Wife parked car at church and went to choir practice. When she left there was a car nudged up next to our Prius Prime. Apparently the driver was on some new medication that impaired his judgement and car rolled into ours. Was considered a "low speed impact accident". His insurance opened a claim and said we can use any collision center and did suggest many that have worked with insurer. Three were familiar to us from recommendations so we went to get estimates. Estimates were from $6K to $10K. Needs new door, new rear quarter panel, new tire rim, trim pieces, turn signal lens etc, plus all the support stuff that holds it in place. At least his insurer is picking up the tab plus car rental for repair duration. All three places are using genuine Toyota parts not re-manufactured or knock offs.. Happy Holidays anyway!
A timey warning about Church carparks There is at least something to see for your repair $$, I bought a repairable write off MG 4 that looked as though a pressure pack can f paint and an hr with a hammer and dolly was all it needed, yet the insurance company had written it off as a financial money pit. The support under the rear bumper was folded in, the charger/battery 2 load gizmo had two corners of the aluminium case broken, and the left hand rear floor where a spare tyre would have normally gone is wrinkled ..... no way of seeing any of that from the outside. I probably paid more than it was actually worth as a repair and back on the road, but it has a huge 485 kms on the odometer ...... T1 Terry
Did that whole section of the rear bumper snap off clean in the impact or was it cracked and someone pulled it off to inspect the inside? Looks like it's plastic from the close up. It feels wierd for it to be brittle enough to just snap, rather than flexing a bit and/or tearing.
And it's also amazing how they can take a major hit. We lost our 2022 AWD-e a month ago while stopped at a red light, the guy behind us never braked, hit us at at least 45, and rammed us into the car in front of us. Yet the car was still drivable, I drove it off the road, and later they drove it onto the flatbed tow truck, the last time we ever saw it because of $18K in damage and an estimate of 99 days to repair. The ENTIRE passenger capsule was untouched other than by flying glass from the hatch (but only the bottom mail slot, the main was untouched). No airbags went off. The worst "damage" around the front seats was that the stereo/vent surround panel popped off the rest of the dash, and I just pushed it back on.
I would take it to a Toyota service center, to insure all the sensors are properly aligned. tt's more than just replacing parts when repairing a Prime. Toyota does good work, and if you're not paying, why not?
The rear quarters of many cars are the most difficult & expensive areas for bodywork. Prius no exception.
how was it still driveable? My 2017 Prius Two detected a passenger door collision and promptly disabled the Hybrid system., The tow company had to hold sown the brake pedal ahd hold the shifter into neutral to finally release the parking pawl so it could be towed onto the truck. It would have been driveable otherwise, I believe.
That's because the car companies won't let others view the battery data, leaving the only way to confirm the cells weren't damaged by disassembling the battery case. Insurance companies aren't going to pay for that, and they don't want to be on the hook if a car goes up in flames after they signed off on the repair. So any visible damage to the battery or supporting systems has them calling to replace the entire thing. The insurance of a Prius Prime owner here replaced the battery after the wiring harness was chewed up by rodents. For the BEV, that cost results in it being totaled.
A full front clip (fender, hood, grille) is no walk in the park either. With both the seams and conecting points ( like the back door gap line and the rear bumper to quarter panel and underpanel alignment ) in the OPs case, are a real pain to get right.
Reminds me of reading an article about two punks street racing Lambos. One lost control and took out a Gen 4 in the right lane. Hit the drivers' side of the Prius. If you look at the photos, the Lambo was almost completely destroyed. The impact tore the whole engine compartment off the car and somehow screwed up every body panel except for the drivers' door. Then you look at the Prius and the only missing panel is the front quarter. Drivers' side was mostly intact although the front left wheel looked like the axle bent. All this happened 15-20 miles away from where I live. Testimony to how solid supercars actually are when they meet a superior being lol. Glad to know you're safe and apologies for the loss of your Prius.
The Lambo was designed to sacrifice the car to save the driver. The cars disintegrate to expend the crash forces before they reach the cabin. Cars from the 60s and 70s survived crashes well, but the occupants were dead.
Which makes perfect sense considering they can travel 150+ mph. Of course in any case they are not made to be driven at 90 in a 45 zone with traffic. If you absolutely have to push your car take it to a track.
The rear was crushed in above the bumper and below the upper hatch glass quite badly, the bumper pushed downwards. The front was pushed in a good bit but popped back out. The only error on the dash was for a PKSB faulty sensor. Yes, a sensor can definitely be "faulty" after being crushed between 2 cars. Don't know what to tell you, I drove it off the road, and my wife later drove it around and into a nearby parking lot to wait for a tow truck. When the insurance tow truck showed up at our house to get it, it was still drivable, though I certainly wouldn't have taken it on a road with how it looked.
I remember reading somewhere that the car will disconnect big (and 12V?) battery if a crash is detected. Curious how that is done: relay opens, a fuse blows, a one time switch that must be dealer replaced?
The 12V stays connected. i think is is a high voltage safety.Apparently they have a secret process to release the high voltage powered parking pawl. they should have put that information in the user manual along with the towing instructions. i heard one rumor that a body shop repair would then need to go to the dealer to be inspected & have the hybris system enabled again. My cat ended up being declared a total loss so i never experienced any of that.
