This is my first thread- I thought that I would relate my first experience with hitting an animal. My wife and I live in the east bay and my family lives in los angeles. Over the labor day weekend we decided to visit my family, we leave our house always around 1 in the morning (to avoid the traffic). We were driving on the 5 frwy going about 75 miles an hour when a coyote ran in front of the car. Before we had a chance to react we hit the coyote (of course with my great luck the coyote struck dead center on the air dam). It made such a loud noise it scared us to death! All the lights continued to work and the car did not make any funny noises. We continued to drive to the next gas station and pulled into the driveway, as we did I heard scraping noise. I looked under the front bumper and it looked as though I hit a very solid object. The entire air dam, fog lights and grill were gone! I decided to open the hood to see how much damage had been done, fortunately nothing appeared to be damaged. I tried to close the hood but of course it would not stay closed. I used the spare tire hold down strap (very useful for an emergency dog leash) and climbed under the car to strap the hood closed. The impact was so great it had pushed the radiator strut into the radiator (the fan was rubbing on the radiator). We debated about continuing on our trip or turning around and going home. We decided to turn around and go home. After a few minutes of driving all the lights came on and the car seemed to lose power. We decided now was a good time to panick, but we kept on driving. We were going slower and slower but managed to make it back to the house. Later that day I called the insurance company and they said since we had hit an animal it was a comprehensive claim and would not affect our rates (this remains to be seen). At this time we are currently waiting for the adjuster to call us with the damage report. We had a hard time believing so much damage had been caused by such a small animal. Priuslovers.
I hit a truck tire tread, and ruined the bumper, lower grill and fog light. These cars are low, and not made to pass over road drbris, wild animals, etc. Sorry. Mine was over $1300 damage, less than two weeks from new. I feel your pain. Think about the poor coyote!
A coyote is not a small animal. Hitting anything at 75 mph is bad, let alone something the size of a medium dog. Try hitting a bird in an airplane. Tom
Similar experience here with truck tire tread. Unbelievable damage for such a slight impact. Ripped the leading edge of the plastic skid guard clear off and bent it backwards. Popped out the lower grill and pushed in the bumper. Extremely fragile accurately describes the front end of these things. Low clearance doesn't help matters. Anyone have a recommendation for picking up the skid guard and the small grill around fog lights? It looks like an easy and inexpensive DIY in my case if I can find cheap parts.
Used front end parts are few and far between. Most ebay sellers of used Prius parts sell them for list prices. Your best bet is just to go to parts.com and buy new ones. The foglight grills are less than $25 each and the front air dam is about $50. The grills just pop in and the front airdam is held on with 13 bolts.
Another option is to buy the metal (aluminum?) skid that's for sale under the vendor forum here. It should handle underbody assaults a bit better and covers a larger area. Mike
Gasp! You mean, you didn't stop to be sure it was dead? Or see if you needed to phone the police to put it out of its misery?
Mike: are you referring to the BT Tech Skid Plate or is there a more economical replacement that offers some actual protection? I'm not finding anything but the BT Tech @ $299.
I will be very interested to compare notes over time. My daughter recently hit a very small deer that ran into the front right side damaging the bumper; fender; hood, headlight and for some reason the inside electric plugs. Concerned about other issues coming up because it was in the front end area. Did you/would you take it back to the dealer to be looked over to rule-out damage or wait for a problem to appear? I haven't lost an engine power, but have begun to wonder if changes in mpg, etc. might happen.
Wow that's kinda scary! Guess that's why I'm babying mine so far. Not much freeway work, just driving around town listening to favorite tunes. Don't think I've ever bought a car with less than 30k miles on it, so a car with 180 miles, so far, is kinda freaky. Glad I kept old truck for the trips to the crowded grocery store lot. anyrate, hope your car heals up well.
one time a huge hawk flew up from the median and hit the car windshield and scared the frak out of me. passenger couldn't stop laughing but my heart didn't stop pounding!
Good thing it wasn't a moose like in Alaska or north eastern US/ Canada or else you'd not be here to write about it! Those things are stupid, tall, and many times heavier than a coyote.
