reattach that housing I sort of wondered if I had overreacted. What do you think? Should I file a claim?
If that happened to my car and I was able to snap the pieces back together, adjust the mirror and still see what was behind me? I'd call it good and move on. Drive it over some bumps to make sure it doesn't jump off again before canceling the claim.
Fyi, When I had a similar problem with my 2012, The white plastic cover was damaged. The ordered the replacement from Discount Toyota Parts - $37 Part Number: 87945-52170-A0 Cover $28.63 Subtotal: $28.63 Local Pickup: $5.95 Tax: $2.36 Total: $36.94
In my experience, one can always cancel a claim with no ill effects. FWIW Above seems to indicate an inexpensive repair or replacement, especially if you can DIY. Only guessing, but in addition to parts, maybe 2 hours shop labor, so under $500 to fix. Good luck with your project.
I see quite a few driver mirrors damaged on street-parked cars around here since they either don't or can't fold the mirror in. Since yours will fold, I'd recommend that in the future. It appears lucky that your cover wasn't run over as well.
Even if they get actually broken, Toyota's side mirrors are cheap to fix, because you can buy the color-matched covers already painted. Some other brands sell their mirrors only primer-colored, so you have to pay a body shop to paint them, probably more than the cost of the parts. So that's a very pleasant aspect of Toyota's approach. Even a busted mirror will probably be way less than your deductible to fix, perhaps even less than $100 depending on what broke.
Thanks to everybody for your excellent replies! This is a fantastic forum. I am going to go along with the consensus, which seems to be that since no serious damage seems to have occurred, I can hold off on filing a claim. and yes, as a long time urban resident, I am familiar with the idea that I should be turning my rearview mirror inward after I park. Usually I do that, but in this case it seems to have slipped my mind.
