Prius was Rear ended today

Glad she is ok, put in your vacation day now for 9/8/10.

 

Glad no one hurt.

Does it drive ok? If so, take it to Autobeyours.com in IN and have Steve repair it and make it a plug in!

 

Based on another thread about salvage titled Prius here on the board, it appears the insurance companies are totaling Prius with what I consider to be very little damage (much less than in your picture). Last year your car was probably almost new. This year it's a year older (and, based on what you said, probably has more damage). I'm with you - hopefully they will just total it and you can start over with another Prius. I'll be rootin' for ya'!

 

Yow, that sucks. How'd it happen, i.e. any way it could have
been avoided?
.
Are you sure the battery's toast? It's between the wheel towers
and pretty well-protected, and survives some pretty nasty impacts
in most of the cases we've seen go by.
.
_H*

 

Sorry to learn about your wife's accident Tazzboo. Hope everything turns out fine and she will be driving a new Prius soon. Most imortant is that your wife is OK.

Good luck.

 

I'm very glad to hear your wife is OK. I'm assuming folks in the other car also are well.

I have too much experience with insurance companies and body shops lately (4 collisions in 4 mos - combining my 2007 and 2010 Prius). Thankfully for me, no one has been hurt and the largest bill is the current one ($3,500 estimate).

My current argument is that I be paid for the inherent diminished value even with the car fixed "like new." There is no doubt but that the vary information that my 2010 has been hit 3 times (all while not moving!) will devalue the car. We'll see what the latest insurance company says.

Meanwhile, if you believe you can be made whole if your Prius is totalled, then go for it. And enjoy a 2010!!

 

Be sure and start talking settlement for the diminished value of the vehicle.
AS you said, it's worth $20,000 and now you are entitled to be paid the difference of what it is wortjh and what you could get upon trade in after it is fixed.
This could likely be within 3000-4000 dollars. to me, that's significant.
The Durango owners policy should be paying for this.

 

Not to rain on anyone's parade here, but I've seen this urged over and over in this forum, but I'm skeptical that this ever works. Can someone provide actual, hands on experience that insurance companies respond to the "diminished value" claim with anything but a snort of laughter? My dealings with several collisions suggest that they will "make you whole" by fixing your car in the cheapest way possible, then walk away.

To keep this a bit on-topic: I saw (out of the corner of my eye) a Prius rear-ended last week about 200 yards ahead of me and one lane to my right in San Jose on 101. My first thought was: looked like a big splash of water and I wondered where THAT came from. Then I realized that it was the safety glass showering the roadway. At once an impressive and painful sight! I was wondering if the driver was a fellow PC'er. If so, my condolences!

And I hope you all get the diminished value, but I won't hold my breath on that one!

 

So, actually, they paid you $2K to go away and leave them alone. I'll remember that! Apparently I tend to accept the first settlement offer too easily!

Hmmm, I suppose the 33% to a lawyer could be worth it if he could get you more than 3K diminished value.

I still think the diminished value argument must hold only in special circumstances, like the car is less than a year old (particularly, you just bought it yesterday): then you have a stronger case. For a 3 year old car like mine, it's probably not worth pursuing. Well, I hope I don't have to find out!

 

Rent a car from say Hertz and have an accident. Then let me know if they don't not only charge you for each day the car was out of service getting repaired but diminished value. They do both.

 

he is right dont sign anything till you get a check for diminished value and if they say they dont do that ask for a new adjuster...

I use to work as a adjuster, and I would make a nice bonus by keeping the costs low.... you can get it on any

 

If it is someone elses fault, yes go after the diminished value.
If it is your fault and you are going after your own insurance, good luck.
Believe me, most collision shops will not even give you a quote on diminished value, as they are afraid of losing their "preferred" shop status with the insurance companies.
A "preferred" shop is a shop an insurance company may "steer" you to as they are known to cut costs to save the insurance company any money at all, using re-conditioned or aftermarket parts instead of OEM parts.
If you go to trade in your car, they will spot any aftermarket parts like a non OEM fender, hood etc, and they will give you a lot less trade in.

a deer ran into my Prius earlier this year.
My own insurance, of course.
Called the insurance company at 7:00 AM
Called my collision shop at 8:00 AM
9:00 AM the adjuster was trying to hand me a check, before my collision man looked at the car.
I refused the check, told them I want my shop paid directly.
Car went in for repairs and I received a check in the mail before it was done.
I called complained, and returned the check to them.
Costs were slightly higher than the original adjusters quote.
They wanted an aftermarket fender, and a re-conditioned headlight.
On my 6 month old car.
My collision man went and worked it out, but not before I reamed the insurance company a new one and started talking "diminished" value with the aftermarket fender, and my question about if the re-conditioned headlight faded and did not match the other in a year or so if they would replace it. Of course not, 90 day warranty!
I did get what I wanted, but my shop and I had to fight for it.

 

When a Prius is in a front end collision repair can be VERY expensive because of the hybrid system. however, a rear end collision such as this in really no different then any other car to fix. You proably can get about $8000 for it on Ebay as is, so if you could sell if for that it might be better to take the $10,000 payout and get a new one.