Do Priuses get into more accidents?

betcha its a reseller looking to make a fast buck knowing the ultra high resale value of the Prius. buys a wrecked Prius for pennies on the dollar, sell it for a quarter on the dollar, customer walks away thinking they got a great deal on a car they know they cant bargin for, seller makes change just by being the guy willing to do the legwork to find the buyer.

lets face it. i know a lot of people would wouldnt buy a wrecked car no matter how cheap it was. why get a wrecked chevy when there are thousands of used ones in near perfect condition?? i think the Prius is simply a different story. its unavailability puts it in a different class.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ucla95 @ Aug 3 2006, 03:44 PM) [snapback]297248[/snapback]</div>

A point unmentioned so far is that the Prius would have a low center of gravity compared to many others. Battery pack below the trunk, something like 5" of ground clearance. Nothing like an SUV which has a high fatality rate in single-vehicle accidents due to the likelihood of roll-overs while making sudden maneuvers, such as avoiding a road obstacle.

Handling is not noticeably different than other similar sized cars, and with the low-speed torque available from the electric motor, it should accelerate better than others from a dead stop. Not that I've tested that, but I know the 0-30mph numbers are good. But - Prius Envy - c4 was talking about an accident situation, not that that was the normal method of driving. Hopefully c4 doesn't jam on the brakes on a routine basis (for one thing, that goes to the friction brakes and not the regens, or can they work together?).

Perhaps Prii are more likely to be in low-speed accidents where they can be repaired, rather than completely demolished in high-speed accidents and sold for parts. Or else, as mentioned, it's a matter of the sample size and comparison methods. I know the MFD is distracting, particularly the first couple months. It'd be interesting to see if blue-tooth use does anything to the accident rate.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Caprinicity @ Aug 3 2006, 05:20 PM) [snapback]297281[/snapback]</div>

What's actually happening is they read the MPG off your display and get shocked into inaction by how high it is. Once they snap out of it, they have to speed past before they realize how much better you're doing than they are. :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wilco @ Aug 3 2006, 01:54 PM) [snapback]297263[/snapback]</div>

HUH? :blink:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(subarutoo @ Aug 4 2006, 12:07 PM) [snapback]297810[/snapback]</div>

The original post - which was obviously flame bait - inferred that because the poster saw some wrecked Prii on ebay, the Prius is more likely to be involved in an accident than other cars. The OP even implied that this was statistical analysis on their part.

Quote: Just look at the facts - far more accidents with the Prius. This would be a 2 or 3 standard deviation statistical anomaly if indeed the Prius is just as safe as other cars.

Anyone who has actually passed a 100 level course in statistical reasoning, or applied statistics knows that wrecked cars on ebay is too small a sample to be significant (as well as not being random). Rather than going through the trouble of explaining this - especially considering that the original post was so obviously trolling - I drew some other conclusions from some way too small samples (one car, and two cars) by way of ironic example.

It's funny how these threads have legs.

 

Sufferin' Nothing wrong with the car, just the way it behaves, others here on PC have complained about the same thing.. If you "floor it" from a complete stop, there is a noticable delay before the car goes.. The best way to accelerate in all situations is gently, the car actually gets going much faster than if you "floor it", but in an emergency, that's not your reaction..

It's awfully presumptuous of you to make any kind of inferences about mine or anyone else's driving- I *have* drastically changed my driving style and am absolutely *not* aggressive, at least in terms of keeping up, that's why I had plenty of room to stop, and my mileage is extremely good. Perhaps I am a bit agressive in terms of *stopping*, but this is only what the car itself (via instrumentation) has taught me in terms of maximizing regeneration current, but even then, to maximize the regen time on the Prius I do tend to "ride the brakes" much longer than I would have to on a car with conventional brakes, so the brake lights should be on sooner and much longer than usual..

In this case, I was *not* speeding and I had plenty of distance between me and the car in front (and I even had a couple of seconds to hear the screeching behind me *after I had come to a complete stop* which is why I was able to even consider trying to accelerate out of the way), and the SOB still hit me because he wasn't paying attention (which were the first words out of his mouth when he got out of his car- he was sorry, he wasn't paying attention) , so get the *#$ off your high horse... It's easy to talk about defensive driving techniques, etc, but having taken the course, I decided long ago that it's not for me- it's way too stressful a method of driving- worrying about what everyone else may or may not do.. In the end, I can only take responsibility for my own driving- no matter what I do, I can't stop someone else from tailgating or following too closely or simply not paying attention no matter how much warning I try to give...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Aug 4 2006, 09:45 AM) [snapback]297718[/snapback]</div>

I'll agree with that 100+ %. Our car has now been in repair for 6 weeks. May be ready next week, maybe not. This is at a Toyota dealer body shop. If this was a conventional car it would have been done 3 weeks ago. Every delay has been because - "Well sir, this is a Prius". I sure hope it is fixed right after all this wait. At this point, we've forgotten that we own a Prius.

FWIW, this is the first time my wife has had an accident in over 30 years driving. It would be in a Prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wilco @ Aug 4 2006, 01:17 PM) [snapback]297857[/snapback]</div>

Thank you. Statistics is a science with limits. If you do not understand the limits it is best you stay out of the area as they will bite you. Going to eBay for a sample of wreck Prii is like going in to a University Medical School Oncology clinic to get an idea of how often cancer occurs. This is how not to collect a sample. Everyone there has cancer! The ones in the other clinics have something bad. It is the ones running around on the outside that are well!

