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2016 Eco Two - Totaled?

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by BK2016eco2, Oct 7, 2024.

  1. BK2016eco2

    BK2016eco2 New Member

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    Location:
    Iowa
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Two Eco
    I tapped a deer, very light front end damage but it caused every airbag to deploy.
    160k miles, immaculately maintained - I have every reason to believe it has another 100k+ miles left in it.
    Car is paid off, but insurance is liability only.

    What Would You Do? Suggestions?
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i would fix it up and take advantage of the next 100k miles
     
  3. BK2016eco2

    BK2016eco2 New Member

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    To what degree would you fix it? What is the max amount of $ would you put into repairs in order to take advantage of the remaining 100k of usability?
     
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i can't say without knowing the replacement car market, but i would probably be willing to put a few thousand into it.
    has the exhaust heat exchanger been replaced?
     
  5. BK2016eco2

    BK2016eco2 New Member

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    Location:
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    Two Eco
    Heat exchanger has not been replaced - I assume this must be a rather expensive item that I should expect to be replacing soon?

    Im also wondering what the community thinks of the airbag replacement process... Are these incredibly difficult to swap out? I do have a friend that is ACE certified and willing to help, but he deals primarily in regular mechanical/maintenence issues, not necessarily total vehicle repair.

    Is it possible/smart to just run it without airbags?

    What are the main issues, other than heat exchanger, that I should be asking myself prior to making this decision?

    Any and all help is appreciated... This insurance debacle has me in pretty dire straights at the moment.
     
    bisco likes this.
  6. FuelMiser

    FuelMiser Senior Member

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    Donate it to charity for the tax write-off.
     
  7. BK2016eco2

    BK2016eco2 New Member

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    Interesting approach, but I would imagine the donation value to be unable to offset the financial burden of replacement, even if replacement only involved a few thousand.
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    there's no guessing at the heat exchanger, idk what percentage have gone bad, and it may be that at your mileage, it has shown to be a good one.
    that's really the only gen 4 major ecpense, and even that can be mitigated by using a bypass hose instead of replacing it.
    i think the only problem with not replacing the airbags would be trouble lights, if you have to pass inspection in your state.
     
  9. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    I searched air bag deployment repair costs and got this.
    https://www.carparts.com/blog/air-bag-replacement-cost-process-and-other-faqs/

    Don't know how accurate it is, but I do know I'd be in the same situation as you are now, if it happened to me instead.

    I have had both the AirBag warning light go on in my old hybrid and it was a pain to get it shut off, I also have had way to many Takata air bag recalls where the dealers shop did a quick and dirty job of replacing the recalled air bags, every time I got another recall notice.