 

Hi All,

Welllll.....Ebay has allot of salvage Prii. Does this mean there are allot of Prii in accidents, or that Ebay is the most effective place to sell a salvaged Prius? If these were Chevy Cavaliers, or Suburu Forresters, one would think that they would be sold locally without the need for a national sales tool.

What is probably going on here, is that the local with the salvaged Prius knows the demand for the cars is hot on a national average, and might not be as hot for a salvaged car locally. This is really just happening to get the most money out of the deal for the seller. The sellers are thinking there is more demand nationally for the salvaged Prius, then there are locally, and the selling price will come up to cover the cost of Ebay. Additionally, there is no tax break for a salvaged Prius, so what the salavager thought he would get X % of new value is $3K short of what is offered locally. Because a buyer can buy new for 3K less than MSRP, in effect, but the salvager may not have known about this when he put the work into the car to make it road-worth. In frustration he may resort to the national market. Both these scenarios are as plausible as Prius getting in more accidents.

If the car was getting in more accidents, one would think it would show in the Insurance Rates. There have been several posts regarding insurance rates that indicate this is not the case.

 

One of the best ways to look at car saftey is death or accident rate per 100 million miles. I tried to find that data for the Prius but could not. Anyone know where it is? I have seen the data before and its not unusually high for the Prius.

In regards to so many Priuses being on ebay, there are far more of them then other popular cars. The reason is obvious... A trashed standard car is not worth that much and there is a very financially efficient way to death with them... the junkyard. Far more of the average crashed car is reused when most would think. Body panels, glass, electronics, undeployed airbags are all sorted and resold at quite low prices.

Now the Prius does not quite fit into that system yet because Toyota dealers are the main people fixing Priuses and they only use new parts. The average small shop is not going to do complex work on a Prius and they are the junkyard shoppers.

If you take a Chevy engine and put on ebay its gonna sell for almost nothing but put a Prius battery there it will make you some money. Maybe people are going to the junkyards where the prices for Prius parts are low, then reselling them on ebay for the national market.

There are some other markets for crashed cars and I saw Priuses there going for much more crashed then I expected.
http://www.ridesafely.com/inventory.asp?In...oryID=608000266
This one for those not a member was $5400 and looks quite bad in the front. The back where the battery is nearly perfect.

 

I think that if there are more used/wrecked Prius for sale on eBay than other cars, it's an indication of how popular they are. New and used ones are so hard to get, there's a good market for the refurbs.

 

So where has the OP gone? Sounds like another troll.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ucla95 @ Aug 3 2006, 04:44 PM) [snapback]297248[/snapback]</div>

For relative Prius insurance costs
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/
- and then click on the "vehicles and equipment" tab
- then scroll down a little to Articles & Information
- and click on "Comparison of Insurance Costs - 2006"
- then use your browser search capability to find Prius in the long chart
- What do you know? We are average!
MY SPECULATION - The cost to repair a Prius, coupled with the frequency of accidents involving a Prius approximately balance out. Why do I say this? Insurance cost for a Prius is ranked at "100" - where "100" represents the average for all vehicles.


other interesting links

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/
- and then click on the "traffic safety" tab
- or the "vehicles and equipment" tab
- or on the left side, click on the "Safety Testing/Ratings" topic
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/
Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) - Web-Based Encyclopedia

The most recent data that has been analyzed is for the year 2004.

http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/test5/
HOT TOPICS & ISSUES UPDATES - Auto Crashes - 2004 data

http://www.iii.org/media/facts/statsbyissue/highway/
FACTS AND STATISTICS - Highway Safety - 2004 data

http://www.iihs.org/
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx
vehicle crash ratings

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=566
Prius crash ratings

 

sure do salvage prius's are great, i paid 2500 bucks for a 01 classic 3 years ago, costed me 4000 to fix it, way worth it. And i just recntly bought a 05 prius with all options for 9900, finished fixing it costed me total 12000 ( and the vehicle has 11000 miles )

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jamarimutt @ Aug 3 2006, 05:56 PM) [snapback]297404[/snapback]</div>

I keep scaring the poop out of dh with my fiddling about with the MFD... I make him sit on newspaper now, or wear a blindfold. :lol:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(c4 @ Aug 4 2006, 06:44 PM) [snapback]298034[/snapback]</div>

Strangely enough, I find the Pri to be MORE responsive, and more smoothly responsive...in one particular situation than the last few cars I drove. That situation is a VERY short UPHILL on-ramp on a local freeway. I would have to floor it and come close to redlining in '91 Acura and '91 Honda (manual) sedan, and have to floor it, but not come anywhere near redlining in an '87 BMW (but the beemer weighs so much it's hard to get it going...once it IS going, however...look out!) But the Pri just does the job without a fuss, and no extra gear shifting g-forces!


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hdrygas @ Aug 4 2006, 08:55 PM) [snapback]298101[/snapback]</div>

If anyone is interested in statistical significance and the meanings thereof, see HERE, as written by DH. Also, HERE for a discussion of correlation, all of which seem to have been ignored by OP. Ditto on author...